For me to live is…? (part 4)

January 27, 2013 Leave a comment

As you can see, I’ve been meditating on Paul’s famous words in Philippians 1:21,

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

I’ve thought about what it meant for Paul (and thus what it should mean for me) to say these words. And I suppose my previous three posts have seen these words as the same answer to a variety of questions:

1. Where did this life you have come from? For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain

2. Where do you get the strength to live this life? For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain

3. What’s your motivation for living; what gets you out of bed in the morning? For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain

Today, I’m thinking of this verse as the answer to another question: What is your ultimate ambition in life?

Paul would write to the Romans about what God’s plan is for every Christian:

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:29 ESV

Now there is a sense that this task will not be completed until we are called into Christ’s presence (e.g. 1 John 3:2), but that is not to say that there should not be progress along that route in this life. In fact, I think this is what Paul alludes to in 2 Corinthians 3,

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

Christians should be undergoing a transformation right now, making them more like Jesus Christ, and I think when Paul says ‘For to me to live is Christ…’ he is making just that point; Paul tries to make it so that every decision he makes in life and every act of service he does is with the aim of making him more like Christ. Now if the ultimate goal of our lives is to be like Christ, then we can most definitely say ‘…to die is gain’ because it is then that the work will be fully and perfectly completed.

What are my ultimate ambitions? Are they things which will come to a shuddering halt when I die, or are they things which finally reach completion when that day comes?

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For me to live is…? (part 3)

January 25, 2013 Leave a comment

This week I’ve been trying to meditate on Paul’s great proclamation (Philippians 1:21):

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

You’ll see below that I’ve thought about this meaning that Christ is Paul’s source of life and his strength for living. Today I want to dwell on Christ as Paul’s reason for living. In other words, I see Paul using this verse as an answer to the question “What is it that makes you carry on? What drives you to get out of bed in the morning?” – To me to live is Christ…

Later on in Philippians Paul is going to really press home this point, and he does so by way of sharing something of his own story. Before he became a Christian Paul was a boastful man; steeped in religion he  had great confidence that he was as right with God as a man could be, his credentials were:

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Philippians 3:5-6 ESV

These were the things which defined who Paul (Saul of Tarsus) was; he had advanced in Judaism beyond many of his peers (Galatians 1:14) and was so driven by this that he persecuted the early Christians with a tremendous zeal (Galatians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:9). But all that changed when he met Christ on the road to Damascus – his whole life was transformed; his reasons for living were revolutionised.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith– that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:7-11 ESV

This is a remarkable section of Paul’s writing. He tells us that in the light of Jesus Christ, everything he lived for was empty rubbish. He’d been wasting his life and destroying his soul; but now the thing that drove him out of bed in the morning was knowing Christ…gaining Christ…knowing him and the power of his resurrection. What’s more, death would only be ‘gain’ for Paul because he would then know Christ in the fullest way possible.

The danger is that I look on Paul’s life as an unattainable standard, whereas I think such powerful passages should be the definition of what a Christian is. It’s always interesting to me how easily I slip into the third person when it comes to a challenge like that – let me try again: I think such powerful passages should be the definition of what my life is like. What gets me out of bed in the morning? What is the great motivation for living? Unless it’s Christ, I’m settling for something inferior…

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For me to live is…? (part 2)

January 24, 2013 Leave a comment

The apostle Paul, though under arrest and likely chained to a Roman soldier, pens for us in the letter to the Philippians one of the most joyful of his letters. His heart overflows with love for these Christians (‘God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus’ [1:8]) and he shows us that the Christian experience of joy is not something which is dependent upon external circumstances – it is a condition of the heart which is unable to be crushed by circumstances. We could sum up that heart with Paul’s words in Philippians 1:21,

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

Yesterday I was thinking about Paul’s definition of life being ‘Christ’ and how He is the giver of life. This morning I am contemplating that in this verse we see Christ is the one who gives the on-going strength to live. Sometimes when I read the snippets of biography we’re given about the apostle Paul I wonder ‘how did he do it? Where did find the strength to bear that?’ I say this because the Bible does not describe Paul’s journey as a follower of Christ as an easy one, nor even a pleasant one. Take for example Paul’s own account of his suffering in 2 Corinthians 11:

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ESV

How did he do it? Well he tells us, ‘for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’. His source of life and his source of strength for living, was Jesus Christ. Later on in the letter to the Philippians Paul would make this point very clear:

