Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (RSV)
The apostle Paul was a man who had no fear of death. He was able to speak freely about the reality of death. Death held no terror for him. He even looked forward to it. Not that Paul was disillusioned with life and simply wanted to end it all. He didn’t look at life as evil, and see death as the lesser of two evils. Rather, he saw life as good, and death as the better of two goods. That is why we see him saying, “I am hard pressed between the two.” (verse 23)
Later in this same epistle Paul writes, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” (4:11) “I know how to be abased,” he says, “and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (4:12-13)
Paul speaks here from a life of experience. He is writing this epistle near the end of his life while he is in prison suffering affliction for the sake of Christ. Much of his life had been a life of suffering. “Five times,” he tells his readers, “I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.” (II Corinthians 11:24-26) And yet he was content -- content to carry on his life and work, or content to die. He had learned the secret: “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
With these words Paul expresses what is true for everyone who confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. For the believer who abides in Christ, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” These are the words in which we find consolation and comfort as we think of the loved one whom we mourn today. In these words there is also encouragement for you who grieve as you face having to continue your lives without one whom you love. Furthermore, these words present a challenge to all of us who are still living, as we face the reality that it is also “appointed for us to die.” (Hebrews 9:27)
“To live is Christ, to die is gain.” There is genuine consolation in these words as we remember a loved one who has died in the Lord. We, of course, would like to always keep our loved one with us. But we know that death for him is a gain. If we allow our thoughts to focus only on ourselves and our loss, however great that may be, we will be unable to fix our minds on the glory to which he has gone and which he will enjoy forever. For him, the afflictions of this present life, from which he has been delivered, are now in the past. We remember the word of our Lord which the apostle John heard on the Isle of Patmos: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord….blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors.” (Revelation14:13)
“To die is gain,” Paul tells us. How is that so? The first thing that comes to mind is that the suffering of this present life is at an end. All tears are wiped away; “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more.” (Revelation 21:3) But more than physical and mental suffering is finished, is over, by the gain that Paul speaks of. The stain of sin which still clings to all of us in this life is finally and completely washed clean; the temptations that beset us here are not found there. Though we thank God that, with the help of his Spirit, we may make a beginning here and now in the new life which is ours in Christ Jesus, we realize that in the light of what God desires of us and requires of us, we make only a small beginning. For those who know Christ, however, death is a translation into that heavenly kingdom which knows no sin, no temptation, no evil. What a great gain is death for one who dies in the Lord!
That gain is not only the absence of suffering and sin. It is the entering into the glory of heaven and of an eternal life. “To depart,” says Paul, “is to be with Christ,” and “that is far better.” (verse 23) How can we possibly describe the happiness, the bliss, the unbounded joy which a departed one knows in that fellowship with Christ? “We are children of God,” John tells us, “and what we will be has not yet been made known.” (I John 3:2) Of the things that God has prepared for those who love him, Paul says, “no eye has seen,...no ear has heard, and...no human mind has conceived.” (I Corinthians 2:8-9) To die is unimaginable gain! This is the consolation and the comfort which comes to us from God’s Word as we remember our loved one who has been called to his heavenly home.
But what about us, the living, the ones who are left behind to go on living without him? If death is a gain for him, it is nonetheless a very real loss for those of us who love him. It leaves an emptiness in our hearts and our lives, and there is nothing earthly that can fill it. Something of the void remains with us as long as we live. But look again at Paul’s words. There is encouragement for us in these words: “To me, to live is Christ.” These words assure us that no matter how great the loss that we feel, Christ is still very near to us. He is present to help us bear our moments and days of heartache and loneliness. The burden of loss can make us feel that the future has little in store for us; it can weigh us down with grief and discouragement; the days can be long, and the nights lonely. But it is when we are reminded that our Savior is ever present with us that we are awakened to the realization that “to live is Christ.” He is not only with us, but he invites us to let him share our burdens. “Cast all your anxiety on him,” St. Peter urges us, “because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7)
“To me, to live is Christ.” That means that we live in the assurance of his presence, and that we live by bringing our burdens to him. But it also means that our lives have a continuing purpose. When Paul wrote these words he was ready and willing to die. As far as he was concerned, death was far more attractive than life. Elijah had once felt that way, too. So did Jonah. But for them, as for Paul, God had a further purpose for their lives. And it is because Paul looked for that purpose that he could say, “to die is gain….But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” (verse 24) And he adds, “Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.” (verse 25) Paul saw that in his continued living God had a purpose for him, a purpose which reached out to the lives of other. For us, too, it is when we realize that our lives have a Christ-centered purpose that we are encouraged to go on living in service to God, even when our hearts are filled with sorrow.
And, what is more, there is also encouragement for us when we stop to think that for us to die is also gain, for this means that we, too, shall one day go forward to the same glory, to be with the same Savior with whom our loved one has gone to live. The pain of separation which we presently experience will one day be at an end. The day is coming when we, together with our loved ones who have died in Christ, shall be taken up to meet him in bodies that have put off their weakness and corruption, and are raised in glory. Describing that glorious moment, Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, tells us, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” These words bring consolation as we grieve a loved one who has died. These words bring encouragement as we apply them to ourselves in the midst of our sorrow. And these words challenge and inspire us to continue daily in a life of meaning and purpose as we strive to follow the way that Christ has laid out for us in his holy Word. These words can free us from fear of death, assured that, for a child of God, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “Therefore,” says Paul, “comfort one another with these words.” (I Thessalonians 4:18) And the comfort is this: ”If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)
