Crossdefined articles

Christ, My Life

Thu, 12 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A sentence from Philippians has kept changing the direction of my life: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” I come back to it again and again. I pray it has an impact on you too.

The apostle Paul wrote those words from prison. That’s important, because this is not what I would write if I were in jail.

19 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, 20 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. Philippians 1:19–20 ESV

He’s in prison, and he’s rejoicing. He’s confident in the Lord. He has full courage. Life or death, these things are still true.

And then, speaking of life and death, he says this:

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Philippians 1:21–23 ESV

Verse 21 is the part that has been so impactful for me.

To live is Christ

It’s a strange phrase. Paul uses similar language in verse 20, and that helps us understand it: “Christ will be honored in my body.” Other translations say “exalt” or “magnify.”

Paul is saying, “I want people to look at my life and see how big Christ really is.”

So here’s the question that presses on me. If someone looked at my life, what would stand out that I am magnifying? What does my life make big? What’s the most important thing in it?

If Jesus is not the thing that your life is magnifying, then your life is meaningless. That’s a hard thing to say, and I have to say it to myself first.

“To live is Christ” means you’re living as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). You take up your cross daily; your life is a sacrifice (Luke 9:23–25). It’s no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you (Galatians 2:20). Every thought you take captive and direct toward him (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Is Christ the conscious center of everything I do?
Am I making decisions with Christ in mind?
Am I praying for his wisdom in what I do and what I decide?

Maybe you can relate.

I’m not saying we have to give up on dreams and hopes. The Bible is not calling us to live as monks. But if the things other than Christ are all we have, all we’re working for, all we’re dreaming of, then we have nothing, and our life will be a waste.

I wonder how many people who call themselves Christians will end up in hell realizing that Jesus meant nothing to them while they were alive. To them…

To live was the fast car, the new device.
To live was looking good in the mirror, getting the person they wanted.
To live was doing well at work, making money, and just having fun.
To live was progressing on some imaginary scale of success, and posting it all online so the world can see, and we can gain some kind of value.
To live was anything but Christ.

The Bible blows all that up and reminds us, to live is Christ. This is for me. I spend far too much time focused on my own world, my own job, looking good in my career.

Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world. John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

That’s hard. How do we even begin to live this way?

You and I do a bad job of this. We make our lives about us instead of God. We reject him as the main push of our life and instead might give him a tiny bit over here.

Instead of magnifying him, we need a magnifying glass to see him.

All of that is sin. We put ourselves before our Creator, and we deserve hell for it. Jesus died for you and me to forgive us for this. And if you trust God and believe in Jesus, then you are a Christian, and we start to change as the Holy Spirit works in us. Slowly our lives actually do start to magnify Christ. Remember, he will finish what he started.

To magnify Christ is not just living perfect and holy. It’s seeing our sin and failure, and humbly resting in Jesus’ work. Christ is magnified when we trust in the hope of the gospel, and not in our own works.

It’s the most amazing thing, and it’s worth it to make Christ your life. Especially because of the second part.

To die is gain

Death is sad. The Bible even calls it an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). So how could it be “gain”?

Some people say that when they die, it’s all over. Blackness. That’s so sad, and certainly not gain.

The Bible says when you die, it’s just begun, because you will depart and be with Christ.

To die is gain because you will be with the one who fully knows you, fully forgives you, fully loves you, and has taken care of your every need. The Bible even says he is preparing a place for you, and you will spend eternity without pain, without suffering, without depression or sadness, without worry. You and I will spend that eternity with the Savior, Jesus.

That, that is gain.

Is that your view of death? Is that your view of Jesus?

Only if we believe that to die is gain can we live in Christ and for Jesus in this world.

I will not waste my life! I will finish my course and finish it well. I will display the Gospel of the grace of God in all I do. I will run my race to the end. John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

If you have not been living your life for Christ, this is worth sitting with. Talk to God. Ask him to make this true of you: to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

It's All About Definition

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

No, I’m not talking about the newest TV or even killer abs. I’m talking about what defines you as a person.

We are always looking for definition and we tend to look for it in the things we possess and in what we do. Definition can sound like this…

Study hard so you can be defined as a hard worker.
Get a good career and nice car so you can be defined as successful and cool.
Workout so you can be defined as good looking.
Update your social media status/posts often so you can be defined as interesting and popular.

But sometimes ‘definition’ can swing the opposite way…

Your academic struggles define you as stupid.
Your dead-end job and beat car defines you as worthless.
Your height and body defines you as inadequate.
Your singleness defines you as unlovable.
Your lack of social media ‘Likes’ defines you as unwanted and rejected.

That’s the sad thing about worldly definition, it can start out good, defining you in all the ways you want, then in an instant it can switch to bad.

The definition we don’t want

Definition from the world is always changing. It never gives you what you truly want. What was good one week is never enough the second week or is just not cool anymore. (Is last year’s iPhone good enough now?)

