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Introduction
Most people think we’re nuts.
Our lives appear illogical and irrational to an onlooking world.
In 2014, Dr. Kent Brantley traveled to Liberia with Samaritan’s Purse to serve in the heart of the lethal Ebola outbreak.
Dr. Brantley left behind children, a wife, and a prosperous career to serve the ‘least of these.’
When Dr. Brantley contracted Ebola himself, Ann Coulter called him ‘idiotic.’
She asked, “Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa?
The very first risk factor listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola - an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate - is: ‘Travel to Africa.’”
In other words, she viewed Dr. Brantly, not as heroic, not as inspiring, not as sacrificial, but as foolish.
His decision to not accept the deaths of Africans was viewed as illogical and irresponsible.
And, this is a picture for what it means to live for Christ in a devolving world.
Christians live in a tension that cannot be understood apart from Christ.
It’s the tension of living between two worlds.
Our Treasure is not here.
Our home is not here.
Our hope is not here.
But, for now, we live here, and we live here with a mission.
So, we’re caught between two worlds, and it’s this reality that shapes the decisions that we make and the tone that we take and the lives that we live.
This morning, I want us to examine the logic of this life so that we can see The Logic of the Gospel-centered Life:(Headline).
God’s Word
Read
“Want” Christ Only.
v. 21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
The first layer of logic to understand the joy behind the gospel-centered life is that Gospel-centered lives “Want” Christ only.
We catch Paul here in a moment of contemplation.
Paul has just said in verse 20 that he is going to magnify Christ ‘whether by life or by death.’
And now, he takes a bit of an aside to contemplate those two options, to contemplate how he will magnify Christ if he lives and how he will magnify Christ if he dies.
So, when he says, ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,’ what we should understand is that Paul is applying the gospel to two different scenarios.
He’s showing how he will glorify Christ and apply the gospel if he is freed from prison and lives, and he is showing how will glorify Christ and apply the gospel if they take him to the chopping block and cut off his head.
Both scenarios are best understood in the context of gains and losses.
We know exactly what is meant by ‘For to me to live is Christ’ because of what it says in chapter 3 verses 7-8: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count the as rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
So, if Paul is released and lives, he will live like everything is loss compared to Christ.
Christ is all that he wants, and he doesn’t need comfort or marriage or a satisfying career or a healthy retirement or to make the varsity.
He only needs Christ.
Every other treasure, every other attraction, every other prize that earth can offer him are losses when they are compared to the prize of Christ himself.
Even Losses are Gains
“to die is gain” He views the other scenario through the very same lens.
Imagine the courage that it took to write these words, knowing just realistic this scenario was.
If he lives, he will live like Jesus is the only prize he really wants, but if they kill him, if they behead him, if he dies, he will get that prize in full.
If he’s released, he will live in Christ and with Christ and for Christ against the grain and his own sin nature, but if he’s executed, he will live with Christ fully and in Christ’s presence totally.
Paul’s death would not be the loss of life, it would be the gaining of a fuller life.
In Christ, what appears to be a “loss” is ultimately “gain”.
Living means that I have to count losses in comparison to the gain of Christ.
Living means that there’s pain and hardship in not having enough and in being rejected and in facing sickness, but it’s still a net gain.
In fact, whatever costs associated with living for Christ will be returned to us as treasure in eternity.
And in dying, there are no losses.
In dying, the losses melt away and the hardships are impossible to find and the sicknesses are no more.
In dying, there is only gain, that is, there is only Christ and his presence eternally.
All Paul wants is Christ, and even if they kill him, all Paul will have is Christ.
It’s gain!
How Do You Measure Losses and Gains?
APPLICATION: The question that is facing Paul in that Roman prison is the same question that faces every one of us that bear Christ’s name.
It’s a question to apply to every scenario and circumstance that we find ourselves in: How do you measure losses and gains?
If it comes down to magnifying Christ and being alone or having a date, how will you measure what is loss and what is gain?
If you have to choose between the ethics of Christ and the advancement of a career, how will you measure what is loss and what is gain?
Is Christ all that you really want so that whatever and whoever falls away as you pursue him can still be measured as gain so long as you have Christ?
Christ is “magnified” in us when He is “contentment” enough for us.
Day in and day out, the decisions that you make and the prizes that you chase are revealing what you really want.
So, how will you measure losses and gains?
“Receive” What You Want.
Christ is magnified in us when He is contentment enough for us.
v. 22b-23 “Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
I am hard pressed between the two.”
The first layer of logic to making sense of the gospel-centered life is understanding that the gospel-centered life only wants Christ.
But, that’s not enough to understand the joy of a life that appears so difficult, so sacrificial, so self-denying.
So, it’s not just that you want Christ only, but, next, you “Receive” what you want.
All you want is Christ, and you are already in Christ now and will be with Christ eternally.
If joy is having what you want and all you want is Christ, your joy is secure because Christ is yours and you are Christ’s!
The Christian life is “freedom” because all you want is Christ and you have him “forever”.
Think of how this looks in Paul’s life here.
He contemplates his situation by playing out hypotheticals.
He asks, “Which one would I choose?
Which would would I prefer?
Would I prefer to go and be with Christ and have only gain?
Or, would I prefer to remain with you and build you up and help you to glory in Christ?” It’s important that you recognize here that Paul is not suicidal here.
He’s posing to himself a hypothetical question that he already understands, as we can see when he says “Convinced of this” in verse 25, that God’s sovereign providence will determine this for him.
Rather, he is choosing between two near identical desires.
He desires to be with Christ for that is ultimate and complete freedom.
But, he also desires to help them and to aid them in their passion for Christ and to reach more.
You can see how strongly he feels about each option when he says, “I am hard pressed between the two.”
It’s a phrase that paints a picture like a vice closing in on both sides or like an enemy that has you surrounded and is pressuring your for surrender from every side.
It’s an equal pressure.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, that doesn’t sound very good to be hemmed up from every side.”
But, that’s to miss Paul’s point.
Paul’s point is that he only has two options, and they’re both good options.
Option A: They execute him, and He gains all of Christ.
That’s really easiest for him.
Option B: They release him, and he brings glory to Christ by serving the Philippians.
More people will progress and have joy if that happens.
Paul only has good options.
Your Gains Are Secure
And, that’s freedom, isn’t it?
“Freedom” is having only “good” options.
We are torn between two worlds.
But, we can have Christ in both.
If we’re here, we live through Christ and for Christ.
If we die, we live with Christ in the full presence of Christ.
This is how Christians are able to fly into the middle of Ebola-ridden Liberia apart from their families and not be fools.
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