“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21, NIV)
I have recently been reflecting on the book of Philippians in my devotional time. It has always been one of my favorite books in the Bible. There is so much packed into four short chapters. After reading the whole letter all of last week, this week I am reading chapter one over and over again. I’m just trying to let the words marinate in my soul. While doing this I found myself struck and puzzled again by this famous line in verse 21. To live is Christ and to die is gain.
This is classic Paul. Intense, convicting, bold, and a little mysterious. What does it mean to say that to live is Christ? And how can he say with such sincerity, to die is gain?
Another powerful verse in one of Paul’s letters helps me make sense of this. Galatians 2:20 reads, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The whole of the Christian life is learning to live in Christ. To find our life in him. To take on his mind and think like him. To allow his life to reveal our real identity and so to find our true selves in him. The Christian life is not merely about giving intellectual assent to a set of ideas, it is about finding our true home in God. It is about adoption into his family and learning to dwell in his presence, all of which is possible only because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the firstborn over all creation.
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