You Win Either Way
Philippians 1:21
Robin’s life was all about Jesus because she had traded her sin for joy! A spirit of rejoicing oozed out of Robin. Let’s go back to her favorite verse from Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This verse is short but is packed with meaning.
We could summarize it like this:
• Because Robin lived for the Lord, she has now gained glory.
• If you live for the Lord now, you will gain glory.
In the original, it literally reads this way: “For to me to live Christ, to die gain.” The person, purposes and plans of Christ were preeminent to Robin. When Paul says, “To me” he is emphatically saying, “Whatever life may be to you, this is what it is to me.” We might say it like this: “As far as I’m concerned…”
How would you honestly complete this sentence? For to me, to live is . What floats your boat? What gets you excited? When you say, “That’s what life is all about,” what are you referring to?
No one can leave that sentence blank. Everyone is living for something. What are you living for right now? Is it a relationship with someone? Is it your job? Could it be a pleasure, a place, or a possession?
• If for me to live is money, then to die is to leave it all behind
• If for me to live is fame, then to die is to be forgotten
• If for me to live is pleasure, then to die is to miss all the fun
• If for me to live is ambition, then to die is to become insignificant
• If for me to live is my car or boat, then to die is to have them all rust and fade away
Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” Colossians 3:4 puts it this way: “When Christ, who is your life…” Is He your life? He was Robin’s life and still is. We could ask the question this way: Is Christ prominent in your life, or is He preeminent?
For most of us, we don’t think of death as gain. In fact, we often refer to someone dying like this: “We lost so-and-so.” Listen. Nothing is lost if you know where it is! Robin is not lost. Because she was found by Christ and saved by His amazing grace, she is now eternally secure with her Savior.
In many of our minds, the absence of life is loss. How then can death be gain? Revelation 21:3-4: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
The word “gain” refers to “profit” or interest on money. We could say it like this: As born again believers, we come out ahead when we’re dead!
Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
Actually, we’re not really dead when we die. We leave this world to spend eternity in another world. What do we gain? One pastor said that we gain a better body, a better home, a better inheritance, and better fellowship.
Illus. When we were with Robin last Saturday, I quoted the words of Jesus found in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Robin has not died; she’s just changed her address! Many of us think this is the land of the living, and that when we die, we go to the land of the dead. We have it backwards. This is the land of the dying. When our life here is over, we are transferred to the place of the living.
The Bible says we will live forever in one of two destinations - a place of terrible torment called Hell or a place of eternal joy called Heaven.
For the believer in Jesus, death is everlasting gain. For the unbeliever, it is eternal loss.
• Because Robin lived for the Lord, she has now gained glory.
• If you live for the Lord now, you will gain glory.
Robin believed in Christ. She lived for Christ, she died in Christ, and has now gained Christ forever. If you know Jesus through the new birth, you win either way.
Here are some ways death is gain for the follower of Christ.
1. We lose everything we don’t need – the world, the flesh, and the devil. We lose our trials, troubles, tears, and fears.
2. We keep everything that matters – our personality, our identity, our fruit.
3. We gain what we never had before – heaven, rewards, the presence of God, fellowship with other believers.
If you want to live out Robin’s legacy, make sure to repent and believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for forgiveness of sins. Follow the plan laid out by Him.
Shortly after our family moved here, my daughter Megan and I were feeling lonely, so we went for a drive. Megan asked where we were going, and I told her I didn’t know. We were just going to drive and see what happened.
We had no plan but just got in the car and drove east on the Avenue of the Cities. As we meandered down roads we stopped at various destinations – one place was shady (a Pawn Shop), one was boring (a museum) another place was fun (an apple orchard) and one was a blast (we both got Autumn Chippers at Whitey’s). But since we didn’t have a plan, we really weren’t sure of our destination.
It’s so easy in life to just start driving without any sense of where we’re headed. Without a plan we move from shady to boring to fun to exhilarating. Some of our experiences are exciting and others are excruciating. But we’re not really going anywhere. Do you ever feel that way?
Listen. If you’re going to take a trip, you better have a plan, you better be ready, and you need to have a sense of where you’re going.
Listen to what Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. There is no other plan but the person of Jesus. There is no way to get to heaven unless we go through Him. Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
In John 3:3, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Just as we’re all born once physically, so too, we must have a spiritual birth if we hope to go to heaven.
If you’re not yet born again, it’s time to come to Christ. There’s only one condition for entrance into Heaven -- it’s not a matter of trying to pay the price by being good -- the only requirement is that you personally believe that Jesus paid the price by absorbing your sins on a cross and that He rose again so at the moment of your death you will rise too.
• Believe that Jesus is the way and then give way to His way in your life
• Believe that Jesus is the truth and live by His truth in your life
• Believe that He is life and then repent and receive the One who alone can give you eternal life.
I’m told there’s a tombstone in Indiana with these words:
Pause, Stranger, when you pass me by,
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be,
So prepare for death and follow me.
An unknown passerby scratched this reply:
To follow you I’m not content,
Until I know which way you went.
Which way will you go when you die? We know which way Robin went because she fully trusted in the Lord who is the only way.
Most everyone wants to go to Heaven; they just don’t want to die in order to get there. Woody Allen reportedly said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Are you ready to die? James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Proverbs 27:1 reminds us to “not boast about tomorrow because we don’t know what a day will bring forth.”
Life is too unpredictable and too brief to live it without God at the center. We count our lives in years, but God tells us in Psalm 90:12 to number our days. The truth of the matter is that every one of us is just one heartbeat away from eternity. A sickness, COVID, cancer, a stroke, a heart attack, an accident, a mass shooting, or even a terrorist attack, could snuff out our lives in an instant.
In 1 Samuel 20:3, David said, “Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” Don’t put off a decision to follow Christ. Do it today.
• Because Robin lived for the Lord, she has now gained glory.
• If you live for the Lord now, you will gain glory.
