03 To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain (Philippians 1:12-26)

Speaker: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta. Today we're looking at Philippians chapter one, verses twelve through twenty-six. This is the third talk in our series on the book of Philippians. You can find lecture notes and links related to today's talk by going to our website, wednesdayintheword.com slash Philippians 3. Thanks so much for listening. We're looking at Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 26 today, and I'd like to start by reviewing what we've covered so far. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter while he was under house arrest in Rome, probably around 60 to 62 AD. The Philippian Church has generously sent him financial support while he's sitting in house arrest waiting to see whether he will be released or executed. And so he's writing this letter back to them to thank them for their gift and also to send them news of his circumstances. Paul has three purposes in writing this letter. The first is to express his joy that their faith has led them to support him financially. The second is to encourage them to live lives of obedient, persevering faith, and the third is to report to them on the circumstances of his imprisonment. So far in verses one through eleven, we've seen the first two purposes. He's expressed his gratitude for their faith that led them to support him financially, and he's told them that he's praying for their spiritual health. He prayed that they would have a genuine faith that manifests itself in wisdom, which leads them to love one another, and he's prayed that they would persevere in that faith until the end. Now in verse twelve he's going to turn to his own circumstances and talk about his current imprisonment and what that means. So Paul was a traveling evangelist, and as he traveled, he either started new churches or visited ones that he has already started. His entire mission in life was to preach the gospel and bring people to faith. That's his goal. He wants people to understand and embrace the gospel, but now he's under arrest and he's stuck. He can't travel. During this first Roman imprisonment, Paul is under house arrest. He's staying in his own rented quarters, but he is bound with a chain to a Roman guard, and that guard is always with him. He can't leave the house, but people can visit him. Part of his concern then is what happens to his ministry while he's incarcerated. He can't travel, he can't preach publicly, he's stuck in a house with a guard while he waits for his trial. He's concerned about what's happening to the gospel in the meantime, and he expects the Philippians are probably concerned too, and so that's the first issue he addresses. And he says his imprisonment, contrary to what you might expect, has led to the advancement of the gospel, and he gives us two ways that that's true. We'll see those in chapter one verses twelve through thirteen. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. So the Imperial Guard or the Praetorian Guard was an elite group of soldiers who were tasked with guarding the Emperor of Rome, and they were an important political force in Rome. If you wanted to keep power, you had to be on good terms with the Praetorian Guard. Presumably the various soldiers who were rotating through this duty of guarding Paul were hearing the gospel, because at least one of them was always with him. And I suspect when he was alone with them he was probably talking to them, and when anyone visited him, his current guard would overhear whatever Paul discussed with his visitors, which you can imagine included the gospel. When Paul dictates letters like this one, the guard would hear the contents of the letter. So as they were rotating through this duty of guarding Paul, they were hearing Paul preach, they were hearing the letters he was writing, and they were talking to each other about it. So his story was getting around. Without going anywhere, Paul spreading the gospel to a group of people he might not otherwise have had any content with, and so the gospel is progressing through the guards that were chained to Paul. The second way the gospel was advancing is in 114. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Paul's not going anywhere, he's stuck in the house, he can't go out and encourage anyone or meet anyone new, and other believers are having to deal with the consequences of Paul's absence. They are forced to learn to rely on Paul less and to rely on them on God more. So Paul's absence is inspiring them to step out and take on more leadership and more roles of proclaiming the gospel for themselves. Before they might have been hesitant to take such an active role, or they might have been tempted to say, well, we'll just wait until Paul comes and he can handle that or he can talk to those people. But now he's in prison, they don't know how long he's going to be there, and so they're relying on God and have stepped up to the plate, and they have this new courage to take on a more active teaching and evangelism role. Paul being out of the picture then has had two desirable results. The Praetorian Guard or the Imperial Guard, a group he might not otherwise have reached, is hearing the gospel, and other leaders have stepped up to fill in the gap. But now he adds to the picture. Look at chapter one verses fifteen through eighteen. