Reflections of Grace - Philippians 1:21

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” - Philippians 1:21

I once heard a preacher make a wise point about modern advertising. He observed that the goal of most of the companies advertising their products is to convince you that you need their product in your life. In other words, your life is not as good as it should be if you do not have that particular item.

To be sure, there are godly people in the world working honestly to sell good products. They would not suggest that their product is the key to a fulfilled life. Nevertheless, the inherent idea of need still stands in advertising.

People in the West are very prone to believe this inherent message of advertising. People will spend money that they do not have or waste money that they do have in order to buy the next best thing, all under the idea that it will somehow satisfy something that is lacking in their lives.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with having nice things or fun things. Rather, it’s about perspective and mind-set. If we live our lives believing that worldly things can satisfy something that is lacking in us, then we have a tragically misguided way of thinking.

You see, the Bible does teach that all people do have a fundamental need, but it isn’t a product—it is righteousness.

Romans 3:22-23 teaches that what we receive through the gospel of Jesus Christ is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That sin is what makes us all unrighteous. We are born into it because we were all represented by Adam, who sinned against God in the Garden of Eden.

Since God is just, unrighteousness must receive the judgment that it deserves. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came for us and for salvation, to earn righteousness on our behalf, so that we could be reckoned as righteous before God. This righteousness is received only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

The result, as Paul indicates in the passage above, is that the one who believes now lives through and for Christ. Their life is a living testimony to him and his power and goodness. In that way, they lack nothing, for their greatest need in all the world has been satisfied.

If that is true for you, then the second part of Paul’s statement is true for you as well: to die is gain. It is a strong statement for sure, but necessarily true for all those who are in Christ. That is because death for the Christian is but the beginning of eternal life, free from all condemnation, in the blessed presence and joy of the Lord forever. Amen.