What does it mean "to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21)?

But let us look at those sweet words: "For me to live Christ" (as the Greek puts it.) In Galatians 2 and Colossians 3 the Apostle tells us that Christ is his life: "Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20); "Christ, who is our life." (Col. 3:4). These Scriptures tell us of the inner Source and Power of the life the Apostle lived down here day by day. But in Philippians the Spirit is not speaking of "Christ our life", but rather of the day by day life that the Apostle lives; the outer life that others see. Not only had Paul Christ for his life, but for him to live was Christ. CHRIST was his only Object: CHRIST filled his vision: CHRIST was all in all to him. We see people of the world, and of one we say: "For him to live is wealth"; or of another: "For her to live is pleasure"; or again, "For such-an-one to live is study, or power, or some other pursuit." We know this means that these things are the absorbing interests in the lives of these people, to the comparative exclusion of all else. One thing they do. So, the Apostle also could say: "One thing I do." For Paul: to live, CHRIST.

We are apt to gaze in awe and wonder at the great apostle, feeling that such a statement, though true of him, is utterly beyond us, and not meant to apply to us at all. But you recall he tells us, not once or twice, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." (1 Cor. 11:1; 4:16; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:7, 9). The truth is that this is just the normal, proper life of a Christian: the life that every one of us should be living. You and I can truly say: "Christ is our life." If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. (Rom. 8:9). There is the power for me to live CHRIST.

We have seen the expectation and hope of the Apostle, that in nothing he should be ashamed, but in all boldness as always, now also Christ should be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death. His eye was thus on Christ, not for the beginning and the end only, but all the way. In the next verse, 21, he proceeds to vindicate the confidence of his heart. For, says he, "to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." To be spiritually minded, the Apostle tells us elsewhere, is life and peace. Here, speaking of his own daily practice, he shows he had but one aim, motive, object, and business — Christ. And this was said, not at the start of his career, in the overwhelming sense of the Saviour's grace to His proud and self-righteous persecutor, but after long years of unequalled toil, peril, affliction without and sorrows within the Church. "To me to live is Christ." No doubt, the principle was true from the beginning of his eventful life as a Christian. Still, as little do I doubt that it was emphatically and more than ever verified at the very time he was writing, a prisoner in the imperial city.

Present salvation is found, then, in the setting aside of self and the exaltation of Christ, and not only salvation but also that which is really life. When the Apostle said, "For me to live is Christ," he was not announcing a fact of Christian doctrine but speaking experimentally. It is indeed a fact that Christ is the life of His saints, but here we find that the fact was translated into the experience and practice of Paul, so that his life could be summed up in one word — CHRIST. Christ lived in Paul and through Paul. He was the Object of Paul's existence, and His character was manifested in him, though not yet, of course, in perfect measure.

(V. 21). This leads the Apostle to state that Christ was the one Object before him, the spring and motive of all that he did, so that he can say, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." In this verse the whole of our passage through this world is summed up by the contrasted words "to live" and "to die." With Paul it is so blessed to see that both living and dying were connected with Christ. If he lived, it was for Christ: if he died, it would mean that he would be with Christ. Having Christ as the one Object of his life sustained him through all the changing circumstances of time, and not only robbed death of all its terrors, but made death far better than living in a world from which Christ is absent.

This, indeed, is true Christian experience, possible for all believers; but, alas! we have to confess how little known in the measure in which the Apostle lived this life. How could those, in the Apostle's day, who were preaching Christ of contention (Phil. 1:15), seeking their own things (Phil. 2:21), or minding earthly things (Phil. 3:19), know anything of this true Christian experience? Let us challenge our own hearts as to how far we have been content with merely an occasional taste of such blessedness as living only for Christ. With Paul it was the constant experience of his soul. It was not only that Christ was his life, but he says, "For me to live is Christ." It is one thing to have Christ as our life — every believer can say this — but it is another thing to live the life that we have. Is Christ the one Object before us, that occupies us from day to day — the motive for all that we think and say and do?

So Paul in Philippians 1. He had Christ as the Motive for his living — his "raison d'etre." "… Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." This was at once the language of faith and affection. Only faith could see gain in death and only affection would lead to such devotion as to make Christ the supreme Object of his life. There was worked out practically in Paul the principle enunciated by his blessed Lord, for had He not said, "As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by (on account of) the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by (on account of) Me" (John 6:57). Just as David was the reason for Ittai's living; just as the Father was the reason for the Son's living, so Christ, feasted on with delight, is the reason for the believer's living.

