To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain

by Matt Chandler

There is an openness implied in that line: “Let each of you look not only to his own ______________.”

So what is a life of humility based on? A life of humility is based on the cross of Jesus Christ, which tells us that Jesus could have chosen to do none of it but decided to endure all of it.

It is an act of grace.

There are some in the church who are very good at presenting the appearance of humility and sacrifice, all for selfish, vainglorious reasons. They enjoy their reputations as servants more than they enjoy the gospel. So we must remember the prayer of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The pursuit of the cross is ultimately a pursuit of Christ.

In your world, do people have souls?

Do you approach your community of faith with a heart attitude that says, “How can I serve? How can I sacrifice?”

Instead, we take up our crosses. And in that moment we shine like stars in a crooked and perverse generation.

Instead, I’ve always been drawn by the grace of God, to a passionate pleading for more of God, to those who echo the groaning of David in Psalm 63:

This book certainly captures our vacillating between highs and lows, the entire human experience of joy and pain, victory and suffering, and, throughout it all, how God is sovereign over and loving to both the exulting soul and the depressed one.

I am fearful that, in general, modern evangelicalism has become uncomfortable with this sense of all-consuming passion for God.

But it’s not kitschy, and it’s not cute. David is in pain.

Is this desperation something that typifies the church today?

They are the ones who want to mark their faith in Christ by what they do or do not do.

If you pay attention to that which stirs your affections for Jesus and His gospel, you will also be able to identify that which robs your affections for Him.

No, in fact, the morally neutral temptations are far more apt to rob me of my affections for Jesus Christ, because God’s grown me to the place where those “big sins” aren’t things that appeal to me anymore.

Those are some things that rob my affections. What moves you? And what dampens your fervor for Christ?

we will answer those questions in ways that push us further into the gospel, not further into legalism.

Isn’t it nice when someone’s love for you is not contingent upon what you do? Such is the love of God.

We beat sin only by pressing into Jesus, knowing Him, and chasing Him.

I’ve found that the longer someone has been in church, the more difficult believing this truth becomes.

Because the Bible is primarily about God’s grace, not about human cleanliness.

In other words, don’t lie to yourself about you.

A holy discontentment is good because it keeps driving us into Christ for rest in Him and the blessing of Him.

Refusing to forget these things, in the end, this is just a subtle form of pride.

“Grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning.”

Where there’s not striving, toil, or pursuit of holiness, power encounters are actually held cheaply.

It’s our responsibility to find people we can disciple, and it’s our responsibility to be discipled.

Don’t think you have to find some perfect Christian to follow. Don’t overlook the “average” Christians around you who may be further along in some areas than you are.

I think we continue to define and redefine ourselves on a continual basis. We continue to define ourselves through our jobs and where our jobs fall on the socioeconomic scale. We continue to define ourselves by how we’re made up physically and emotionally. We continue to define ourselves in these really limited, finite ways.

If we’re not careful, we will define ourselves by the houses we live in or by dozens of other external, temporary things. For some people, their entire identity and sense of self-worth are built around their house, their job, their children, their ability to dress in a certain way, or their fitness level. In fact, most fitness regimens have everything to do with vanity and very little to do with actual health. That’s why you get the guy doing bicep curls and bench-pressing every day in the gym. It’s not like he still needs to go wrestle his dinner to the ground. He just wants to look good at the pool. So it’s not really about being in shape; it’s about identity.

Christian, remember your citizenship. Remember who you are.

That is where our heart ought to be.

Let us wait for that day, expectantly and eagerly. Let us fix our eyes on heaven, where our citizenship is held securely, where we are presently united to Christ in spirit. Only let us hold true to what we have already attained. And we will yet attain it.

Thank God that He tells us. He doesn’t leave us hanging.

This is why the mature Christian is reasonable.

The God of the Bible is not an ambulance driver who shows up after the wreck and hops out and thinks, Okay, let’s do some triage here. The God of the Bible does not show up after the accident and try to fix it. That’s not what He does. He’s there. He knows.

God is not glorified when you act happy about horrific things. He’s glorified when, in the deepest possible pain you experience, you still find a way to say, “I trust You. Help me, because my heart is failing in my chest. Help me! My son is Yours. His soul is Yours. His life is Yours. You loaned him to me for Your good to begin with. And I know I’m supposed to hold him loosely, and if you take him home, he’s Yours … but I’d like to keep him.”

Most of us fall into sin because we buy into a lie and walk according to that lie instead of being able to readily identify, “That’s not true. This is true.”

I go back to that fantasy: me at eighty, drinking a strong cup of coffee on the back porch, talking with my wife about the salvation of our grandchildren.

Very few of us actually think that the worst will happen to us.

Can we agree that in Christ we have no need for anything?

Why is it so important for us to understand contentment as we come to the end of our walk through Paul’s letter to the Philippians? We live in a world where there is more to do than there has ever been in the history of mankind. There are more things to see, more places to go, and easier means to get there. We live in the most entertained world that humanity has ever experienced, and yet most of us are bored out of our minds and frustrated.

Contentment is not natural.

We won’t be fully satisfied when we get what we want. Because God loves us and wants us to find our satisfaction in him, he won’t allow us to be satisfied. To believe that we’ll finally be happy when we get what we want is a lie.3

If the gospel can do that, it can certainly stir up your affections for Him. Certainly it can captivate your mind and speak into your heart. If the gospel can transform the world and holds in its powerful reach the promise of eternal life, certainly it can transform you this very day, and day by day, until that ultimate day you join with the saints to receive the supply of all your needs according to God’s riches in glory with Christ Jesus.