To Live Is Christ

Needless to say, what has happened in the world over the last couple of months is nothing short of surreal. Who would have guessed back in December or even January that the world was about to be plunged into a global health crisis that threatens to kill millions and bring life as we know it to a screeching halt?

I'm not going to bother to quote a bunch of statistics, since by the time you read this they would be dwarfed by current figures. Besides, there is no need for me to sit here and tell you how bad it is or how bad it may get because by now you are certainly aware of two fundamental realities:

1. It's bad.
2. It's likely to get worse before it gets better.

Which it will...that's how viruses work. It's just a question of how long it will take and how much damage it will leave behind.

As panic and misinformation have seemingly ruled the day, there has been no shortage of speculation among both experts and aficionados in the field of Bible prophecy concerning what this novel coronavirus means or what role it might play in the end-time scenario. For example, some say it's part of the birth pangs Jesus mentioned in the Olivet Discourse (I agree, and am preparing to go into more detail in a future article). Others claim it's the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse (I disagree, but I admit that was my favorite—gotta be a killer movie script in there somewhere).

Of course, the First Horseman of the Apocalypse hasn't arrived on the scene yet, but that inconvenient detail poses no problem for any Hollywood screenwriter worth his salt.

You might have assumed that I would come at this topic with eschatological guns blazing, holding forth on where I see it fitting into the end-time scheme of things and such and so on. I do plan to have more to say about this topic from an end-time angle in the near future...but not today. I think it's best if I let that particular pot of stew simmer for a while longer. So...

This article isn't so much a head thing—it's more of a heart thing.

For billions of people around the world, things just got disturbingly, joltingly real. Entire societies have been locked down and wholly disrupted, travel has been restricted, plans have been changed or canceled, work has been scaled back, jobs have evaporated, bodies have been scarred, lives have been lost, and the list just goes on and on.

And that includes born-again believers. Many in the body of Christ are being rudely reminded that we are not immune to the troubles of the world. Salvation doesn't give us a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in terms of the trials and tribulations we are all promised to experience in this life. Although we may in many ways enjoy God's blessing and protection, that doesn't mean we are exempt from the problems and pain the world dishes out.

I said I wasn't going to quote a bunch of statistics, but I will quote one: The world-wide death rate from the coronavirus for people in the 60–69 age bracket is 3.6 percent (Update: Make that a fraction of 1 percent.) That's my gang. Luckily, most people got with the program fairly early in the game here in Taiwan, which has done an exemplary job of containing the virus compared to other countries. It's taken this long for Taiwan to get some credit for the great job they've done, thanks to the lies and bullying of mainland China...which we are not part of. But we're close to the source, so it was a big deal here weeks before it began to dawn on people in the West that they were next.

I am also lucky enough to be married to a clean freak (and before God, I will never tease her about it again as long as I live). My wife Phoebe has a decon station set up just inside our door, and when either of us returns home, we have decontamination procedures firmly in place.

But as the coronavirus has extended its grip over the entire world, there are times when I can't help but think about that fact that no matter how frequently or properly I wash my hands, no matter how faithfully I wear a surgical mask, no matter how diligently I practice social distancing, and no matter how many creative ways I invent to press the elevator button in our apartment building, the simple, inescapable fact remains:

There is a possibility that I could die in the next couple of months.

Stuff's gettin' real, and now people all over the world are grappling with the same thoughts—and under the circumstances you just can't will yourself to not think these kinds of thoughts sometimes.

I'm not trying to sound melodramatic—I'm going somewhere with this, and something tells me you can guess the destination.

If you guessed the Word, you guessed right.

Let's go to the Word

Just as I'm sure you have, I've heard many people quote the same few verses of Scripture numerous times in recent days—powerful truths that lift us up in times of trouble and get us to focus our attention on what it needs to be focused on. For example, as fear grips the entire world in the onslaught of this virus, here's a verse I've heard quoted a few dozen times:

The spirit of fear. The Greek word translated "fear" in this verse is a form of deilia, which might be better translated as "cowardice" or "timidity." In other words, this verse is not just about fear per se. It means that God doesn't intend for us to be cowards. A coward is a person who, in the grip of fear, shows a shameful lack of courage or fortitude—this is the type of person who turns tail and runs from danger, abandoning any sense of responsibility for the welfare of others and jettisoning any confidence they may have had in someone who has promised to protect them. They are not merely someone who experiences fear, and the distinction is crucial.

