To Live Is Christ And To Die Is Gain

My wife has been a registered nurse with a faith-based hospice provider since July.  We frequently discuss her experiences and impressions of being a caregiver that is ministering to the sick and dying.  My wife is a compassionate woman, and I am proud that she has the opportunity to provide comfort and aid to patients who are coming to the end of their lives, and to the patients’ families who are experiencing the significant event of losing a loved one. 

Naturally, because of these conversations, the subject of life and death has been on my mind lately.   

Within the last few years, my kids have begun to experience death.  Through the loss of a few long-time pets, and an aunt whom they loved, they recognize death as the alien intrusion into life that it is.  Unfortunately, they have developed a fear of death that I am not sure is entirely healthy. 

I am also a little uneasy about death, although for a different reason. 

It is not that I am afraid of death.  I have had plenty of experience with it.  As a kid I lost my grandfather at an early age to cancer.  As a teenager, I experienced the earth-shattering loss of a close cousin who was taken from us.  In the army, I experienced the loss of friends and comrades in combat.  I have knocked on the doors of soldiers’ spouses to notify them of the loss or severe injury of their beloved soldiers.  I have experienced the feeling of being shot at and knowing that death can come suddenly.  It isn’t that I fear the coming of death.  It is more the apprehension that I want mine to mean something.  If death will be the legacy that I ultimately leave to my wife and children, then I want to die well. 

Then I read Paul’s epistle to the Philippians, and things clicked into place.  Paul’s epistle to the Philippians is one of his prison letters.  Paul is in jail, probably awaiting trial before Caesar.  Trial before Caesar usually doesn’t end very well.  In his letter, Paul doesn’t seem to be very certain what his fate will be.  Parts of the letter indicate he might be released, but others indicate he has just as much expectation that he might be executed.  Yet in his uncertainty, Paul pens the following passage:

“With full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:20b-21

He then continues by exhorting the Philippians:  “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents…For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” – Philippians 1:27-28a, 29-30

For Paul, it doesn’t matter whether he lives or dies.  Christ will be glorified either way. 

Paul believed that all men are sinners, in rebellion against God because of our sinful nature.  But God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin so that we might be reconciled to Him through Christ.  We have been made alive together in Christ, raised up with Christ, and seated at his side in Christ.  Through God’s grace, we are saved through faith in His Son. 

To Paul, we have communion with God and with one another in the community of faith in Christ.  The most important thing to Christians is communion with Jesus Christ.  Death and suffering are not what scares us, because we have fellowship with the one who will destroy sin and death.  Therefore, we can say that everything about our life and even our death becomes a witness for him.

We first come into communion with Christ in our baptism.  Here we are buried with Christ in His death and raised to new life with Him.  In our daily lives we work for the good of the body of Christ.  We work in our vocations and demonstrate Christ by following him.  We try to demonstrate Christ in our marriages as we try to be imitators of him as husbands or wives.  We try to be dutiful children, honoring our parents as we would our Heavenly Father.  We raise our children instructing them in the ways of the Lord.  When we sin, we repent and take comfort in experiencing the knowledge of forgiveness of sins that were delivered to us when Jesus died on the cross.  When we take communion, we rejoice in the promise of salvation which is guaranteed by Jesus body and blood.  We proclaim Christ crucified in every aspect of our lives to everyone around us. 

Even in the hour of our death we have the opportunity to be witnesses to our loved ones.  We can rest peacefully, knowing that because we have been called by Christ into fellowship with Him, we have peace with God.  We rejoice at being united with the body of believers who are at His side to await the resurrection of our bodies and eternity with Him.  This is the witness I hope to provide to my wife and children. 

God help me to live well and help me to die well.  Let me live and die in Christ, secure in the peace which surpasses all human understanding.  Amen.

“Where shall I go from your spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day for darkness is as light with you.” – Psalm 139:7-12