Copyright by Freedom in Christ, used with permission.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
We're all going to die. One day you will lose everything you have, including your closest relationships, your qualifications, your possessions, and your money. There is just one thing you won’t lose. Your relationship with Jesus and everything that comes with it.
That is why Paul can say what he does in this verse. If you try putting anything else other than Christ in the verse, it doesn't work. For me to live is my career, to die is... loss. For me to live is my family, to die is... loss. For me to live is a successful Christian ministry, to die is... loss. But when the point of our life here and now is simply Jesus and becoming more like Him, when we die and we get to spend eternity with Him, it just gets better.
Jim Elliot (1927-1955) while still a student and praying for God’s direction for his future as a missionary said this: “He is no fool to give up that which he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose.” Writing in his college journal, he also wrote: “Father, if Thou wilt let me go to South America to labour with Thee and to die... let me go soon.” In 1955 he was indeed killed (with four others) by Auca Indians on a beach of the Curaray River in Eastern Ecuador, where they were working as missionaries for Missionary Aviation Fellowship.
Jim Eliot truly has now gained an amazing inheritance that he can never lose. Remind yourself today of the glorious future that awaits you as a Christian and thank God for it. What implications does this have for your life right now?