Fear is a natural human emotion that serves to protect us from harm. Without it, I probably wouldn't have lived to see my 10th birthday (I know I wouldn't have lived to see my 20th). And today, it's a healthy dose of fear that makes me wash my hands many times a day and safeguard myself from unprotected face-to-face contact with people. Fear served to keep me safe as a kid, and it's serving to keep me safe now.

The point is that fear comes to us all—the tale of the tape is how we respond to it. Through our faith in Him, God imbues us with the spirit to stand and fight—without faith, fear can overwhelm us and make us run and hide, which is when fear gives way to cowardice.

I guarantee you that the bravest men who ever lived experienced fear. Courage is not the absence of fear—it is the ability to do what must be done in spite of fear. The absence of fear can suggest a lack of understanding of the nature of a situation. In fact, by definition it is only when we experience fear that we can show true courage.

Biblically speaking, the thing about being a coward is that it reveals a fundamental lack of faith in God. The Israelites who believed the bad reports from 10 of the 12 spies and refused to enter the Promised Land weren't simply afraid—they were cowards. God had promised them that they could take the land and had amply proved both His willingness and ability to back up His promises, yet at the first sign of trouble they wimped out and were ready to beat feet back to bondage in Egypt. And what did God do? He judged them harshly for their lack of faith.

The point is that if we have faith in God and place our trust in His Word and His promises, we have no reason to be cowards. We have no reason to run and hide when fear comes knocking. God gives us the ability to stand and do what He would have us do, no matter the circumstances.

But this is not the passage of Scripture I came to discuss. The verse that the Holy Spirit branded on my hindquarters recently comes from Paul's letter to the Philippians, and it was contemplating the reality that there was a reassuringly small yet disturbingly real chance that I could conceivably die in the next few months that caused it to leave its mark on said hindquarters.

The title of this article no doubt gave it away, but these are the words of the apostle Paul that blew my hair back recently:

I'm sure you've all experienced this before—you read a verse you've read a thousand times before and probably know by heart, and then you read it for the 1,001st time and...

KA-POW! Off comes the top of your head.

To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Wow. After I gathered up the scattered bits of my cerebrum, I backed up and took a fresh look at the context in which Paul was writing to get a clearer sense of what enabled the apostle to make such an astonishing statement.

When Paul wrote Philippians, he was in prison and awaiting trial, and he was chained to a guard 24 hours a day (the majority of commentators agree that it was in Rome, although there are other opinions). As he wrote to the believers in Philippi, he didn't know for certain whether he would ultimately be released or executed, although there is indication later in chapter 1 that he clearly sensed that God would allow him to be released for the benefit of the fledgling Church (which he was).

Yet in spite of Paul's grim circumstances, Philippians is the epistle of joy—joy springs from every paragraph. By my count, the Greek words for "joy" and "rejoice" are used a total of 14 times in 104 verses. It's joy in the service of Christ; joy in the selflessness of Christ; joy in the sufferings of Christ; joy in the sufficiency of Christ. It's joy joy joy—rejoice rejoice rejoice:

As I reviewed the opening verses of this marvelous little epistle that led up to the verse I quoted above (1:21), I decided to go searching for more. I discovered that there five nuggets neatly ensconced in the two verses that precede verse 21:

(And forgive me for using the same color-coded style I did last month. I just can't help myself.)

I believe a careful look at these two verses can help us understand more deeply what enabled Paul to make such an amazing statement in verse 21, and, more importantly, help us understand how we can press in and get a taste of what Paul was feasting on.

Because a lot of people out there are going to need a heapin' helpin' of it before this is all over.

1. He has confidence in God's principles.

Starting at the beginning of verse 19, Paul says "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation." Some translations say "deliverance," and the same Greek word (a form of soteria) can mean welfare, prosperity, preservation, safety, well-being, etc. Some of you might recognize this as the root in soteriology, or the study of the doctrine of salvation.

Notice that Paul doesn't bother to specify precisely what it is he knows will turn to his salvation. He just says "this." It could be the outcome of his trial. It could be whether he will be released from prison or not. It could be whether he is executed or not. It could be the totality of his circumstances all rolled into one, which is the way many commentators read it. In other words, all of this stuff I'm going through will turn out for my salvation.

He knows it will. It's a no-doubter. The question is, though, how does Paul know this? Which reminds me...another well-known verse I've seen tossed around lately is this:

Here Paul is expressing a similar sentiment, but what's the underlying principle? It is this, and it is found in numerous places in the Old Testament:

God delivers the righteous.

