In 2014 the National Science Foundation conducted a survey of 2,200 people asking, “Does the Earth go around the Sun or does the Sun go around the Earth?” Shockingly, 26% answered incorrectly that the Sun goes around the earth. We know that to get something like this wrong has huge consequences. We can’t understand things like gravity or the movement of the stars if we think the Sun revolves around the earth. Perhaps God designed the solar system like this to teach us something about ourselves. We are made to revolve around a center outside of ourselves. If we don’t understand this your life won’t work properly. Unshakable joy in life will be elusive and impossible. Philippians 1:12-26 says you and I were designed to revolve around a center.
Paul gives us a concise summary of Christianity in Phil. 1:21 when he says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This is a famous verse but what does it mean? Let’s consider three things “to live is Christ” means and then conclude with two things “to die is gain” means.
First, “to live is Christ” means Christianity is all about Jesus. To live is not you. To live is not Paul. To live is Christ. One tragic misinterpretation of Christianity is to think it is somehow about you, your obedience, your faith, your evangelism, your [fill in the blank]. But to live is Christ. Christianity can be summarized like this: Christ. Another tragic misinterpretation of Christianity is to think it is averse to or indifferent to joy. In this short book Paul mentions joy or rejoicing around 16 times. But in chapter 1 alone he mentions Christ, the Gospel, or the Word (all related terms) 25 times! In other words, Christianity is about true joy. Life is about personally knowing and enjoying Jesus.
Second, “to live is Christ” means having joy in Christ being proclaimed and thus seeing others come to know and enjoy Jesus. In Phil. 1:12-18, writing from prison, Paul explains his joy that the prison guards are coming to know Jesus and that even though some preach Christ to stir up trouble for him, Paul rejoices that Christ is proclaimed. “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.” Even when all earthly joys are taken away, Paul has joy that others are coming to faith in Christ.
Lastly, “to live is Christ” means helping Christians progress in their faith and joy. “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me….Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith…” To live is Christ means wanting people to come to faith for the first time and wanting to see current believers go deeper in the Gospel and in their joy in Christ. Tragically we think Christianity changes once we come to faith. Christianity at first was all about Jesus. Now it is all about us. But Paul says that the day to day Christian life is about progressing in faith and in our joy in Christ.
Alright, what does it mean that “to die is gain”? Paul says, “I am hard pressed between the two.” In other words, I have a desire to depart but also a desire to stay here on earth. Which desire is bigger and why? Paul writes, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Paul was torn, knowing that there was more to be done on earth but that to go Home would be “far better”. How can he say this? Isn’t death to be feared? On the one hand, yes, death should be feared by those who reject Christ. For those rejecting Christ, this life is as close to heaven as they will ever get and death will be their entrance into eternal suffering away from the presence of God. But believers can say that death is gain for two main reasons.
First, death is an escape from all that is wrong with this world. It is an escape from all the hellish realities of sin, suffering, death, pain, Satan, and demons. Just as sleep is an escape from the stresses and depressing aspects of life, death is the sleep of the Christian who is escaping, finally, from all the fallenness of this world.
Second, death is not just an escape but an entrance. If to live is to know and enjoy Christ, to die is simply to know and enjoy Christ even more! C.S. Lewis writes, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” For Christians, death is an entrance into the world we are made for, the world that fully satisfies, the world we had heard about but not seen, the world we had smelled but not tasted. You are made for another world. Through faith, you are starting to taste that other world now as you know and enjoy Christ. But to die is to enter into the world you were made for, all by grace alone, in Christ alone.
