Early in His ministry, when He was still popular with the common people, the Lord Jesus gave this invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” – Matthew 11:28. Thousands of gospel messages have been preached from those words throughout the years. In a world filled with worries, problems and general unrest, this invitation provides a very real solution. And most of us here today would agree with that. We have experienced it. Christ could have added, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,” but He didn’t on that occasion. Rather He went on to say, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
If I am not mistaken, Paul, the penman of the Epistle to the Philippians, illustrates what Jesus was saying. He came to Christ, or was brought to Christ, by the Lord Himself and his life was forever changed. Before his salvation, Paul was a mess. He may not have thought so, but he desperately needed that peace which comes with salvation. Then the Lord gave him a new heart and the comfort which comes with genuine fellowship with God. Furthermore, Paul took up the work of the Lord. He picked up Christ’s yoke and began to pull in the same direction as his Saviour. And God’s peace and rest continued and were even multiplied. By the time of this letter Paul could go through fire and flood with joy and contentment. He could endure beatings, arrests and chains, calmly awaiting a trial before one of the most wicked and powerful rulers in human history. He had received the Lord’s peace because he was living with Christ in his life.
And if I might say – with Christ Jesus as his pattern and guide, there were several parallels between them. For example, what brought CHRIST to the cross, AND what took Paul to this house arrest in Rome? In both cases, there were the combined forces of the Jewish leadership and the Roman government. The Jewish high priest coerced Pilate, the governor, to crucify Christ. And Paul was arrested by the Jews, before he was transported to Italy by the Romans.
There were two other parallels between Paul and the Lord Jesus at this point. It was the will of God that Christ die on the cross. It was the decree and plan that the eternal Son of God become a man – incarnate – enabling Him to become a proper substitute and sacrifice for the souls of men. That had been something prophesied and illustrated throughout the Old Testament. So – “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” – Galatians 4. In a similar fashion it was God’s will, and even something prophesied that Paul be arrested. There was a similarity between God’s will for Christ and for Christ’s apostle, Paul.
More specifically, it was for the sake of souls that Christ died on the cross and that Paul be arrested. Without Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary none of us could ever have been forgiven and delivered from our sins. And as Paul compared his situation in Rome with the ministry which others were picking up while he was in jail, he could say… “That the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.” He was not ashamed of the gospel, or of his God-designed predicament, because the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
With these things in mind – in Paul’s mind and in ours – let’s consider: “For to me to live is Christ.”
First, WHAT is it he is saying?
Obviously, it is not what most Americans are saying today. Whether or not they admit it, there are people for whom it might be said, “For to me to live is SPORTS.” How many thousands of Americans wake up thinking about the National Football League. Then it pops up a dozen times during the day. And when they go to bed they wish that next day would be game day? How many thousands spend thousands of dollars betting on sports, and their worries consume them? Apparently millions of Americans eat, drink, sleep and dream about football. And then, how many Americans should say, “For to me to live in MY JOB?” Or how many, if they were honest, would have to say, “For to me to live is PARTYING and DRUGS?” For some of you in the past it has been video games; perhaps it was pornography. More positively, “For to me to live is MY FAMILY. I live for my wife and children.” Often we see as addictions, or obsessions, or enslavements completely engulfing people’s lives. Paul had one of those obsessions: “For to me to live is Christ.” He was completely engulfed and identified with the Lord Jesus. When people got to know Paul, they saw the Saviour in him. The Lord wasn’t simply Paul’s addiction; Christ was in a special, literal way “his LIFE” – his everything.
Paul might have said here, “For to me to live is to CARRY OUT the WILL of CHRIST in my life.” Here is another parallel between Paul and his Saviour. As Jesus showed when He knocked down those who came to arrest Him, He could have stopped the crucifixion at any time. As the hymn suggests, “He could have called ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set Him free.” He said, “I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
The Lord has given us an example to do has He has done, and Paul was following that example. Paul actually facilitated his arrest and transport to Rome in chains. As we see in Acts 25, he demanded, as a Roman citizen, to be tried before Caesar. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus said to His disciples: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Paul had taken up his cross – he had put on Christ’s yoke – and was following the Lord. “For to me to live is to carry out the will of Christ in my life.”
Paul’s words could also mean – “For to me to live is to MAGNIFY Christ’s GLORY.” He has just said in verse 20 – “With all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” Because he was fully engaged in glorifying his Saviour, he could exhort the Corinthians – “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Why do our bodies and spirit’s belong to God? Among several others, the most important reason the child of God belongs to the Lord is that Christ purchased us to Himself by His own blood. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as sliver and gold… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot…” – I Peter 1. In Heaven, Peter, Paul, Mary and the rest of God’s people shall sing: “Thou art worthy… for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation.” – Revelation 5.
The words of our text could mean: “For to me to live is Christ’s CAUSE, his PURPOSE, his ultimate GOAL.” Among other things, he could have meant: “For me to live is CHRIST’S GOSPEL.” When he was explaining his life to King Herod he described how Christ came to him, saying: “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” Paul’s life had been spent, and was being spent, in spreading the good news of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of people’s sins.