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel, the former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, either in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. Before we talk about this situation, let's ask what does he mean by this phrase in one sixteen, I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. He could be referring to his ministry in general, or he could be referring to his arrest in particular. So either he means God's appointed him to be an apostle who goes out in the world and defends the gospel, or he could mean God has put me here in prison so that he can defend the gospel before the authorities because of my imprisonment and arrest. Given the context, I lean toward the second. I think he's saying, I, Paul, am put here in prison for the defense of the gospel, as evidenced by the way the gospel was advancing through the guard during my imprisonment, and also by the fact that others are stepping up and taking responsibility. But notice there are two kinds of people inspired by Paul's absence. First, there are those who love Paul, they know his situation, they want to see his ministry continue, and they want to see the gospel proclaimed. They know he's restrained, he can't leave his house, so they are stepping up and getting the word out. Others are acting out of envy and selfish ambition. Apparently, they see themselves as in some kind of competition with Paul. Now that Paul's out of the way, they see they have an opportunity, they can step up and make a name for themselves. They can be the leaders, the one everyone looks to and respects, and their goal is to feed this kind of selfish ambition. And a side effect of that, I think, is that it would grieve Paul as their name and reputation increases while his declines. But Paul doesn't think like them. He doesn't care about his own name or his own reputation or his own ambitions. I suspect if they were in his shoes they'd be frustrated and jealous and they would they assume Paul must be feeling the same way. But Paul isn't interested in personal power. He wants the gospel to be proclaimed, even if they're proclaiming it for selfish reasons. The result is people still hear the gospel. one hundred eighteen is his transition to his this next thought. What then? So here's the impact of his imprisonment on others. The gospel's being proclaimed, and in that he rejoices. And then he says, Furthermore, I'm going to keep rejoicing, which transitions into his second point. His future is uncertain. As he writes this letter, it is unclear whether he will live or he will die. Either he's going to be released from his house arrest, or he might be found guilty and executed. And that future is what he goes on to talk about. And you can imagine this would be another question that his friends, the Philippians, would be most interested in knowing, how he would answer it. So let's look at nineteen through twenty six. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. So in one nineteen he says, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance. What kind of deliverance is he talking about? This word for deliverance is usually translated salvation, and he could mean however my trial turns out, whether I live or die, I know that ultimately I will obtain salvation and inherit eternal life. That's a possibility. However, the word doesn't always refer to eternal salvation. It can be used to refer to salvation of any kind or a rescue from any situation. So he could be saying, Even though I'm currently in chains, I know that soon I will be found innocent and delivered from this prison. Or there's even a third option, and that is whatever happens I will be delivered. I will be delivered either by being found innocent and released from jail, or I will be delivered by gaining eternal life. Either way I'm delivered. So we have these three options. One, I know that one day I will find eternal salvation. Two, I know that I will be found innocent in the coming trial. Or three, I know that I will find deliverance either by being set free or by dying. Well, how are we to decide between those three? Context. Context is key. To decide between these options, we look for clues in what he says right before or right after this phrase to see if that tips the scale to one of the options. Well look at how he concludes this section. In 125, he says he believes that he's not going to be executed at this time and that he's going to be set free. That's a restatement of our second option. I think I will be found innocent in the coming trial. In 119, he says through your prayers he would find this deliverance. So what would the Philippians be praying for? They could be praying for Paul's eternal salvation. That's possible, but not very likely. I suspect few people would doubt the sincerity of Paul's faith, such that they would pray for his salvation, especially the Philippian church because they've already seen him handle one imprisonment in their own hometown. They would have confidence that this latest imprisonment is not going to seriously undermine his faith. So that would rule out option number one. Most likely, they're praying that he would be freed from his imprisonment and that they will see him again, which would also support option number two. But then we have this middle section, to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. This is one of the most often quoted verses in the New Testament, and we want to be careful that we understand it in context. So here's how I understand his flow of thought through this section. He says he