“To me to live is Christ.”—Phil. i. 21.

We have studied the subject of a peaceful death-bed and I hope we learned how to die. Let us now turn our thoughts to a peaceful life and endeavour to learn how to live. The two things are bound fast together.

Let us study what St. Paul meant when he said, “To me to live is Christ.” When there is any one object, for which, and in which, a person lives, it is not an uncommon thing to say it is his life. To a certain extent this explains the expression, “To me to live is Christ,” for the Lord Jesus Christ was the one absorbing object of St. Paul’s whole life. He thought of Him; he leaned on Him; he trusted in Him; he loved Him, and he lived for Him. He could not do without Him. If we look at the subject more in detail we find three things very clearly taught us in Scripture. Our life is hidden with Him, dependent on Him, and devoted to Him.

HIDDEN WITH HIM

In this stormy world we perpetually need a hiding-place, a shelter from the storm, and a covert from the blast. And so in the great prophecy of our Lord and Saviour revealed in Isaiah, we read of Him, “A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind.” [34a] But three centuries before Isaiah uttered that prophecy David had learnt to hide under His care, and said of Him, “Thou art my hiding-place.” [34b] The trouble from which he was hiding was deep conviction of sin. In consequence of his sin the hand of God had been heavy upon him day and night. But at length the guilt of his great sin had been blotted out, and as a forgiven man he could find shelter in the very God against whom he had transgressed. He could hide himself in the love of Him against whom he had sinned, and instead of finding the Lord’s hand heavy upon him, he could rejoice in the thought that there was a wall of praise around him. Now just in the same way our life is said to be hidden with Christ. “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” [34c] It is not exposed to the rude shocks of the outer world, but is hidden with Him. As He is unseen, so it is unseen; but as He is safe at the right hand of the Father, so is it safe, being laid up in perfect safety as a sure deposit in the everlasting fidelity of God. It is on the safety of this deposit that our whole life depends. If there were the slightest doubt about it we should be like ships drifting on the wide ocean without either chart, compass, or anchorage. But now we are safe because indissolubly bound up with the Saviour, and so completely is our life identified with Him that in the next verse He is described as “Christ our life.” He holds our life in His right hand. He is the source, the fountain, and the main spring of it all, so that we can well understand the words of St. John, “He that hath the Son hath life.” [34d]

DEPENDENT ON HIM

There is a struggle in the human heart for independence. The tendency of the day is to throw off all dependence, and, with it, all submission. “I will,” “I choose,” “I think,” “I determine,” “I am resolved,” is the self-sufficient language of these latter days. Now such an one can never say, “To me to live is Christ.” If he say anything it should be, “To me to live is self!” But see what a contrast there is in the life of the believer. Turn only to one passage in Galatians. There you find the “I” crucified; “I am crucified with Christ.” [35] But though the “I” is crucified, there is a life that remains for “Nevertheless I live.” And now what is the character of this abiding life? The latter part of the verse describes it, “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” These words tell of a life of habitual dependence. It all depends on the in-dwelling Saviour. His in-dwelling, that is life, that is the secret of everything. But how is this indwelling realized? How is it appropriated or experienced? It is clear that it cannot be known by the senses. We cannot see, hear, or handle Him. We must not look for anything material. Nor is it connected here with anything Sacramental; but it is described as the unspeakable blessing of an abiding faith, “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.”

We must not leave the passage without remarking two facts respecting that love.

(1) It was shown in propitiation. St. Paul did not merely say, “Who loved me,” but adds, “Who gave Himself for me.” There are many proofs of His love, but the crowning act of all is propitiation. It is the ransom paid in full that is the one hope for the captive, and the supreme evidence of the Redeemer’s love.

(2) The love was not merely for all, but according to that passage, “for me.” One individual is a mere unit in a crowd, no more than a grain of sand in an Egyptian desert; so that it seems a very easy thing for any one person to be lost in the multitude. But it is the office of God the Holy Ghost to apply the work wrought out for all to the special need of each one.

DEVOTED TO HIM

St. Paul could say, “To me to live is Christ,” for he could also say without hesitation that the one thought of his life was his Saviour’s glory. He lived for one object, and that one object is described as his life. Now we hear a great deal of consecration in these days, and we cannot hear too much, if only it is kept in its right place, for there is far too little consecration to God amongst us. Consecration is the surrender of the whole life to the Lord. It is the setting the Lord always before us in all that He calls us to do. We have been loved by Him, redeemed by Him, called by Him, and saved by Him; so now we are His. We belong to Him altogether. Our powers are no longer our own, but our Lord’s; our lives should be no longer occupied for ourselves, but for our Lord; so that in us may be carried out the purpose of redeeming love as described by St. Paul. “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” [37]

Shall we live for ourselves or for His glory? For the gratification of self, or for the happy, holy, sacred service of Him to whom we owe all that we have, and all that we hope for, our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?