Philippians 1:19–26

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. ²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Max Anders tells the story of a man who was walking along a beach and found a magical lamp. He rubbed the lamp and a genie came out. The genie told the man that he would grant him one wish for having set him free from the lamp. The man thought about it and then said that he wished he could have a copy of the stock page of a local newspaper dated one year from that day. So—poof!—the genie disappeared and the stock page of a local newspaper appeared in the man’s hands.

As the man sat on the beach reading the stock page and making investment plans, the top of the page bent over and he saw, on the other side, the obituary page from one year in the future. At the top was a name that caught his attention: it was his own.[1]

The two realities that are inescapable to our existence are (a) life and (b) death. The question is this: How should we conceive of these two realities? Life is inescapable to those who possess it and death is as well. These realities can overwhelm you if you do not think of them rightly.

N.D. Wilson writes:

With an average life expectancy of 78.2 years in the US (subtracting eight hours a day for sleep), I have around 250,000 conscious hours remaining to me in which I could be smiling or scowling, rejoicing in my life, in this race, in this story, or moaning and complaining about my troubles. I can be giving my fingers, my back, my mind, my words, my breaths, to my wife and my children and my neighbors, or I can grasp after the vapor and the vanity for myself, dragging my feet, afraid to die and therefore afraid to live. And, like Adam, I will still die in the end.[2]

That is an interesting way to look at it, and a helpful way. Paul, writing from prison, considered his life and his death and he too came to terms with it. In fact, he makes one of the all-time great statements about life death. He is hopeful, as he writes to the Christians of Philippi, yet he does not know if he is going to live or die. He writes:

¹⁹ for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, ²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

So there is a note of uncertainty as to what exactly is going to happen to his body. Yet, he is optimistic either way. Whether Paul lives or dies, he is going to experience great good. And it is in this context that he writes his great sentence about life and death.

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

Paul is defining the twin realities of life and death as a win-win situation! Whether the Christian lives or die, it is gain! How is this so?

For the believer, to live is Christ.

We begin with bodily existence, with living. For the believer, to live is Christ. Paul tells us why this is.

²² If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.

To live was Christ for Paul because his life was given to the “fruitful labor” of the defense and spreading of the gospel. If Paul lived, in other words, he would get to continue experiencing the joy of seeing the gospel proclaimed to the nations! He was engaged in a most “fruitful labor” indeed!

In other words, for Paul, the promulgation of the gospel was the great joy of his life! And, this being so, Paul’s assertion raises a great question for us: Do we similarly treasure, desire, and take joy in the spread of the gospel? Do we delight in the gospel’s advance?

There are more reasons why continuing to live was gain for Paul.

²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Life was Christ for Paul because his life was spent for others, and, specifically, for the body of Christ. Remaining alive was “more necessary on your account,” he writes, on the Philippians’ account, that is. Paul knew that the church needed him. He knew that his departure would be a blow to them. He continues:

²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith

Specifically, Paul wanted to spend his life on the church for their:

• progress in the faith
• joy in the faith

He wanted them to grow in Jesus and learn to love and enjoy Jesus! He wanted to live so that his life might contribute in some way to the deepening and strengthening of the body of Christ!

This is the heart of a true minister!

He gives further insight into his heart with what he writes next.

²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Paul wanted to live so that his continued life, and specifically his hoped-for return to the Philippians, might cause the church to “have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus.” In saying this, Paul was solidifying the fact that he possessed an almost-unbelievable others perspective!

To summarize, Paul wanted to live:

• because of the fruitful labor of the gospel;
• because the church needed him;
• for the church’s progress in the faith;
• for the church’s joy in the faith;
• so that the church could glory in Christ Jesus.

Notice what is absent from Paul’s reasons for wanting to live.

• money
• fame
• a fear of death
• not wanting to leave family or friends
• uncertainty about what lay beyond
• to settle scores before he died
• pleasure
• a feverish desire simply to exist

Ask many people today why they want to exist and their answers will come from that list, if they are honest.

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes of one woman: “Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”[3]

That was not Paul. Life made sense to Paul as did death. Why? Because he had staked everything on Christ! And, in doing so, he reached the point where he could say that life was Christ and death was gain!

How about you? How do you see your life and your death? Why do you want to live? Why do you fear death?

For the believer, to die is gain.   

To live was Christ, for Paul.

To die was gain, for Paul.

In two verses in our text, Paul specifically mentions his thoughts on dying. The first is verse 20.

²⁰ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

Paul wanted Christ to be honored “whether by life or by death.” If Paul’s continued existence brought Jesus the greatest glory, he wanted to keep living. If Paul’s death brought Jesus the greatest glory, he was ready to die.