believes he will be released from prison, but he doesn't want to be misunderstood. He doesn't want them to think something like, Well, you know, I'm such an important guy that God would never let me be executed. So to avoid being misunderstood, he steps back to make a more general statement. Yes, I, Paul, am confident in this particular situation that I will be found innocent, but you realize that Christ will be exalted either way. He's not required to deliver me at this time. He can do whatever he wants. I'm confident that whatever happens, Christ will be exalted, and I'm okay with that. But I think it would be better for you if I hang around a bit longer and I think that's what God is going to do. So it's in that context, he says, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. Paul sees his continued existence in this world as an opportunity to encourage the Philippians through the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that phrase to live it is Christ at least means if I continue to live in this earthly body, it's an opportunity to serve Christ by serving you, his people. That's the focus of the context in which he makes this statement. If I live, I can continue my ministry of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. But he's torn. On the one hand, for his own sake, he can confidently face his own execution, knowing that he's going to enter the kingdom of God. And that's something he strongly desires. But on the other hand, for the Philippians' sake, he wants to keep living in order that he might see them again and might persuade more people to believe the gospel. That's the conflict in which he says to live is Christ, to die is gain. And I think he means so long as I'm alive, I can continue to persuade others to believe the truth about Christ, but if I die, I will receive my inheritance. So here's how I would paraphrase that section, and I will put a link to this in the lecture notes, which you can find at wednesdayintheword.com slash Philippians three. I rejoice that the gospel is advancing in spite of my chains, and I will continue rejoicing because I know that soon I will be freed from these change. Your prayers for my release will be heard and the Spirit of Christ will work on my behalf. Do I say this because I think God would never let me be executed? Not at all. I believe I will be freed because I believe that I will never be ashamed that I followed Christ and proclaimed his message. That may seem an odd thing to say for someone who has been shamefully imprisoned, but I will continue to proclaim the gospel and whatever happens to my body will not be shameful, but will continue to bring exaltation to Christ. If I live on, this will exalt Christ. If I am executed, this will exalt Christ. As far as I'm concerned, either option is desirable. If I live on, this will be an opportunity to continue to serve Christ by serving his people. If I'm executed, this will be to my benefit as I will be with Christ sooner. If God were to leave the choice to me which would I choose? It would be so much better for me personally to depart and be with Christ, but I know that it would be better for you if I remain. Since it's better for you that I stay, I think God will let me live a while longer so that I may return to you again and encourage you and help your faith mature and bring you joy. So to summarize, he's speaking to the Philippians about his current circumstances. They are naturally concerned about how he's doing, what's happening to his ministry while he's under house arrest, and how he's handling his uncertain future. They're likely very worried that he might be executed and they might never see each other again. So he says his imprisonment is advancing the gospel in two ways. First, because he's changed to a Roman guard, the gospel is advancing throughout that guard, and that's a group of people he might not otherwise have met. And second, because he can't go out and teach others, there are other people stepping up to take his place and they are boldly proclaiming the gospel in his absence. Some of them are doing it out of selfish ambitions and they expect Paul to be jealous of their success, but Paul is not jealous. He's glad the gospel is being proclaimed. He expects to be found innocent at his upcoming trial and he thinks he will be released, but he wants to assure them that God can go either way. God's not required to release him. And Paul has confidence that whatever happens is going to bring glory to Christ. If he lives, he can continue his work and his ministry, proclaiming the gospel, and if he dies, his labors in this life is ended and he can be with Christ. Paul expects God will do what is beneficial to the Philippians and other churches and expects God is going to let him live on and work a while longer. And in fact, we know from church history that Paul was in fact released shortly after this letter was written. So what can we learn from this? To conclude, I want to focus on two ideas from this passage. The first, what are we to make of Paul's joy that selfishly ambitious teachers are proclaiming the gospel? And second, what can we learn from his statement to live is Christ and to die is gain? So first let's talk about this issue of selfishly ambitious teachers proclaiming the gospel. Paul says he's delighted that the gospel is going forward. He's delighted the gospel is spreading through the Roman guards. He rejoices that many others have stepped forward to proclaim the gospel. He believes his ministry is not over yet and that God is going to spare him from death so he can keep on serving. Proclaiming the gospel is everything to him, and he has paid a high price for the gospel going forward. Listen to how he describes his experiences. This is in Second Corinthians eleven verses twenty four through twenty eight. Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentile, dangers in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Paul has sacrificed much and suffered greatly to proclaim the gospel with no guaranteed outcome. We see in his other writings that he says he expects this. He expects to get a varied response when he preaches. Some will hear and respond, others are going to hear and reject. Many will reject, but many will embrace it. He sees his job as explaining the gospel in a straightforward manner. He doesn't sell it, he doesn't pretty it up, he doesn't put on slick programs or advertising, he just proclaims the gospel and leaves the results up to the Lord, and he is willing to suffer greatly to give people this gift of hearing the gospel. Well think about that. Looking at our lives today, it's easy to take the gospel for granted and think it's irrelevant to our current circumstances. We might think about the gospel a lot if we go on a short-term mission trip or if a crisis happens, but it's not something we talk about daily or think about daily because you know we've got all this other stuff to do, stuff to cross off our to-do lists, we've got errands, we've got responsibilities, and we tend to slip into this way of thinking that, you know, that gospel stuff, that was important way back when I came to faith, but been there, done that. Now I've got other things to deal with. Yet we see in Paul's attitude that it is proclaiming the gospel that is the greatest gift you can give to someone else. It's more important that we proclaim the gospel than that we solve racial reconciliation or racial inequality or gender inequality or poverty or world hunger and so forth. It's more important that we proclaim the gospel than that we run soup kitchens or close closets or teach English as a second language or whatever. Now don't get me wrong, those are good and worthwhile things to do. But on the priority scale, they ought to rank below proclaiming the gospel. Because what else can you offer someone that is better than the way to find eternal life? That makes the proclamation of the gospel and explanation of the gospel supremely valuable. There's nothing better that you could give someone than the way to find eternal life. We see in Paul that proclaiming the gospel is so important to him that he rejoiced when other people stepped up to proclaim the gospel, even if they were proclaiming it for the wrong reasons. And in a way, I owe my teaching to this same kind of situation. I had to step up when someone else couldn't. When we moved to Charlottesville, I joined a morning Bible study that was led by this one powerhouse teacher, and shortly after I joined, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer. Over summer break, the leadership approached me and asked if I could consider filling in for her in the fall as her treatments were making her too weak to teach. And in a way, you could say I was one of those folks that stepped up to the plate when the main hitter was sidelined. And hopefully I stepped up with good motives, but only God knows for sure. The steering committee made it very clear that my position was the understudy filling in just until the star could return. But unfortunately, she was never able to return. About nine months before the Lord called her home, she had the strength to teach one more time, and she taught an evening study in her home while I continued teaching the morning study. And it was funny, people in church kept approaching us apologetically, saying things like, Oh, aren't you upset that she's encroaching on your space? Or aren't you upset that she's competing with you and we have these two studies going at once? It was almost like they wanted us to fight with each other. But honestly, I was overjoyed that she felt well enough to teach again, and I was excited that God had given her the grace to teach one more time, and I believe she felt the same way about my teaching. Two people proclaiming the gospel has twice as much benefit and twice as much kingdom rewards. Yeah, we have these other teachers that are teaching for the wrong reasons. Now we don't know the particulars about them, we don't know what they were doing wrong, but I think it's safe to say they must have been teaching the correct gospel. So whatever their motives, they had the facts right and they were teaching the right gospel because I don't think Paul would be joyful if they were teaching a false gospel. It's very tempting to want to be up front. Being up front and being in leadership offers great rewards, but also these great temptations to start valuing the spotlight more than we value the message. When you take on any kind of responsibility, it's really easy to become too concerned about building up your own personal power base or your own reputation. And I wonder if these weren't the kind of people Paul's talking about. The extremes are kind of easy to see. On the one end of the scale, we have the pastors and teachers and ministers who faithfully and humbly serve, and I have known many of them. These are the folks you admire and you wish you could be more like because they so clearly love God and