To Live Is Christ — What Does That Mean?

00:00:00.000 | A regular podcast listener from the fine city of London writes in with this question, "Hello

00:00:09.720 | Pastor John, my name is Laura.

00:00:11.320 | I would love to know what it actually means when Paul says, 'For me to live is Christ'

00:00:18.960 | in Philippians 121.

00:00:20.840 | I can't seem to pinpoint a solid definition without just giving examples of what that

00:00:25.280 | kind of life would look like.

00:00:27.160 | How would you explain this?

00:00:28.400 | What does it mean to live is Christ?"

00:00:31.760 | Well, there aren't many things I love to think about more than the context of Philippians

00:00:38.920 | 1.

00:00:39.920 | And you're going to see why before we're done.

00:00:42.240 | I'm a Christian heeding this through and through, and it doesn't get any better than these verses

00:00:47.880 | and the parallels in chapter 3.

00:00:49.840 | So I think in answer to Laura's question, there are two ways to define, "For me to live

00:00:57.640 | is Christ," first from the immediate context of verses 20 to 26 of chapter 1 in Philippians,

00:01:05.320 | and secondly from chapter 3.

00:01:07.320 | And you'll see why both of those are so relevant.

00:01:10.760 | So let's walk through it and she'll see right away how this works.

00:01:14.720 | "It is my eager expectation and hope," this is verse 20, "It is my eager expectation and

00:01:21.080 | hope that I will not be ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will

00:01:26.080 | be magnified."

00:01:27.240 | There's this central passion in life, that Christ will be magnified, shown to be magnificent

00:01:34.200 | in my body, whether by life or by death.

00:01:37.080 | "For," and here come these two phrases, "For me to live is Christ," that's the one she's

00:01:41.000 | asking about, and the other one is, "And to die is gain."

00:01:44.920 | So to live is Christ and to die is gain are two ways of Paul's magnifying Christ with

00:01:53.640 | his body.

00:01:55.340 | So what we want to know is, how is Christ magnified in Paul's life?

00:02:02.560 | Because that's what he's aiming at in this text.

00:02:06.280 | To live is Christ.

00:02:08.520 | To live is to magnify Christ.

00:02:10.920 | To live is to show that Christ is magnificent.

00:02:14.420 | So watch how he does it.

00:02:15.600 | "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me."

00:02:22.220 | So the first thing he says about to live is not Christ, but fruitful labor.

00:02:27.500 | So what does that mean?

00:02:29.660 | What is fruitful labor that magnifies Christ in such a way that you can say to pursue this

00:02:36.240 | fruit is to pursue the glory of Christ?

00:02:39.980 | So he keeps going in verse 24.

00:02:41.940 | "To remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

00:02:47.740 | Because of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress

00:02:56.380 | and joy in faith."

00:03:01.540 | So his fruitful labor that he's staying alive for is labor to increase the joy of the faith

00:03:11.340 | of the Philippians.

00:03:12.700 | So if they have greater joy by embracing Jesus—that is, believing, embracing Jesus in faith—Jesus

00:03:24.580 | is made to look magnificent, and Paul's life is achieving its purpose from verse 20.

00:03:33.340 | So your joy of faith in Jesus is the fruit of my labor, and that makes Christ look great,

00:03:42.580 | and that's what it means for me to live Christ.

00:03:47.020 | Now he keeps going, verse 26.

00:03:49.340 | "So that in me you may have ample cause to glory or boast in Christ Jesus because of

00:04:00.540 | my coming to you again."

00:04:02.060 | So by his coming to them—that is, coming to increase their joy of faith, coming to

00:04:07.900 | bear fruit in his labor—by his coming to them and ministering to them and increasing

00:04:15.260 | their joy of faith, they are increasing in their glorying or boasting in Christ Jesus.

00:04:24.620 | So the upshot of Paul's life is that other people are making much of Jesus by being joyful

00:04:33.860 | in Jesus and boasting in Jesus.

00:04:36.920 | This is what it means for Paul to live his Christ.

00:04:40.400 | To live his Christ means to live to be the means of other people making Christ look magnificent

00:04:49.940 | by finding Christ to be their supreme treasure and their greatest satisfaction.