This is an amazing thing! The honor and glory of Jesus had become the sine qua non of Paul’s existence, the “without which, not” of his life. It was all that mattered. It was the hook upon which he hung everything.

If your survival is the greatest good of your life, your life will be one of panic and dread and fear, for we are surrounded by numerous realities that threaten our survival, the most dangerous and inescapable of which is time itself. Francis Chan has written:

Throughout time, somewhere between forty-five billion and one hundred twenty-five billion people have lived on this earth.  That’s 125,000,000,000.  In about fifty years (give or take a couple of decades), no one will remember you.  Everyone you know will be dead.[4]

“Why on earth would you share that with us, pastor?!” Because we need to remember: Our days here are fleeting. How will you view your life? How will you view your death? Paul had determined that the honor and glory of Jesus was ultimately all that mattered.

The second verse in which Paul specifically mentions death in our text is verse 23.

²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Paul is “hard pressed,” conflicted, about which to choose. His life was Christ and his death was gain. Ultimately, he knew which was better: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” I will quickly remind you that Paul decided he wanted to live, to be of service for Jesus in the world. Paul was not contemplating taking his own life. He was reflecting on the very possibility of death in a situation where it might come for him at any moment.

No, Paul had no morbid death wish, but he did know that, ultimately, death is great liberation and the great union: He would be with Jesus! In fact, Paul said in verse 21 that “to die is gain.” Yes, for himself, but also for others! The church would be blessed if he lived and the church would be impacted for the good if the Lord took him home.

What good could come to others through Paul’s death?

Peter Vermigli, the Italian reformer, wrote that death, seen in and of itself, is terrifying, but seen as that from which God brings great good is actually comforting. Vermigli listed the goods that come from the death of the Christian as:

• “we make an end to sinning”;
• “we pass over into eternal life”;
• “we promote the building up of the church”;
• “we give testimony to the truth of the gospel.”[5]

For the Christian, death is great gain!

On May 25, 1994, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian dissident writer, was asked by a reporter if he was afraid of death:

David Remnick had asked him if he feared dying. His face lit up with pleasure. “Absolutely not! It will just be a peaceful transition. As a Christian, I believe there is a life after death, and so I understand that this is not the end of life. The soul has a continuation, the soul lives on. Death is only a stage, some would even say a liberation. In any case, I have no fear of death.”[6]

Yes, death is a liberation. Seen in this way, death no longer has any power over us. In fact, in Jesus, death simply ceases to be!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes:

^54d …“Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Frank Thielman has made reference to Paul’s “remarkable indifference to his physical fate.”[7]

Death could claim no victory over Paul. Nor could it even sting him. Paul had given himself to Jesus, the vanquisher of death!

In other words, death had died to Paul and what remained was only one more way to glory and revel in Jesus!

In Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, he writes of the moment when Ivan Ilyich dies. Here we find Ivan Ilyich on his deathbed waiting for death.

            He waited for it attentively.

            “Ah, there it is. Well, what of it? Let it be.”

            “And death? Where is it?”

            He searched for his accustomed fear of death, and could not find it. Where was death? What death? There was no fear because there was no death.

            Instead of death there was light.

            “So that’s it!” he exclaimed. “What bliss!”

            …“It’s all over,” said someone standing beside him.

            He heard these words and repeated them in his soul.

            “Death is over,” he said to himself. “There is no more death.”

            He drew in a breath, broke off in the middle of it, stretched himself out, and died.[8]

Yes! That is it! “Instead of death there was light.” “What bliss!” “Death is over. There is no more death.” This is how the believer views his or her last moment. To live is Christ. To die is truly gain!

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon “Liberty from the Fear of Death,” wrote:

Turn, then, my soul unto thy rest,

The ransom of thy great High Priest

hath set the captive free.

Trust to His efficacious blood,

Nor fear thy banishment from God,

Since Jesus died for thee.

 

[1] Anders, Max. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1999), p.248

[2] Wilson, N. D. Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent (p. 84). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

[3] Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five (p. 49). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

[4] Chan, Francis. Crazy Love (Colorado Springs, CO: David Cook, 2008), p.45-46.

[5] Tomlin, Graham. Philippians, Colossians. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. ed. Timothy George. New Testament XI (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), p.27.

[6] Thomas, D.M. Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), p.509.

[7] Thielman, Frank S. Philippians (The NIV Application Commentary Book 11) (p. 78). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

[8] Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. (New York, NY: Bantam Dell, 1981), p.113.