Philippians 1:19-26

A Look at Philippians 1:19-26

I’m fascinated by what I’m finding in a personal study on the book of Philippians! I went through 1:19-1:26 on 7/12/16 and wanted to share:

19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 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, whether it be by life, or by death.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: 24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.

Before verse 19, the apostle Paul is speaking of his imprisonment due to him preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and how many are talking about the gospel now, whether in favor of it or not, and he can rejoice that Christ is being preached regardless of how. In verse nineteen, he lays out that he knows he will be delivered from his current state and takes the next seven verses to explain why.

Verse twenty should be an eye opening reminder to all who trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross of Calvary. Paul knew of the hope he had in Christ, and because of this, nothing would ever bring him to shame. Nothing would hold him back because of the joy of the gospel. It was that blessed hope that gave him the confidence to preach boldly regardless of what happened to him in the flesh, leading him to pen the more well-known verse “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Do you know the blessed hope you have? Sometimes it’s important to go back and think of what makes a Christian a Christian. I’m going to borrow a few lines from Clarence Kramer which I think explains it well.

“Christians believe a lot of different things. Christians argue with each other about a lot of different things, but what makes them a Christian is the bottom line. And what is that bottom line? Paul says this is the gospel (In 1 Cor 15:1-4). The gospel is the bottom line. And though Christians may differ with each other on ever so many things, every Christian, every Christian is agreed on the gospel because if they’re not straight on the gospel, they’re not a Christian.”

Take another look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The gospel is that Jesus Christ died according to the scriptures. Nothing is special about dying because everyone dies. But the way Jesus died is incredible. He didn’t just die, He died to save us from our sins. Christ didn’t die because He got old. Christ didn’t die because He was simply a martyr. Christ’s purpose in dying was for our sins. And He did that in accordance with the scriptures.

So that means that His death was something that was predicted, prophesied, anticipated, planned, designed, and revealed beforehand by God through His prophets. There’s a lot involved in that simple statement: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

And then He was buried. That we don’t’ think of very often, let alone say very often. In fact, when we want to say what the gospel is, we will often say, “Christ died for our sins and rose again.” That’s the gospel. We don’t think of the burial. And, probably, His burial is not as important as His death and resurrection. But it’s very interesting, isn’t it, that Paul puts that in there?

Normally, men who were crucified on crosses were criminals. Crucifixion was capital punishment under the Roman Empire. And when men were taken down off of crosses after they were dead they were thrown on the dump and dogs would come and eat them and so forth. They were just thrown in the garbage. They were not buried. They were not buried with care by friends as Jesus was.

What would have happened if Jesus’ body had been treated like any other criminal, and when He was taken down from the cross by Roman soldiers was just thrown in the dump? We would never have any physical evidence at all of His resurrection. In fact, it could very well be questioned that He was actually dead. So His burial becomes very important. His burial says that He was really dead. The soldiers said it, but even His friends said it because they took His body down from the cross, they anointed his body and wrapped it up in grave clothes, and laid Him in a tomb. They were saying He really died by all this action.

Jesus was buried in a very careful way, in a place that everybody knew about, so we have physical evidence that He arose, because they went to the place where He was buried and the place was empty. The grave clothes were there, but He wasn’t there. Therefore, there is physical evidence that He arose from that grave. So His burial is important to the gospel.

And then the third great point of the gospel is He arose again. We are so familiar with that, and that is so common to us that we don’t really stop that often to think very deeply about the tremendous significance of the fact that He arose again from the dead. Now, that had never happened before, that a man arose from the dead never to die again. I believe that those whom Jesus raised, like Lazarus, died again. Elisha was involved in someone who was dead coming to life again, but they died again. But the Lord Jesus arose never to die again.

Now think that that same resurrected life is promised to the believer in the gospel of the grace of God. It is the blessed hope we have to look forward to as Christians, so we really ought to be able to join the apostle Paul in saying, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This gain is for Christ, not us, as is made clear in verse 20.

Now let’s look on to verse 22.The Greek here more literally says “But since to live in the flesh, this (the gain for Christ) is the result of my work, yet, what shall I choose, I do not declare.” Paul was completely surrendered to Christ and desired to glorify Him whether through life or death, according to His, not Paul’s, will. We see that desire in verse 23 where that Greek word is also translated “lust” or “concupiscence”. Being pressed between the two (life and death), Paul has that great desire for what? To depart, or in he Greek word means either to be loosed for departure, or return. Paul knew that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8) whether by death or rapture (1 Thess 4:17). That would mean being made like unto His body (Phil 3:21). What an awesome gift from the gospel!

But, being confident of this hope, Paul knows that it is more important that he stay in his earthly body for a time and says why in verses 24-26. His knowledge in the mystery of Christ (Eph 3:4) would edify these Philippian saints, and all of the saints of today, especially since he would pen a few more epistles before he would go to be with the Lord.

Some of us who go through many difficult trials can endure them because of the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4) and of the blessed hope we have in Christ. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Can you say that with confidence? I encourage you all to continue to develop your relationship with our Lord and Savior while we await His glorious appearing (Titus 2:13).