You see it throughout the book of Psalms; you see it played out in the book of Job. In fact, in verse 19 Paul was actually quoting the book of Job from the Septuagint (LXX), or the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The following phrase appears verbatim in both the original Greek of Philippians 1:19 and in Job 13:16 in the Septuagint:

This shall turn out for my salvation, my deliverance. Why? Because God delivers the righteous, that's why. In Paul's case, that "deliverance" could have come in the form of his execution, so let me ask you a question:

For every born-again believer,
is death not a form of deliverance?

You bet it is—in fact, it is our ultimate form of deliverance. What could be better, I ask you, than coming to the end of the pain and suffering of this life in this fallen, sin-sick world and entering an eternity of incomprehensible joy in a place the Lord has prepared for us? That's basically what was running through Paul's mind as he wrote this.

Now, please don't misunderstand me: I'm not trying to sound morbid here, or as if I had suddenly become fixated on death or something. This is God's Word, and this is one of God's principles: He delivers the righteous.

I almost feel compelled to tack on that disclaimer because most people in today's modern world are so accustomed to thinking of their "deliverance" or their "good" in terms of what their flesh desires that verse 21 almost sounds macabre. People quote verses like Romans 8:28 and think of their "good" in terms of getting out of a jam they've managed to get into, getting a raise or a promotion at work, finding Miss/Mr. Right, or generally having their real-world problems work out the way they invariably do in popular sitcoms.

Right now, possibly for the first time in their lives, many people are no doubt thinking of their "deliverance" or their "good" in terms of simply staying alive, or keeping the job they have, or finding ways to provide for their families now that they have lost their job or had their hours cut back. There is a black, "things may never be the same" bank of clouds rolling in over the world's horizon as I write this, and yes, it is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, thanks for asking (more on that in a future article).

The bottom line is that yes, God may and frequently does deliver us in the temporal sense; but He will ultimately deliver us in the eternal sense at some point, because God delivers the righteous. Period. You have His Word on it.

Our job is to live in such a way that no matter what happens to us, God is glorified, Christ is honored, the Word is preached, and the gospel is advanced.

That's literally all the apostle Paul cared about, and that's why he could be filled with joy in the distressing circumstances he found himself in.

So...how about us? Many are filled with fear and anxiety over the spreading coronavirus, and understandably so. This thing is nothing to sneeze at, pardon the expression. By the time this is over, there is a reasonable chance that at least one person you are marginally acquainted with will die.

We need to focus on the fact that no matter happens to us in this brief period of trouble and pain we call "life," we can rest on the rock of God's Word that He will deliver us. Sometimes that deliverance is of a temporal nature. But we should remind ourselves that He will deliver us to an eternity of unimaginable bliss in His presence, no matter what happens in our earthly lives.

2. He has confidence in the prayers of other believers.

Paul continues the verse with the words "...through your prayer," and here we have our next nugget: Paul knows that the prayers of the saints are powerful and effective.

As you read through Paul's epistles, it seems as if every time you turn around Paul is asking for the congregation he is addressing to pray for him. Paul coveted the prayers of believers, because he knew that God often works His will through the prayers of His people. As Jesus' brother James would later write:

It seems that many in the Church today have a tendency to toss this one off as one of those polite little Christianisms that pepper conversations after Sunday service. "Pray for me, sister." "We're praying for you, brother," and so on. And it's off to Denny's. Trust me, the only finger I'm pointing here is pointing in the mirror, because I'm just as guilty of this as anyone out there.

Many of us need to be reminded that (a) prayer is a real thing, and (b) it matters. I still remember the old cliché from my childhood: Prayer changes things. Well, it's like they say: Things become clichés for a reason.

We need to pray, now more than ever, and get it though our heads that our prayers make a difference. We need to pray...that God's will would be done. That His name would be glorified in the earth. That those last few precious souls would come to a saving faith in Christ in the wake of current events. That He would give our leaders, both secular and in the Church, wisdom and strength. That His hand of protection would be on our loved ones as they go about their daily lives.

Prayer should be second nature to us...a reflex. And we should strive to maintain a prayer-oriented mindset as we go about our day. In other words:

Leave your spiritual walkie-talkie turned on.

3. He has confidence in the provision of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells the believers in Philippi that he knows things will turn out for his deliverance through their prayers and "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." He has complete trust in the Holy Spirit to empower him in any way necessary.

What a statement! The Holy Spirit—who can also be referred to as the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God—will provide everything we need to overcome whatever God allows us to go through. He is our Helper, our Comforter, our Advocate. He is the one called alongside to give aid and counsel. The Holy Spirit is always ready provide us with the full resources of God, and every believer has the right to be afforded such provision whenever necessary.