His people. Among those the other extremes, the people who are corrupt and using the gospel to build their own personal wealth, and they are also fairly easy to spot. But there's a lot of us folks somewhere in the middle. There's this middle ground where we sinful folks are stumbling along, doing some things right, doing some things wrong, and maybe doing some things right for the wrong reasons. And I expect these are the kind of people Paul has run into. It's really easy to get seduced by the wrong things. We sometimes use the gospel or use religion or church as a way of getting these other things that we want. For example, maybe you want to feel religious. Well, Christianity can do that for you. It can make you feel religious, and you could start following Christ because you want this religious high. Or maybe you want to be part of the in crowd. Well, you can be part of the in crowd in the church. It's usually easier than some of the other institutions. So maybe you join a church to be part of a community. Or maybe you want to feel better than other people. A lot of people use their religion as a way to make themselves feel like they're doing better than the next guy. Or maybe we want to network with a certain group of people, to improve our social standing. Well, you can find that in the church too. So there are all kinds of reasons we might get involved in religion or we might join a church and become religious. And those temptations are there for all of us. All of us can embrace the gospel for selfishly ambitious reasons. So the first application we learn from Paul is to realize that all of us could be doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. None of us are exempt from that temptation, and we ought to swallow a dose of humility and examine our motives now and then. Because we all have a style of leadership we prefer. We all have a teaching style we prefer, a music style we prefer, a ministry style we gravitate to, and without even being aware of it, we can dismiss those who do things differently as well, they're just not up to snuff. They aren't running things exactly like I would run them, so they're not quite doing it really well. Well, if I understand Paul correctly, God can use all kinds of flawed people to usher in his kingdom, and I ought not to be so quick to judge the efforts of others. The efforts of others may look second best to me with my very limited selfish vision, or it may look like they have mixed motivations, but God can and does work through sinners. In fact, God delights from working through flawed sinners like us. I know a lot of people who have come to a real and lasting faith through ministries that in my short, nearsighted vision I thought, well, those aren't so great. The flip side of that coin is also true. When I'm tempted to judge my own ministry efforts or the ways I'm serving, and I'm tempted to think, oh, I'm just I'm one of those flawed, not so great ministries. I know there are lots of people out there who don't like my teaching style, my ministry style, or whatnot, and they've told me, sometimes bluntly. And it's easy to start despairing over that, and that's when I come back to thinking about what Paul says here. Because maybe they're right. Maybe I am vain and arrogant or too sure of myself, or maybe I have mixed motivations, but thankfully God can and does use flog people like me to proclaim his gospel. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing badly, and I can do it badly. So pursue your calling and let God take care of the results. Of course we want to be discerning, we want to run away from lies and false gospels, but we also don't want to be arrogant about our own ministries or the ministries of others. Like Paul, we ought to learn to strive to care more about the gospel being proclaimed than about being the person who's doing the proclaiming. Well, now let's look at Paul's statement for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul makes some striking statements about death here. He says, To die is gain because I will go to be with Christ. So we don't think about dying as any kind of gain or any kind of a welcome thing. We very naturally find death hard to accept. It's something to be avoided as long as possible. So for many of us, I think we would rather write this motto, to live is Christ, but to die is hard. But then there are others for whom life has become so difficult or so painful in some ways that that kind of statement's easy to accept. They look at the road ahead and think, you know, early death might just be an attractive option to avoid this. So for that group, the motto might be to live is hard and to die is gain. Now I'm not trying to diminish the suffering involved in life or in death. And I don't think Paul means to diminish the suffering that death causes either. I don't think he's in any way minimizing or trivializing the suffering of those who die or those they leave behind. Granted, life is hard and death is hard, but ultimately we find meaning and purpose and joy in life and death because of Jesus Christ. Suffering gives us an opportunity to learn and grow in the faith. Yes, it's painful, but it's a chance to sink our roots deep into the gospel and to lean back into the hope of the gospel, to fix our eyes on the finished line of this race that's set before us, and to find comfort in the promises of God through Jesus Christ. So it puts our suffering and our difficulties into perspective and it allows us to find life