Our hope as we anticipate old age or sickness is not mainly a hope for healing (though God can and does decide to physically heal), but it’s a superior hope: a hope that this is the very verb, the very action, the very sovereign doing of God, which leads us home. “To depart and be with Christ is far better,” as Paul said. So, “to die”—to go through that fallen, sorrow-stricken moment of dying—is gain because it brings us that departure to that much better location. 

“To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 a favorite verse because of it’s beauty and clarity. If we live, we live for Christ. If we die, it’s gain, for we get to be with Christ—as Paul says two verses later, “My desire it to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

Yet what is often overlooked is how Paul particularly chose to pen the verse. He’s in prison, anticipating a trial where he might be sentenced to death. He knows that soon he might not only be dead, but die.

Which is why he said what he said. He did not write, “To live is Christ, and death is gain” or “to be dead is gain.” He could’ve, but he didn’t. He instead wrote, “to die is gain.”

Read More