June 11

Life And Death

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — Phil 1:21 BSB

How close life and death are! In this verse, there is only a comma between them, and every one of us stands at that comma, between life and death. Life is the gateway to death, and death is always near life. The rhythm of the heart, the beat of the pulse, the swing of the pendulum—it’s all so fragile.

The Apostle Paul was deeply in love with life. He was a worker, a traveler, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the world. The philosopher might say, “To me, life is knowledge,” the soldier might declare, “To me, life is fame,” the merchant might boast, “To me, life is wealth,” and the masses might say, “To us, life is toil and trouble.” But in the midst of all this, Paul joyfully proclaimed, “To me, life is Christ.” If you had asked him what he meant, he might have said, as Tyndale translates, “Christ is the origin of my life.”

If we want to partake of the Divine Nature, we too must have such a definite experience. We can trace our physical life back to our parents, but our spiritual life must begin the moment we become partakers of the Nature of the Risen Christ, whether in childhood or later in life (John 1:12-13; 2 Peter 1:4).

Christ must be the model of our life. Everyone follows a model, consciously or not. Every true follower of Christ strives to grow into His likeness—“Beholding, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.”

Christ must be the aim of our life. Our purpose should be that His will be done on earth as in heaven, that others may come to know and love Him as we do, and that He may be the crowned King of all. External circumstances lose their power over the one who can say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” Then we can even triumph over death and declare, “To die is gain.”

Prayer

The heights of the Christ-life call to us, but they often seem too steep and high for us to reach. Yet You, Lord, know us and have infinite compassion for Your children. Fulfill in us the good pleasure of Your will, and bring to life the ideals You have taught us to cherish. Amen.