“TO LIVE IS CHRIST, TO DIE IS GAIN.” —Philippians 1:21

There is great gain for the believer in death. Physical death is no more condemnation because Christ has taken the believer’s condemnation. Death is now a joyful entrance into the place that God has prepared for those who love Him, for those who are redeemed by Christ. A place where “God will wipe away every tear from the believer’s eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). But if death is going to be gain for you, then Christ must be your Savior. You must trust Him alone as your righteous standing before God and not yourself or anyone or anything else.

Well, are you prepared to die? Is your confession that death is gain? If so, then your confession must also be, “To live is Christ.” This means you walk by faith in Christ and obey Him as your Lord and King. Whatever desires are not in the service of Jesus Christ must be forsaken. Christ must be the very reason you live. Christ alone must be your all in all. No one can say “to die is gain” unless they can truly say, “for me to live is Christ.” Only those who live for Christ are those who gain when death comes a calling.

Death apart from Jesus Christ is eternal torment of body and soul in Hell. But for the child of God, even death cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). Christ has conquered death, hell, and the grave by His perfect law-fulfilling life and His perfect sin-atoning death on the cross.

May God give us the grace to look to Christ by faith so that we also might say with the saints in glory, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:55-57).

In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry