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I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
Philippians 1:20-22a
I imagine that most Christians have heard this text a few times in their life. But if we are honest with ourselves, I don't think that is how we live or even how we want to live. It was about this time last year that hurricane Ike swept through Houston leaving power out for many for a week or more. By day five, I was seriously contemplating the whole Tower of Babel concept. I like creature comforts. Video games, TV, Internet, AC. I can live without them but there is a reason I don't go camping. For me, and I think American Christians on the whole, it can be so easy to get caught up in our things.
The average American Christian sees the Christian life as being a good person, go to church, and raise good kids. None of that is bad but it makes life so small and so safe. This is not the life that the early Church was called to and it is certainly not the pattern Christ set for us. In fact, when Jesus was tempted by Satan himself all of the temptations were to make Christ's life easier. Turning the stone into bread was a life of luxury, a life without need. Jumping off the temple was a life of invulnerability, a life without pain. And bowing to Satan was a life of fame, a life without anonymity. Christ turned away from all of this, even though He deserved all of those things. Instead of luxury, Jesus dies poor with even the few possessions He had being taken from Him. Instead of invulnerability, Jesus was beaten and died the most painful of all deaths. And instead of fame, He died abandoned by His friends and mocked by the lowest common denominator. All that Satan offered to Jesus were things that He had possessed in Heaven. It is not that Satan tempted Jesus with bad things but with bad timing, to seek paradise on earth. To seek Jesus' comfort over God's will. Instead, Jesus sought the will of His Father above His own life so that we might be saved and God would be glorified.
And this is what it means when we say to live is Christ: to pursue the will of God with single-minded purpose. Again, if I am honest, I would have to say that my pursuit is seldom single-minded. What holds me back, same as you, is sin. Whether it is ours or another's, we can neither receive nor grant forgiveness. The pain or the guilt seems too great. Ultimately, it comes from our lack of belief that Jesus is big enough to deal with our sins, or that the problem is too small or insignificant for Him to care. And yet the God we serve is He who knows both the number of stars in the sky and the number of hairs on your head for He made them both. The Creator of all things, who knows all things, chose you and me and He did it with full knowledge of who we are.
Here is this huge thing that we miss about Jesus and the cross, mainly because we know how the story ends. The cross is the most painful and despised death in human history and it was reserved for only the worst offenders. For the Jews, it signified being cursed by God. By any standard of the ancient world, the cross meant defeat. This is why Peter, while being used by Satan, spoke out against Jesus when Jesus spoke of the death He would die. For Peter and the others, any work Christ would attempt would be undone by the cross. And yet, God turned the worst possible defeat into the greatest victory, to the point that the cross is always the center of the gospel. And this is what the God we serve has always done and continues to do: He turns our biggest weakness or shame or defeat or sin, by His redemptive work, into an example of His grace. Abraham, childless till his late nineties, is known as a father of nations. Moses, having a speech impediment, spoke for God to Israel. Gideon, a coward, was called a mighty warrior and led 300 against hundreds of thousands. David committed adultery and murdered to cover it up. Elijah ran away in fear of Jezebel. Peter denied Christ, himself. Paul persecuted the Church. And the list goes on and continues to grow because this is what our God does and He is very good at it.
And so, with a God who is so much greater than we can fathom, how can we remain quiet about Him? There is work to be done, to proclaim the gospel and encourage the brethren. There is no retirement plan, at least not this side of Heaven. But one day, we will walk golden streets with those who have gone before us. And there, we will get to see Him whom we love face to face and hear Him say those words I long to hear: "Well done, you good and faithful servant." And we really will rest with Him forever.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13 & 14
