Crucified With Christ, Philippians 1:21-30
Introduction
On a dark and stormy night, a child was lost in the streets of a large city. A policeman found him crying in distress, and gathering enough from his story to locate the home, gave him directions after this manner. “Just go down this street half a mile, turn and cross the big iron bridge, then turn to your right and follow the river down a little way, and you’ll see where you are.”
The poor child, only half comprehending, chilled and bewildered by the storm, turned about blindly, when another voice spoke in a kindly tone, “Just come with me.” The little hand was clasped in a stronger one, the corner of a warm coat was thrown over the shoulders of the shivering child, and the way home was made easy. The first man had told the way; the second man became the way.
This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has been for us. From eternity He has told us that He is the Way. He has to become our Light also, to lead us to the Way.
In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (NKJV)
Transition
This morning I want to talk to you about the nature of our affections. In today’s Scripture reading the Apostle Paul says, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 NET) The Apostle Paul is talking about his, and our, hearts affection. What is it that drives our life? Is it Christ love in us?
The people of the early Church did not call themselves Christians. That is a term which was cast upon them by unbelievers. They merely referred to themselves and followers of “The Way.” Followers of the way of Jesus, that is. What is it that is motivating us in the Christian life? Has our faith become an appendage to our morality, our sense of ethic, or is our faith the driving force of our life, even as Christ is the very source of our life?
This passage is about being a disciple. The Apostle Paul, in Philippians chapter one describes the nature of his discipleship to Christ. He is so absolutely devoted to The Way, to Jesus, that for him the very act of living is Christ; so much so, in fact, that he saw dying as gain so that he might be united with Christ eternally.
It is interesting that Paul speaks of radical devotion to Christ, of genuine discipleship and then only a few verses later he speaks of salvation.
In mainstream systematic theology these are usually seen as two separate issues. The issue of discipleship, an often ignored and neglected matter of the Christian faith, is not normative to a conversation about salvation.
For many people salvation means little more than “fire insurance,” that is, there are many people whose primary and even only interest in coming to faith in Christ is to do whatever it takes to avoid the place of eternal torment mentioned often by those finger wagging preachers who love to scare folk into obedience to God.
It seems clear that the point the Apostle Paul is making in speaking of discipleship right alongside of salvation is that they are much more closely linked than it is often taught. Salvation is so much more than “fire insurance,” than escaping eternal separation from God by choosing self love over Christ love.
My thesis: Salvation is ultimately about knowing God.
Exposition (Reference: The God We Never Knew, Marcus Borg)
What is salvation? Throughout the ages many people have attempted to define the nature of salvation. I have heard many unbelievers say, in regard to Christian salvation, “What to I need to be saved from? I’m doing just fine.” To understand what salvation is we can trace the development its usage through the Bible.
An indication as to the meaning of salvation is found in its etymology, that is, in its word structure. The root word of salvation is “salve.” A salve is, of course, a healing ointment. So, in a very really sense salvation is about healing wounds.
We all carry wounds of various sizes and types. Just existing in this imperfect and fallen world is more than enough to create, cause, and multiply wounds. Some of these wounds are inflicted on us by others. Some of these wounds we have inflicted upon ourselves. Some of the wounds are inflicted upon others by us.
In the Bible we see the development of the idea of salvation from the very beginning. One of the first times the word salvation appears is in the book of Exodus. Exodus 14:13-14 says, “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of the LORD that he will provide for you today; for the Egyptians that you see today you will never, ever see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you can be still.” (NET)
In this passage salvation had a very here and now kind of implication. The Israelites had fled from captivity in Egypt. God had shown great miracles.
Here, at the Red Sea, God again showed great miraculous power to save His people, according to His will. Indeed, Salvation does have a very here and now sense in the Old Testament, as it does today. The idea of eternal life, of salvation in the sense that we understand it as New Testament Christians was unknown to the early Hebrew people.
The idea of eternity developed over time as God progressively unfolded His perfect revelation to humanity. To an Israelite enslaved in Egypt the idea of the salvation of the Lord was about being set free from captivity and enslavement. Here salvation has everything to do with bondage and liberation.
In other words, salvation in the early Hebrew mind had to do with experiencing God, God’s power, and God’s provision, today, now, in my current circumstances. Just as the Hebrew enslaved in bondage in Egypt was in need of salvation from his very real, very pressing circumstances, so too we find ourselves enslaved to sin and in desperate need of salvation from our present circumstances.
Salvation also has to do with estrangement and reconciliation. We see time and again throughout the writings of the prophets God’s people straying from His provision, breaking, even abandoning His law, and then being reconciled.
Isaiah 59:9 says, “For this reason deliverance is far from us and salvation does not reach us. We wait for light, but see only darkness; we wait for a bright light, but live in deep darkness.” (NET)
Salvation is about being reconciled to God. Even as salvation in the Old Testament was about the nation of Israel being reconciled to God as a nation, so too salvation in the New Testament Era, the dispensation of the Church, the era in which we live, is about us being reconciled to God; experiencing God in the here and now of the circumstances of today.
