Philippians 1:21

‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'

These words in context have two parallel meanings arising out of the context. Unquestionably they include the thought that for Paul and for all true Christians the whole purpose of life is to be that they will be so filled with Christ that they  are  Christ in the world (1 Corinthians 12:12), both by life and message, letting Christ live through them in accordance with 1 Corinthians 12:12; John 14:23; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:16; John 15:1. They are to ‘live Christ'. As he says in Galatians 2:20, ‘I no longer live but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me'. And that this actually means ‘Christ living in me' is confirmed in John 14:23, where we read, ‘if a man love me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and  we  will come to him and make our dwelling with him'. The plural ‘we' is against the idea that this simply means that they are to receive the Holy Spirit. They are in fact to receive all the fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is why Paul, so possessed with the thought, could say, ‘I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord' (Philippians 3:8).

So the thought behind ‘to me to live is Christ' is that we be so one with Christ that we do only His will, and continually have ‘the mind of Christ' (1 Corinthians 2:16; compare Philippians 2:5). But he recognised that on earth this would always be marred by the possible interference of our fleshly natures. Thus to die could only be gain, because then he would be united with Him with all fleshliness done away. This is expanded on in Philippians 3:10, where the final goal of being ‘involved with the crucified and risen Christ' is ‘the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 3:14), indicating the time when ‘we will be truly like Him for we will see Him as He is' (1 John 3:2). We will thus glorify Christ all the more. This meaning is confirmed by Philippians 1:22. Nor must we overlook the startling nature of his statement, ‘to die is gain'. To most Greeks death could only signify loss. There was nothing to hope for. Thus this proud declaration was a resounding confirmation of the glory of the Gospel, which could only cause the hearts of his hearers to rejoice at the thought that Christ really had taken away the fear of death (compare Hebrews 2:15). Death was no longer an enemy. It had been vanquished. For the Christian to die was gain.

But in view of what lies before it in the previous verses, the thought is surely also included in Paul's mind that for the true Christian the purpose of living is not only to ‘live Christ' but also to glorify Christ, by witness, testimony and life (Philippians 1:13). That is, we are not only to ‘live Christ' but are also to continually ‘glorify Christ'. And the result is to be that our death by whatever means will therefore glorify Christ even more, for it will be a vindication of the salvation that He has wrought for us and of the satisfactory nature of the ransom that He paid (Mark 10:45). It will result in our being taken into the presence of Christ, thus glorifying Him to the uttermost as it reveals how He has triumphantly completed His saving work in us (Philippians 3:21). And that was what Paul wanted more than anything else, to glorify Christ in both his life and his death, and all the more so if he suffered a martyr's death.

Certainly we may also include in it the idea that we gain both in life and in death, firstly by having Christ in this life as the One Who is our ultimate desire, and secondly by coming to so experience Him through death that we enjoy even more of Him. But that is a by-product (although undoubtedly a glorious one) of our main desire which should be the more to fulfil all His will as he lives through us, and to glorify Him both in life and in death as we enter the glory that lies before us.