” …as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that 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 1:20-21

How does someone get to the place where they can actually believe the statement, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain?” If the life of the apostle Paul is any indication, one arrives at such a place of reckless abandonment after encountering the living Christ. Paul calls himself a slave of Christ in Philippians 1:1, meaning that he saw himself as sought, bought and owned by Christ. He surrendered his own agenda, will and glory to the will and glory of the Messiah.

If asked, I think most Christians would say they want to be able to say with Paul, “to live is Christ”, but the reality of a total surrender of our agenda isn’t all that attractive, so we have created a false gospel that redefines Jesus, church and salvation. Jesus, a hoop we jump through to get to something else. Jesus is a name we close our prayers with, a code-word that gets us into heaven when we die so we can go straight to the mansions and golden streets. Church is a place we go in an attempt to impress God with our devotion, as if our coming to church while other people in our neighborhood mow their lawns makes God proud of our sacrifice. Salvation is a prayer we pray, an aisle we walk, a vaccination against hell, pain and suffering that must never be doubted because we prayed a prayer in VBS when we were six.

Into this false understanding of the gospel and salvation steps the apostle Paul, telling us that Christ is not just a part of our lives that we can “plug into” when we wish, but that living itself IS Christ. As the message rings through the air, we understand and we might even agree, but the idea that we should do something about it is unacceptable. After all, that would require us to get up. No wonder the culture isn’t impressed with Christianity. Christians aren’t impressed with it either.

You can learn a great deal about life from the honesty of a toddler.  Abraham just turned two this Christmas and he really enjoyed opening presents.  He would begin ripping into them and tearing every last piece of paper off the box.  There was one present, however, that revealed a great deal to me about the human heart.  Abraham tore all the paper off the box, he threw off the lid, and it was clothes.  He quickly scrambled to find the lid, placed it back on the box, and piled the paper on top of the box, ending it all by saying “No.”  Abraham wanted gifts so long as they were fun, but the moment it became something that was essential to everyday life he was no longer interested.  This glimpse into a little boys heart illustrated for me the profound reality in most churches and at times in my own life.  We get so excited about the gift of the gospel provided in saving us from sin and securing a place for us in heaven, however, when it comes to the hope it provides for a changed life on earth, we are less excited.  We get excited when we read passages like Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”(ESV) However, when we read passages like 6:12, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.”(ESV),  we tend to cringe.  We often love to hold onto our sin and our idols in this present life.  When we do this we are stuffing the gospel back in a box, putting the lid on, and throwing the paper on top,  saying, “No thanks God.”  There is no partial gospel.  You can not take it a piece at a time. You must embrace the gift of God as a whole.  It is the whole gospel or no gospel.  We must accept the whole gospel of God and yes, be forgiven of sins, and yes, have a new home prepared in heaven, but also have a newness of life on this earth.  Let it be said of us as it was of the Roman church, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.(Romans 6:17-18 ESV)”