” …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.