By the way, this is the reason Paul could write what he wrote in Romans 8:28 about how "all things work together for good." I quoted it earlier, but let's take another look at it along with the two preceding verses:

The Spirit intercedes on our behalf, even when we have no idea how we should pray or what we should pray for. The Father (who searches the hearts) knows the mind of the Spirit as the Spirit does this, because the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us according to the Father's will.

Granted, trying to express this in words is a bit tricky...but the bottom line is that this is why Paul could state that we as believers are promised that "all things work together for good." Of course, that "good" may not be what was on our Christmas wish list.

The bad news is that we don't often know, in fact we seldom know, what is truly best for us in the long term.

The good news is that we don't have to—we can have confidence in the provision of the Holy Spirit. Paul did, and that was why he could face the very real possibility of being executed with nothing but pure joy.

Speaking of the Holy Spirit, this is also why we should note the following:

We can grieve the Holy Spirit. Note that grief is very personal—never forget that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not some cosmic force. Oh, and what are some ways we can grieve Him? Well, for starters, try reading the two verses that sandwich this one:

Corrupt communication, bitterness, anger, clamor, evil speaking, malice...

How are those for appetizers?

Along the same lines, I found a terrific passage in Pulpit Commentary that has some powerful, sobering remarks in regard to Ephesians 4:30 and grieving the Holy Spirit that I felt led to share with you:

Personally, I suggest reading this again. Slowly.

If there was ever a time in all of human history to not grieve the Holy Spirit, that time would be now.

And from now on.

4. He has confidence in the promises of Christ.

In verse 20, Paul begins by saying "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body," and there is an implied confidence here in promises made by Christ in the Gospels.

Paul has a bold confidence that he will not be ashamed in any way, no matter what ultimately happens to him. He is confident that if he is never ashamed of Christ, Christ will never be ashamed of Him:

Paul is confident that he will never be put to shame—not in the eyes of the world, not in the eyes of any Roman court, and not in the eyes of God. Christ will be exalted in his body, no matter what happens. If he lives, Christ will be exalted in his continued evangelistic efforts. If he dies, Christ will be exalted because the pagan Roman world will witness a man willing to die for his faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah sent by God, whom the Romans executed as a common criminal at the insistence of the Jews—and whom they had a bit of trouble keeping in the grave, not to put too fine a point on it.

This promise is also based on Old Testament promises:

The righteous shall never be put to shame.

For example:

Paul reiterated this principle to the believers in Rome when he quoted the prophet Isaiah:

Paul lived so that Christ would be exalted, and he knew that even in his death Christ would be exalted. Would that we had such an attitude: that Christ would be exalted in us in every way—even in death, which is our ultimate victory.

5. He has confidence in God's plan.

Speaking of death, that's how Paul ends verse 20: "...whether it be by life, or by death." Paul doesn't know what God's plan is—he doesn't know if he is going to live or die. But he has confidence in God's plan, and rejoices in it.

If God's plan is for him to live, he will continue preaching, the gospel will be advanced, and Christ will be proclaimed. Christ will be exalted in his person.

If God's plan is for him to die, his death will serve as a testimony to his unwavering faith in God and the gospel message he is preaching, and again Christ will be exalted in his person.

And since that is the only thing that mattered to him, the temporal result of his circumstances was incidental because he lived for Christ.

• He lived to know Christ.
• He lived to serve Christ.
• He lived to preach Christ.
• He lived to suffer for Christ.
• He lived to glorify Christ.

Christ wasn't the center of Paul's life—Christ was Paul's life. Paul identified completely with Christ in every aspect of life...and death.

What an incredible example Paul sets for believers throughout the entire Church Age! I still remember listening to preachers as a kid, telling people to make Christ the center of their lives. You might say that Paul raises the bar on that idea just a tad.

Of course, the majority of us will never get within a country mile of what Paul attained (I know I sure won't), but wow...what a goal to shoot for!

Let it go...

And that brings us back to verse 21:

I just can't get over this verse, no matter how many times I read it. What a sad, stark contrast to most people in today's modern world, for whom to live is worldly gain, and to die is to lose it all.

There is much that can be said about the current pandemic, but the eschatological grunt work can wait. Right now, all I want to do is share a few things from my heart.

Whatever else can be said about this pandemic, one thing is crystal clear, and the message to believers is this:

It's time to start loosening our grip on this world.

