“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
As followers of Christ, we often speak about the freedom we have in Christ. We know that we are free from the penalty of our sin as well as the guilt, shame, and condemnation our sin produced in our lives. (Rom.8:1). However, sometimes God’s people struggle to walk in that freedom. The struggle is not with the fact of our freedom but with the implementation of that freedom in everyday life.
The Word of God, however, explains to us the place we must come to if we are to actually experience that freedom. The place we must come to is the place where all that matters to us is Christ. Paul had come to that place. He had come to the place in his life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). From that moment on Christ was more than a creed or a religion. Christ was the resurrected, living, and glorified Lord! Paul would never be the same again!
Paul had come to the place where his past did not matter; his accomplishments did not matter; his position in society did not matter and his current circumstances did not matter (Phil. 3: 4-9). All that mattered to him was Christ. Christ was not just a part of his life. Christ had actually become his life. Because Paul fully understood that his life was in now Christ and that he now belonged to Christ, then nothing else really mattered. (Phil. 4:12).
If Christ wanted him to live, then he would live for Christ. And if Christ wanted him to die, then he would die for Christ. So, whether he lived or whether he died it did not matter. Either way, he belonged to Christ and would submit to whatever Christ wanted for his life.
When we come to that place (the place where all that matters is Christ), then there is absolutely nothing in this life that can touch us. We are His and He is ours and there is absolutely nothing in this world or the next that can separate us from Him! (Rom. 8: 36-39). That is the ultimate place of freedom!