God is not afar off. Although God is holy and separate from His creation He is immediately available to us through prayer, through worship, through fellowship with other believers and directly through the Holy Spirit.
The salve, the healing ointment of reconciliation of God to man, man to man, husband to wife, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend, is immediately available to us in Christ. We have been created and called to live in close relationship with God as we are enabled by the love of Christ! Salvations primary aim is to bring us back into relationship with God; reconciliation is its chief endeavor.
That is what salvation is about. It is about our ability to know God. Salvation, you see, does not start the moment we pass from this life to the next. It begins in the here and now of our circumstances.
There are those Christians who advocate a social Gospel, suggesting that the primary aim of Christ was to set captives free from poverty, hunger, slavery in this life. There are others who say that Christ purpose had little to do with such things and these say that salvation has everything to do with eternal life.
Both are true. As we trace the biblical motif of salvation through the Bible we see that God is concerned with our immediate circumstances of physical, worldly, enslavement. We also see that He is concerned with our being reconciled to Him so that we can experience Him in close connection between our spirit and His.
We also see that salvation, in being primarily about knowing God, is about knowing Him throughout eternity as we have been given freedom from sin and its consequences in Christ and been granted access to the throne of grace and the gates of Heaven. In the Christian life it is not always an either or understanding that is right; often, it is a both and understanding that is in keeping with the mind of God.
Having been reconciled to God, the Apostle Paul gives us a picture of radical commitment to Christ. Imagine, being able to write and say that for him the very act of living is Christ, the very source of his life was from Christ, and the future reality of passing from this life to the next was seen as gain.
In Galatians 2:20 the Apostle Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NET)
When we read a statement on the part of the Apostle Paul where he says that for him living is Christ and dying is gain it is easy for us to cast that off as irrelevant to our experience or unachievable as we are surely not a spiritual giant like Paul.
How can we possibly have the commitment to Christ that was present in the life of the Apostle Paul? How can we attain the level of faith of a great saint of the Church like the Apostle Paul; being able to rightly and honestly say, in regard to ourselves, our experience of God and the Christian life that “Living is Christ and dying is gain?” How can this be?
Late one December, an elementary school principal said to his teachers: “Let’s all write our New Year’s Resolutions about how we can be better teachers, and I’ll put them on the staff bulletin board. In that way, we can be mutually supportive in our efforts to keep those resolutions.” The teachers agreed, and when the resolutions were posted, they all crowded around the bulletin board to read them.
One of the young teachers in the group suddenly went into a fit of anger. She said, “He didn’t put up my resolution. It was one of the first ones in. He doesn’t care about me. That just shows what it’s like around here.” On and on she ranted and raved. The principal, who overheard this from his office, was mortified. He hadn’t meant to exclude her resolution.
Quickly rummaging through the papers on his desk, he found it and immediately went to the bulletin board and tacked it up. The resolution read: “I resolve not to let little things upset me anymore.” Resolution, but no commitment!
The Apostle Paul said that for him living is Christ and dying is gain, so that he might go to be with Christ. How committed are we? Have we made resolutions about the Christian life or have we made commitments?
Conclusion
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was asked the secret of his amazing Christian life. Booth answered, “I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth.”
I would submit to you that our commitment is not so much about the level of our ability to commit to Christ and then follow through as is about our ability to commit ourselves to Christ and then die to self. Our abilities matter little in this equation; it is not being stronger for Christ that matters. It is being strong in Christ that matters. Commitment to Christ is about abandoning self.
It is not living for Christ that matters; it is dying to self that matters. At the end of the day salvation is about knowing God and it was this that gave the Apostle Paul the strength, the ability, to say that for Him living is Christ and dying is gain.
It was not that he was a man of great faith, or a man of great spiritual strength; it was merely that he was a man who had died to self; died to selfish desires, died to self exaltation, in favor of exalting Christ!
Paul also links salvation, denial of self and exaltation of Christ to suffering. We need to learn to see God in all things; even in our pain, our disappointment, even our worst and deepest sorrow; He is there!
Philippians 1:28-30 says, “In no way alarmed by your opponents--which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.” (NASB)
Paul is saying that living is Christ and dying is gain not just when things are good but even in the face of opposition and persecution. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain, when the bankruptcy comes, when I don’t know where to turn for help, when I am addicted to self hatred, when I am addicted to judgment, when I am alone, when I despair, when I am distressed.
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalms 121:1-2 KJV)
This morning I want to encourage you that salvation is a here and now experiential reality of knowing God. Salvation is liberation from captivity, salvation is reconciliation, and all of these things ultimately lead us into the life-long journey of knowing God.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 KJV)
Amen.