The frailty of the world and the fragility of its systems are being exposed for all to see, and the arguments are once again echoing throughout the ivory towers of the global elite:

If only we had a global government that could
orchestrate a coordinated, worldwide response,
we wouldn't be in the horrible mess we're in.

Boo hoo... I'm sure I will have more to say about this later, but it is clearly increasing the momentum in the push for a one-world government, which is precisely what God's Word tells us will exist during the Tribulation. And if the momentum is ramping up for things that will be true during the Tribulation, you know as well as I do what that means.

We're not just in the home stretch—we're closing in on the finish line.

As a result, we should be striving to get a couple of things into our heads and our hearts:

• Our faith shouldn't be in the governments of this world—it should be in God and His Word.

• Our security doesn't lie in a government stimulus package—it lies in the resurrected Christ.

• Our hope shouldn't be that things will just get back to normal—it should be that we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

As believers, we are in the world, but not of the world. That means the fate of a fallen, sin-infested world system should only be of marginal concern to us—it's passing away, and it's all firmly in the hands of the Righteous Judge. You know the verses as well as I do—it's time to start owning them:

When Paul was faced with an uncertain earthly fate, he was able to give us the supreme example of the kind of attitude we should have when it comes to life and death:

Far better? An understatement if ever there was one.

The point is that as we get closer to the Rapture, we should strive more than ever to internalize the principles encapsulated in these two verses. In other words, we need to do our utmost to do the following:

• Have greater confidence in God's principles.

God delivers the righteous, and we have the righteousness of His Son imputed to us through faith. And that means more than we can imagine.

• Have greater confidence in the prayers of other believers.

Prayer is powerful, and it does change things. We need to pray for one another like never before.

• Have greater confidence in the provision of the Holy Spirit.

We have the presence of the Holy Spirit sealed within us, and He knows what we need before we do. THe Holy Spirit makes the resources of a mighty God available to us in whatever circumstances He ordains for us to go through.

• Have greater confidence in the promises of Christ.

And they are many...including His promise to deliver us from the time and place of the wrath that is about to be poured out on a Christ-rejecting world (1 Thess. 1:10). And not to inject a bit of finger-wagging into this or anything, but I know some people (and I bet you do as well) who will be ashamed at His coming because they deliberately scrubbed such promises from the pages of God's Word and dismissed with scorn those who rightly divided Scripture and so believed them.

• Have greater confidence in God's plan.

And not just for us personally, but in general—and to a large degree that involves understanding what God's plan entails. That means we have to "study to show ourselves approved" and all that. We need to make a greater effort to understand what the Word tells us about God's plan, particularly for the last days (i.e. these days).

These nuggets characterized and permeated Paul's life, and they explain why he could make the stunning proclamation:

To live is Christ...

Forget the world—for many people in the Church today, it's more like:

• To live is Christ plus wealth.
• To live is Christ plus success.
• To live is Christ plus social activities and recognition.

In other words, it's "To live is Christ plus (fill in the blank)." And I'm pointing in the mirror again here:

So what's the deal, hoss? Is it "To live is Christ," or is it "To live is Christ plus my beloved little website"?

The more we are willing to pursue and incorporate these nuggets into our spiritual lives, the more we will be able to appreciate the first part of Paul's statement, as well as plumb the profound depths of the latter:

...and to die is gain.

The more we loosen our grip on a sin-sick world that is passing away and that is on the brink of entering into the horrifying gyrations of the Tribulation, the better we can understand and emulate Paul's sentiments.

And having an eternity in heaven to look forward to doesn't hurt either.

One last thing before I go:

Heavenly Father, you are a holy, just, loving God, and you alone are worthy of praise. I yearn for the day when you are glorified on earth, and to whatever extent I can glorify you and lift your name high, and exalt the name of your Son Jesus Christ—the name that is above every name, and proclaim the gospel of His salvation, to that extent my earthly life will not have been in vain. I pray that your sovereign will would be done as your plan unfolds in the world around us, establishing beyond any doubt the truth of your prophetic Word. I pray that you would use the current circumstances to bring people to a saving faith in the atonement your Son purchased for them with His blood, since many will have nowhere to turn except to the foot of the cross. I pray you would give all our leaders the strength and wisdom to do what is best for the people of our nation and for the world. But right now, I especially pray that you would bless and safeguard every single person reading these words, and keep your hedge of protection around them and those precious to them. I pray that you would provide for them according to their needs and keep them safe from the pestilence that pervades our world as we all seek to live lives that honor you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray, amen.

Greg Lauer — MAR '20

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