… I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11b-13 ESV

Sometimes that last verse is used when asking the Lord for blatantly miraculous demonstrations of His power and presence (which is no bad thing). However the ‘all things’ which Paul can do through Christ who strengthens him are not (in this verse anyway) the miracles which God performed through him, but rather strength to come through the difficulties, trials and hardships of life. Thus the imprisoned Paul could say, ‘to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’

Where does my strength for living come from? Sometimes we can be confident about Christ as the giver of life, but how true is it that we are being sustained by Him? Is He my first port of call when there’s problems and difficulties…or do I reach for my wallet, my wise friend or even my lawyer? I’m challenged to be strengthened by Christ and to recognise that He has provided all I need for that to be the case.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Ephesians 6:10-11 ESV

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For me to live is…?

January 23, 2013 1 Comment

It’s been a long time since I last posted – and though many things came to my mind over the last few months which I felt I had something to say about, blogging was feeling a wee bit too much like a chore (which it shouldn’t be).

So… a New Year’s resolution was to have a different attitude to this space (or to shut it down), so we’ll see where we go from here. Belated Happy New Year to all.

Last night in our Bible study we were considering the verse from Philippians 1:21

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

And committed to meditate upon it for the rest of this week – this morning I am struck by the fact that ‘Christ’ is the very definition of life for Paul. If he did not have Jesus Christ, he would not have life. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” (Ephesians 2:4). In a very real sense, for Paul, Christ meant life; without Jesus Paul was dead, a sinner with no spiritual pulse whatsoever (which is telling, because before he had Christ, Paul was a religious man). This was characteristic of many of the Jews Jesus encountered in His ministry, they did many things, but he had this tragic summing up of their situation: “yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:40).

As I meditate on this verse today I am grateful that Jesus Christ has given me life! He has done so, not because I have earned it, not because I have some innate quality that deserves it, but because of God’s “great love with which he loved [me]“. People see their source of life as being some evolutionary process, or just the chance happenings of a random world. If this is the case, then none of us could correctly say that ‘to die is gain’. But for Paul, whose source of life (real, spiritual life) was Christ, death simply meant going to be with the provider of life – no loss there.

If I don’t have Christ, I don’t have life and death means the loss of everything – it does not need to be like this: “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:15).

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Too much passion?

September 19, 2012 Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking over a few texts this morning which challenge me. In fact the word ‘challenge’ doesn’t go far enough – they are almost alien to me (to my shame).

The first of these is the occasion when Moses pleads on behalf of the people of Israel who have been rebellious against God (in worshipping the golden calf). He goes back to the Lord and this is his plea:

Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin – but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.

Exodus 32:32 NIV

Such was Moses love for the people that he was willing to offer himself in their place if it might bring God’s mercy upon them. We would almost think that Moses was going a bit too far here, but the Lord did not rebuke Moses for this passion; in fact the full redemption story in the Bible shows us that however passionate we think Moses was for those who were perishing – no-one was/is more passionate than God himself (John 3:16). The obvious parallel passage to this is found in Romans 9, where Paul reveals his heart for his fellow Jews:

I have great sorrow and anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

Romans 9:2-4 NIV

A heart for the lost: Give me Scotland, or I die!

Such was Paul’s heart of compassion for those who were not believers (especially those who had all the privileges of the Jews), that were it possible he would sacrifice himself for their salvation. It’s reminiscent of John Knox’s great (and repeated) prayer: “Give me Scotland, or I die!”

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen that passion for the unsaved very often – and rarely come close to it myself. Why is that? Why has the church by and large fallen into such a complacency with regard to the plight of a lost world all around us? What sparked off this train of thought was our Bible study last night where we saw in Luke 9 that a Samaritan village didn’t receive Jesus. A couple of the disciples had a (seemingly biblical) suggestion for what they should do next:

When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

Luke 9:54 NIV

So lacking in compassion for these Samaritans, they were willing to see them destroyed at the first point of resistance. There was not yet the compassion for souls that their Saviour had. When we read Acts 8 we find that through Philip, the Lord brought revival to part of Samaria; there’s no way to know, but I wonder how many of those that James and John were willing to see destroyed might have come to faith under Philip’s ministry?