today and face death tomorrow. Remaining steadfast through trials answers the question I think we all struggle with at times. How do I know I'm a believer? How do I know that I won't fall away or that I'm not fooling myself? I think James, Paul, and Peter all write saying, You know that you are a true believer because your faith has endured trials. Pseudo faith falls away and gives up when life is hard. Real faith endures through the trial. You've probably all known people who claim to be believers, claim to follow Christ, and then life threw them a curve and they said, forget it, if following God means doing that, I'm not going to follow him. Well, that's pseudo-faith. That's the kind that walks away. But real faith perseveres and sticks with God no matter what, no matter how hard life gets. And that raises one more question. Is he really serious about this rejoicing stuff? Can I be joyful in the midst of hardships? Can I really view death as having any positives to it at all? Well, I think the promise of the gospel is not that with maturity life will get easier. That's not a given. Life may continue to get harder, the trials may and often do become more difficult. It's hard to get excited about that. What I think Paul is saying is that the value of the gospel should be so obvious to me as I grow in my faith that I should be willing to face whatever life brings and rejoice because I stand to inherit so great a treasure. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection, it is well with my soul. And that's the most important message I can ever learn. Because if I have that, if it's well with my soul, then I have everything worth having. Without it, I may have an easy life here and now, but I have nothing eternal. To be able to rejoice in my possible impending death is then to have reached a place where I understand the value of the gospel in a very real and a very practical way. Now he's not saying you have to be happy when life throws you a curve or knocks you down. He's not saying that you're not allowed to suffer in the midst of your suffering. That's not true. Suffering is painful, and I don't think Paul expects it to be otherwise. When you go through difficulties, it is very normal and real to say this is hard, this is painful, and you don't have to be happy about it. Rather, what he's saying is he's offering this encouragement that I trust in God to raise me out of this pit. I trust in God to get me through this. It feels like more than I can take, but it's not more than God can handle, and I will trust him no matter what the outcome is. That's essentially what he's saying about his own circumstances. I rejoice in my salvation even if I have to suffer along the way, because salvation is worth it. I remember, I hang on to that hope, the knowledge that there is something bigger going on. There's something more important than the immediate hardship in the immediate circumstances. It may seem like my circumstances will never change, but the fact is, in light of eternity, they're not going to go on very long. So happiness is this feeling of euphoria that results when something good or exciting happens, but joy is that sense of satisfaction, of knowing that good is going to come out of it. It's not so much a feeling of well-being as it is a confident response that this is going to be worth it. And in that sense, I think joy is more closely tied to hope than it is to happiness. The joy doesn't come from your circumstances, it comes from hope in the promises of God. You don't have to be happy in the midst of your suffering or your circumstances, but you can be hopeful. Faced with trials, most of us begin to wish that God will change our circumstances. We wish he'd intervene with more money, improve our health, give us a new lifestyle, a different boss, new friends, a better car, whatever. We think our problems are all about getting rid of whatever the obstacles are in our path. But if Paul is right, and I think he is, the most important thing about my problem is not when will it end or when will I get out of it. The most important thing is figuring out how am I going to respond to God in the midst of this. Because removing the immediate obstacle to happiness is missing the bigger picture. The Christian life is comprised of these character-building hardships, and we ought to be more concerned with how we're being built than that the hardship ends. Because God loves us too much to change our circumstances without changing our sinful hearts. The Gospel tells us we have a bigger problem than the obstacles standing between us in happiness. The Gospel tells us we're sinful and we are under God's wrath, and one day we will have to face judgment and left to ourselves we have already failed that judgment. We are sinners worthy of condemnation, but our loving, merciful Father has provided a way of redemption through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucially important then that I have faith. It is not crucially important that my circumstances change, but it is crucially important that my faith is strong and mature and perseveres to the end. And suffering is part of the process of maturing and strengthening and growing our faith. Thus we can look at the result of the hardship and rejoice knowing that it's taking us someplace we want to go. So yes, it's hard, yes, it's painful, but it's taking me to a place I really want to go. Because when I stay at the game, it's worth the trial now, even if that trial is dead.