And because he had been faithful to his calling, he was able to finish his statement – “and for me to die is gain.” Here is another parallel between Christ and His apostle. In Christ’s death came the REDEMPTION – the purchase of thousands of God’s elect from the law. I will come back to this, but in Christ’s death there was eternal gain for thousands. And in a very limited way, in Paul’s death there was a huge gain for HIM. I’m not talking about Paul’s dying – the manner of his death – but in the state of death, Paul could not have been better off. The Apostle John “heard a voice from heaven saying… Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” – Revelation 14. “Precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints” – Psalm 116.
You could say that Paul was heavily invested in his Saviour – “For to him to live was Christ.” Christ Jesus, the elder brother of all God’s children, has made an investment in Heaven on our behalf. We have an inheritance in Him. I Peter 1 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” You might say that Paul had been adding his pennies to the investment the Saviour had laid aside for him. Because Christ consumed Paul’s entire life, and he had put his heart into glorifying the Saviour, he had added to the Lord’s initial investment. He had taken Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 to heart – “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” That is what Paul had been doing because “for to him to live was Christ.”
These are the things Paul was suggesting in this statement.
But what was it he MEANT?
How was it that “for him to live was Christ?” One of Paul’s most powerful statements is found in Galatians 2:20 – “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved, me, and gave himself for me.”
This may be one of those eternal truths which no one can understand until they are actually born again. But the Bible teaches – throughout all its pages… The Bible teaches that in the will of God, when the proper sacrifice is made on behalf of a sinner, that sinner and his sacrifice essentially trade places. The righteousness of the sacrifice is imputed to the sinner, and the sins of the sinner are imputed to the sacrifice.
For example, when God provided a ram to take the place of Isaac, that ram died, and Isaac walked away alive. The son of Abraham may have thought back on that day and that ram as the moment when his second life began. And when the Israelite offered his Passover Lamb, the lamb died, but the Israelite and his son, walked out of Egypt alive – more alive than they had ever been. They were free men for the first time in their lives. The first born son in those Hebrew families might have said, “For to me to live is the Passover Lamb.” Which by the way is essentially what Paul is saying there, because Jesus became the Passover Lamb. Ultimately, when Christ “gave His life a ransom for many,” those “many” became free to worship and serve their Saviour. There was a switching of the sinner and the sacrifice; there was the imputing of righteousness to the sinner.
Theologians call Christ’s crucifixion a “vicarious sacrifice” – referring to a substitutionary offering. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” With Christ’s beatings, we are HEALED. With Christ’s sufferings and death we have our sins – our iniquities, our transgressions – FORGIVEN. With Christ’s death, those who humbly put their faith in Him, live – they have SPIRITUAL LIFE. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” II Corinthians 5:21 – God the Father, “hath made him (God the Son) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” With Christ’s “vicarious sacrifice,” we who are sinners are made righteous in God’s sight. We, who are spiritually dead as a result of sin’s wages, are given eternal life. As Peter put it – “Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for unjust, that he might bring us to God.” And when Paul said, “For to me to live in Christ,” he was saying he had been brought alive back to God.
A few minutes ago we sang a hymn by Daniel Whittle, “Christ liveth in Me.” “Once far from God and dead in sin, no light my heart could see, But in God’s Word the light I found – now Christ liveth in me. And as lives the flower withing the seed; as in the cone the tree, So praise the God of truth and grace, His Spirit dwelling in me. Christ liveth in me; Christ liveth in me; O what a salvation this – that Christ liveth in me.” Not only did Christ live in Paul, but Paul considered his life as nothing but “Christ in him, the hope of glory.”
And here is the point:
If Paul could have had his way, he’d want you to say the same thing he was saying. “For to me to live is Christ.” Your momma brought you into this world, and you carry your father’s genes – along with his sin. But spiritually as Jesus tells us, “Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” And Paul tells us that spiritually we are dead in trespasses and sins against God. In the strength of our failing health and with a bit of nourishment from our diet, we have short physical lives. But “the wages of sin is death,” and “it is appointed unto every man once to die and after this the judgment.”
But Paul said, “for to me to live is Christ.” He could have said, “I have eternal life in Christ.” “Christ has gone to prepare a place for me, and since He has gone to prepare a place for me, He will come again and receive me unto Himself that where He is I will be with Him forever” – John 14. Paul’s sixty or seventy-year earthly “Christ-life” was all about the furtherance of the gospel good news. He “was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Paul willingly went to prison, in order that you and I might be able to hear about the death, burial and resurrection of the Saviour for our sins. Paul was willing to be beaten with rods and whips…. he was willing to be pummeled with stones that the gospel might be spread in our direction. He said, “I am alive in Christ,” but for the first thirty years of his life that was not true. He said, “For to me to live is Christ,” but not every living person is also alive in Christ.
In order for that to be true in you, you must be born again. You must hear the gospel, which says that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. You need to understand that He paid the price that your sin demands. And you must put your trust in the Saviour and what He did on the cross.