To reach the end that we have here, we must begin aright. Christ as the governing principle of the life is the starting point in the Christian race, and the necessary condition of the final result: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It would be altogether wrong to suppose that every Christian can say this. It is open to him, surely; but as practical attainment, how far often from being reached! The result here is found only by the man to whom Christ is the governing principle of his life, the pattern of his way, and the Object for his heart. We must put these things together or we misplace the truth. It is a truth of experience; and experience alone can give it to us. Thus here, we have something more indeed than Christ being our life. It is rather the result which the epistle to the Galatians gives us, of Christ living in one. Christ our life is the necessary basis-truth; but Christ living in us is the actual power for the life, — Christ objectively present to the soul, governing it entirely: "To me to live is Christ;" and notice how this clears the sight as to all the way itself. The apostle is able to decide, as it were, whether he shall live or die, by these interests of Christ which govern him. He longs to depart and be with Christ, but he sees that his remaining in the flesh is necessary for Christ's interests, for the sake of His people, and thus he knows he shall remain and abide with them all. How thoroughly will a principle like this clear the sight as to all details! It is, in fact, the single eye; and if the eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. It is the practical result of the exhortation in Colossians, to do whatever we do, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus; that is, as representing Him upon the earth. Thus, then, we start in the epistle before us.

"To me to live is Christ." Let Christ be then the controlling object of our life in the power of the Spirit of God. There is no rest while the heart is divided between Christ and self, or the world, or our friends, or our brethren. The joys of God are entered into by the one that will make Christ, and Christ alone, his object.

Various theories are often submitted to the believer, in order to enable him the better to live a godly life. The apostle, in the treasury of christian longings referred to, gives the only true principle in this one word, "To me to live is Christ." (Phil. 1:21.) Christ is our life, and the believer desires to live Christ. God the Father gives the power to do this, by strengthening the affections, by His Spirit, in such a way that Christ may be their continual occupation. "Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." (Eph. 3:16-17.) In proportion as Christ abides in our hearts, by faith, our hearts are truly taken up with Him as their object; and thus Christ becomes the principle of christian living. If the many things of sight are filling our hearts, the world is the object we have in view; and when such is the case, the christian, at the best, speaking practically, is like a heavily burdened man trying to run a race.

And what is it that gave such a hope to one that owns himself the chief of sinners and less than the least of all saints? There was but one spring of power — even Christ. And, let me observe, it is not merely that Christ is my life. Sweet and wondrous word to say that Christ is our life; but the question is, how are we living? Are we living out that life which we have? Is this the life that is practically exercised? or are there mingled ways and mixed motives? Is there the struggle of the old with the appearance sometimes of the new? Does this content our hearts? Or is it, on the settled judgment of the old as altogether and only self and sin, that we are habitually manifesting Christ? Have we that one blessed person as the hope, motive, beginning, end, way, and power of all that occupies us from day to day? It was so with the apostle. May it be so with us! "To me," may each say truly, "to live is Christ."

The apostle could say, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." What was Paul about when he wrote that word? He felt that he was for Christ, and for Christ only, whether in life or in death. He could say, "I have only one object — Christ; and I have only one desire — that Christ should be magnified in my body." If, therefore, they had beheaded Paul, would he have lost anything? No! Christ would have been magnified in his body still. What sort of testimony was that in Caesar's court? A Roman knew how to face death as a display of courage, but to go forward to it in the thought that death was gain, because there was a Jesus who had been crucified between two thieves, who was the joy of a man's heart, a Roman could not have understood. Let me ask you — since you have known Christ, Christ's heart, Christ Himself your treasure, your life, Christ everything that God could give you — has your thought been, "To me to live is Christ, and to die gain"? It is our privilege while passing through this scene. And how it glorifies the meanest life if Christ is magnified in it! And how does it change death, if to die is gain, Christ being magnified in it! That is what a life of communion with God gives to a man. Ennobled by God most truly. The life of Christ flowing out through me, I am like the hands of a clock through which the life of the works within shows itself. Is that bondage? Is it legality for Christ to say, "Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, and I expect you to show it"? If this is bondage, would to God there were ten thousand times more of it. G. V. W.