The great C.H. Spurgeon said: “He who weeps for souls shall before long weep for joy.” May God bring floods of tears to the eyes of His people…

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But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…

June 7, 2012 Leave a comment

Every so often something comes along which makes you stop in your tracks and ponder the big questions of life. Sometimes it is something very close to you and on other occasions you can’t explain why something resonates so pointedly with your spirit. This has been my experience this week.

On Tuesday I heard the tragic news of the death of (as far as I was concerned) a little-known missionary couple in Zambia. Jay and Katrina Erickson had gone out from Canada to serve at Chitokoloki Mission Station in February of this year. Jay was a pilot, and the couple served (in their own words):

[as] full-time volunteers ready to bring food, medical supplies, doctors, missionaries, and most importantly, the Word of God by aircraft into areas of the world that would otherwise be extremely difficult or impossible to reach.

Katrina was apparently taking her first trip off the station with her husband, but on that trip their plane crashed into the Zambezi river, killing them both. This couple, in their late twenties, leave behind two daughters Marina and Coral aged just two and one years, respectively.

The Erickson family (Photo: http://www.chitokoloki.com)

How do people begin to come to terms with such a tragedy? All of the planning and reorganising of life and things end so suddenly and leave two girls as orphans.

I suppose to the world it is all meaningless, isn’t it? These were people who were passionate about Jesus Christ, dedicated to serving Him and spreading the Word of His Gospel and ultimately in the pursuit of that higher goal, they lost their lives. The apostle Paul tells us that there are circumstances under which we should pity people who give their lives to these pursuits – even if they achieve some good or draw strength from their hope in Christ. Those circumstances are if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:17-19 ESV

Do you see what Paul is saying here? If people such as the Ericksons have devoted their life to Christ, but Christ has not been raised from the dead, don’t praise them, don’t commend them – you should pity them! But Paul doesn’t leave it there:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:20 ESV

This couple were not fools, nor are they pitiable, but they are part of the harvest of souls which Christ has secured because He is the firstfruits of those who have died. In other words, because Christ is risen, all those who are in Him shall be raised too. This doesn’t make these happenings in Zambia any less tragic from a human point of view for those who are left. But for Jay and Katrina Erickson they entered into the presence of their Saviour wholly dedicated to His calling for their lives  - for that give thanks. For those who feel this loss most acutely, pray for them and keep on praying for them – who knows what God is working out in the midst of such things?

Some articles on the accident:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/plane-crash-in-africa-kills-young-missionary-couple-76119/

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018359441_apwaspokanemissionaries1stldwritethru.html

Some particularly moving information is available here:

http://www.chitokoloki.com/?p=1022

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God’s Motives revealed

March 8, 2012 Leave a comment

This morning I was reading Ezekiel 36 in which we are given a very early glimpse of the New Covenant (‘…I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…’ vv26-27). This is in the midst of the promises given to Israel (at this time in exile):

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land…

Ezekiel 36:24 ESV

But we may wonder why God would do this for His people.

Is it because they deserved it? Certainly not; in fact nothing about the nation itself merited God’s favour. This is self-evident in that the nation is in exile due to its unfaithfulness to God. In fact, this point is emphasised when we have a description of why God chose (or did not choose) His people:

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 ESV

That’s human merit ruled out. So it must be because God loves His people. The verse just quoted shows this to be a truth, but the reasons given in Ezekiel 36 for God’s promise to His people is not His love. It’s this:

It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name…I will vindicate the holiness of my great name…the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes

Ezekiel 36:22-23 ESV

This is a key principle, especially today, because we can very easily become very self-centred (yes, I know that’s hard to imagine amongst Christians!). That is not to doubt for a second that God loves His people and that it is a motivation in His goodness and love towards them, but even greater than the motivation of love is the motivation is the glory and honour of His name – of Himself. This is why when Paul gives his glorious description of what it means to be ‘blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 1:3-14) he has to pause on three occasions and tell us the motive:

…to the praise of his glorious grace…that we…might be to the praise of his glory…to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14 ESV

Everything God does is for His own glory. The reason why He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die and bear the penalty of the sins of those who trust in and follow Him was, yes, out of love for sinners; but was primarily to bring glory to Himself. If you are a Christian, the remarkable thing is that despite your failings and flaws you can be an instrument by which God is glorified. Perhaps this offers us not only an encouragement to live lives which are honouring to God who saves us, but also gives us a lens through which we can view life in perfect perspective – the perspective that realises God is working all things to His glory.

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