DEATH … IT’S COMING FOR EACH OF US … ARE YOU PREPARED? By Pastor Scott Henry

“FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST, AND TO DIE IS GAIN” (PHILIPPIANS 1:21)

How could the Apostle Paul write the words in our text, “and to die is gain”?  Paul could say that death was gain because he could also say, “For to me to live is Christ.”  What about you?  Is your confession: “For to me to live is Christ”?  Are you truly trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of your soul?  Has He redeemed you?  Have you heard His words in your soul: “Your sins are forgiven” – “I give you eternal life” – “You shall never perish!”  If so, then you’re one who can also say, “and to die is gain.”  This is the wonderful testimony of every believer.  Death is gain!!  It’s not loss or destruction, but death is a benefit to the believer.  Death is to the believer’s advantage.  Paul says in our text, “to die is GAIN.”  And the reason the Apostle Paul says death is gain for the believer is found in Philippians 1:23: “For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”  Paul said he desired to depart, that is to die, in order to be with Christ, which is far better!!  And this is the certainty of every believer … that even though we know we must die yet death is not a loss but a gain because we go to be with Christ, the Lover of our soul.

Yes, the Christian’s death is absence from his body; but then, immediately, there is presence with the Lord.  The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 42, reads as follows: “Since, then, Christ died for us, why must we also die? Our death is not a satisfaction for our sin, but only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life.”  That’s why we read in Revelation 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”  And again in Psalm 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”  Where do loved ones go who die trusting in Christ?  They go to be with Jesus, which is FAR better than this present existence.

This refutes the false teaching of soul-sleep, annihilation of the soul, or purgatory.  Paul knew when he died he wouldn’t go to sleep, but would immediately be in the presence of Christ.  It’s true that Scripture describes the death of a Christian as being similar to sleep (1 Thess. 4:13).  But that speaks of our body, which must remain in the grave until the great day of the resurrection when our souls will once again be united with our bodies.  But at death the believer’s soul is immediately transported to Heaven to be with Christ; this is the teaching of Scripture!  The thief on the cross cried out, “Lord, remember me when You come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered him in Luke 23:43: “This day you shall be with me in paradise.”  Luke 20:37-38: “But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.’”  Jesus also told His disciples in John 14:1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”  You see, in death Christ takes the believer to the Father’s house of many mansions.  That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:8: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”  And so we read in our text: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  This must be the confident confession of every believer!  Is this your confession?