To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain

by Matt Chandler

If you have a tendency to think that there’s no way you can chase Jesus like this, know Jesus like this, walk with Jesus like this, experience Jesus like this because you’ve done some awful thing or because you have some shady past or because you still struggle with sin, this text is calling you a liar. It refutes all of that kind of thinking, because it’s saying clearly that God rescues the dirty to the praise of His glorious grace. It’s the same gracious dynamic in place as when we saw God saying to the little harp-playing shepherd boy David, “You’re Mine.” To David the murderous adulterer: “You’re Mine.” To Moses the unqualified, stuttering murderer: “You’re Mine.” To Paul the murderer: “You’re Mine.” And in response, Paul becomes the man driven to basically say, “Surely my best efforts are garbage compared to this righteousness given to me totally of grace and promised to me before the beginning of time!” (Phil. 3:8, author’s translation).