To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain -Archbishop Benson Idahosa

 

For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s. (Rom 14:7-8)

Paul’s life after his conversion and commissioning could be could be summarized in his declaration above. When he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus, his first question was “Who art thou Lord?” (Acts 9:5) and on learning the identity of the Lord, his next question charted the goal for the remaining part of his life on earth.

“Lord, what will thou have me do?” (Acts 9:6). The life and ministry of Paul was a veritable determination to doggedly live according to the dictates of the Lord, and to carry out His will and commandment. Today it is expedient that you ask the same question that Paul asked “Lord what would you have me do? Lord I request that you reveal to me the blue print for my life. What have you Lord specifically designed me for? At the end of your earthly life, and you stand before God, can you say like Paul, “I have finished my course”? (2 Tim. 4:7).

You battle everyday with the usual vicissitudes of life; you are engaged in an unending battle with the forces of darkness which seek to sift you like wheat and to cast you into the bottomless valley of gloom and spiritual nothingness, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities…” Eph 6:12. But can you like Paul say at the end of earthly existence “I have fought a good fight?

To fight a good fight, you must fight battles for which you were enlisted, else you may discover that you have fought another man’s battle and left your territory unprotected. You may even discover that you have been fighting against God and your destiny because you did not ask God the simple question “Lord what wilt thou have me to do?”

If Paul needed a revelation of his destiny and what he was being called to accomplish, so do you. Paul had fought; he had battled and labored for a course which he believed was God-given until the day he met the Lord on the Damascus road. This encounter with the Almighty changed Paul and set him on the course which the Lord God has designed. It is only as you walk, run, or fly on this God given course that you can lay claim to a good fight and race. Only then will you be living for the Lord.

Paul was not only persuaded that living for the lord was the whole essence of earthly existence, he lived his remaining life by this belief, and spent his life persuading others to do the same; he actually made a ministry out of this revelation.

Hear his admonition to the Christians in Rome: “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service? (Rom.12:1). Paul’s speech here was not that of a mighty leader garbed with the invisible robe of the mighty modern-day apostles but that of a pleading bond-servant as to a master in his attempt to persuade men to live by his discovered essence of life. You should not live to yourself or serve yourself, because in the course of time you may discover that you have served a fool.

 

On the death of Christ, the Apostles Paul had this to tell the Corinthians: “And he died for all, so that all those who live might no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him who died and was raised again for their sake,” (2 Cor. 5:15 The Amplified Bible).

Of himself, life and ministry, he had the following to tell the Galatians: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I liver; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,” (Gal. 2:20).

Salvation is predicated on great gratitude and total love for and commitment to a loving God who willingly gave His life to save men from a horrible death in other to give unto them eternal life.

The true believer possesses and demonstrates an all-consuming love and devotion to God to the point where nothing else is of consequence. Paul epitomized this when he declared: “for to me to live is Christ”. If we can come to the point where the totalities of our lives are devoted to the law and service of Christ, then we like Paul can declare “… and to die is gain”

 

DEATH IS GAIN

 Now repeat this to yourself “Death is gain!” To die is gain. Gain? Yes of course. Who is ever afraid to make gain? I am yet to meet anyone who hated gain. Do you hate gain? The Bible says that to die is gain!

I have seen many who had bowed their heads at the news of the death of a loved one. Oh God! He died? How could you have allowed this to happen? But people die every day. Statistics show that an average of one person die every four minutes.

On your way to a particular destination, you had probably seen the wreck of motor-vehicles that had ended up in the ditch or at the side of the road because of fatal accidents. Mangled bodies must have been extracted from the wreckage. But because those dead were not known or close to you, you did not give more than a flitting thought to the accident.

Sometimes, you had even rejoiced at the death of a perceived enemy or a notorious criminal; and you had breathed a sigh of relief and involuntarily murmured a Thank You Jesus. But when it involves a person known to you, you become despondent. However, if you and the deceased were expecting it, it would have been a case of another ambassador reporting to headquarters.

As for me, it is an expectation and a hope that I look forward to. When it comes, now or later, death shall be gain.