00:04:54.580 | That's what glorying in Christ and being happy in Christ means.

00:04:59.280 | So that's the first answer.

00:05:01.580 | Now watch it get amazingly confirmed if you jump over to chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

00:05:09.580 | And the link is clear in Paul's mind because the word "gain" over here in chapter 1,

00:05:16.500 | he says, "To die is gain."

00:05:18.380 | Now watch the uses of the word "gain" in chapter 3, verses 7 and 8, where the same

00:05:25.620 | way of thinking that Christ being a supreme treasure makes Christ look magnificent, which

00:05:33.320 | is what Paul's life is about.

00:05:35.740 | So here's what it says.

00:05:37.260 | "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

00:05:45.260 | Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

00:05:56.380 | Jesus my Lord.

00:05:57.780 | For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order

00:06:05.460 | that I might gain Christ."

00:06:09.620 | Now back in chapter 1, to die was to be with Christ, and therefore dying was gain, and

00:06:17.100 | therefore his dying magnified Christ because it showed that Christ was more valuable than

00:06:23.860 | everything he had lost in death.

00:06:26.420 | Now here in chapter 3, he's unpacking "to live is Christ" in the same way, with the

00:06:32.780 | same argument, only instead of losing everything by dying, he says, "I'm counting everything

00:06:38.720 | as loss even while I live."

00:06:41.820 | So to show that the value of Christ is better than the things I have in life even while

00:06:49.300 | I am alive.

00:06:51.820 | So again, "to live is Christ" means to live in such a way as to make Christ look

00:06:59.900 | magnificent as your supreme treasure.

00:07:04.420 | Now I can't let this go—circle back to the beginning where I was all excited about

00:07:10.140 | Christian hedonism—I can't let this go without making explicit that these contexts

00:07:16.540 | in Philippians 1 and Philippians 3 are two of the most important foundations for what

00:07:22.660 | I call Christian hedonism and what I've devoted my whole life trying to understand,

00:07:28.340 | trying to preach, which I usually sum up by saying, "God is most glorified in us when

00:07:34.540 | we are most satisfied in him."

00:07:36.620 | But here's the way I would say it by putting together both "to die is gain" and "to

00:07:43.300 | live is Christ" in verse 20 of chapter 1.

00:07:45.940 | Here's the way I'd say it.

00:07:48.100 | Christ is most magnified in us when we are more satisfied in him than what we lose in

00:07:58.820 | death and what we have in life.

00:08:03.400 | In both cases, the goal of Paul's life is attained—that Christ is magnified in his

00:08:11.180 | body, whether by life or by death—and the key to magnifying Christ in life and in death

00:08:19.060 | is to find him more precious, more valuable, more satisfying, more joyful, more boastworthy

00:08:28.580 | than everything we lose in death—to die is gain—and everything we have in life—to

00:08:37.580 | live is Christ.

00:08:39.940 | That is glorious.

00:08:40.940 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:08:42.260 | I love that.

00:08:43.260 | "Christ is most magnified in us when we are more satisfied in him than in what we

00:08:49.420 | lose in death or what we have gained in life."

00:08:52.660 | Oh, that's so good.

00:08:53.660 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening and making the podcast part of your

00:08:56.580 | week.

00:08:57.740 | You can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive.

00:09:01.380 | Even reach us by email with a question of your own, even questions like this one on

00:09:05.660 | how Scripture and biblical priorities connect with our daily lives.

00:09:11.060 | You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:09:16.540 | The anticipation for Christmas is growing.

00:09:19.460 | Christmas music is on the radio, and pumpkin spice lattes are in the air, and colorful

00:09:25.420 | lights are brightening the night.

00:09:27.980 | As we approach Christmas this year, we embark on a six-part series on the podcast related

00:09:33.180 | to Advent.

00:09:34.180 | We're going to answer some of your very hard questions about the conception and birth

00:09:40.180 | and childhood of Jesus.

00:09:42.180 | It's going to be good.

00:09:43.660 | These are some really excellent questions that you've sent in.

00:09:46.420 | We've lined them up, and the series begins on Friday.

00:09:50.100 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:09:51.820 | We'll see you then.

00:09:52.700 | [END]

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To Live Is Christ — What Does That Mean?

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