As we look to be defined by this endless cycle, we can tend to look pretty similar to a drug addict, always looking for the next high, the next definition, where we feel comfortable and better about ourselves for a brief time.

The Bible talks about this. As we lust after all the worldly things, the Lord calls us “a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust?” (Jeremiah 2:24)

We look for definition in everything and everywhere except the Lord (Romans 3:11). The Bible would define this as idolatry and gives us our first unwavering definition: sinner, child of wrath, deserving judgment (Ephesians 2:3).

You and I both wanted definition and we got it. It doesn’t look too appealing now. Because of our idolatry, lust, and sin, we deserve condemnation, pain, suffering, and death. That’s our true definition: sinner.

But the Lord doesn’t just leave us with that, there’s hope…

The re-defining cross

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). That’s right! Jesus is the hope we need, the person who can fix our definition problem. He did this by dying on the cross for our sins.

I have a friend who could not understand why someone would want to be involved with Jesus because of all the “cross stuff”. The cross to him represented blood and suffering and that’s it. Why would anyone want to be defined by that?!

He’s right, the cross is bloody and may not seem appealing at all. But my friend missed the point of the cross. The book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman helps us understand more about how the cross defines and represents followers of Jesus:

The cross that represented defeat – for a follower it is an image of victory.

The cross that represented guilt – for a follower it is an image of grace.

The cross that represented condemnation – for a follower it is an image of freedom.

The cross that represented pain and suffering – for a follower it is an image of healing and hope.

The cross that represented death – for a follower it is an image of life.

The cross may not be attractive, but for a follower it is beautiful.

Jesus gave his life on the cross for me and you, and through that we are no longer condemned and defined as a sinner (Romans 8:1-2). He did that to redefine us, to give us a new, perfect, and lasting definition. You and I are now defined by much better words: Forgiven, Freed, Righteous, Son or Daughter of the Most High, and Loved.

It’s all about definition and what better definition to rest upon than that of the cross.

Know Jesus? Really?

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

An issue that I’ve struggled with for a large part of my life is “what does it mean to know Jesus.” I can read about Jesus, but is that the same as knowing him personally? At times, I’ve felt distant from God and struggled with what to do about it. I start to think maybe I just don’t know Jesus and then long for some special revelation to know him better. There are seasons that I still feel like that. Maybe you are like me.

But God is good and directly addresses the question of how we can know Jesus personally. We see this in Luke 24:13-35.

The story starts with some travelers on the road and Jesus comes up to them. Seems like Jesus is about to get to know them. Then verse 16 takes a strange turn: “their eyes were kept from recognizing him”. Obviously these people knew who Jesus was before this moment. It’s a small verse and seems totally strange.

So here’s the main question: Why were their eyes kept from recognizing him? It’s almost like Jesus did not want to be known!

It’s a good question because Jesus had just resurrected from the dead. The first thing I would do is personally show myself to people. But the fact that their eyes were kept from recognizing him seems completely contrary to what we would expect.

So they are all on this road and Jesus intentionally draws towards them and asks them what they are talking about.

The travelers give him a kind of bitter sarcastic attitude: “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” Verse 17 says “they stood still, looking sad”.

At this point, you would expect Jesus to personally reveal himself and say something like “Don’t be sad. I’m alive!” But nope, he doesn’t. He actually keeps pressing in and asks them more about what happened. So they tell him all about Jesus and how they were disappointed because Jesus had died and therefore he could not be the saviour whom everyone has hoped he would be.

Now maybe Jesus will reveal himself to them…. Nope, instead he rebukes them for being foolish and slow to believe.

Come on Jesus, you had so many perfect chances to reveal yourself. Like a blockbuster reveal: lights, glowing, thunder, lighting, booming voice from above. “Surprise! I’m Jesus.” But that wasn’t Jesus’ plan.

Then comes verse 27. It’s like Jesus pulling out a Bible and saying let’s do a Bible study! “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

This is really important here, so let’s bookmark this and come back in a little bit. But at this point, Jesus still does not reveal himself to the travelers on the road.

Remember our main question: Why were their eyes kept from recognizing him? We don’t find the answer written explicitly. We find it through the traveler’s reaction to finally recognizing Jesus. Look at verse 31.

31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

So they are in the room and Jesus reveals himself. All of a sudden they recognize Jesus…and Jesus disappears….come on Jesus. You finally let people see you, so why didn’t you stick around so people can get to know you?

You would expect the travelers to say “Wow, that was Jesus! Where did he go?!” Or maybe they would say “I finally got to see the resurrected Jesus! I 100% believe!”

But the scripture tells us what they said “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” Their response points us back to that important verse 27 that we bookmarked.

Remember on the road, he walked them through each of the Bible stories and showed them how they pointed to Jesus. It’s helpful to bring in John 1 to understand this better. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. […] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This passage in John is describing Jesus. Jesus is the Word.

So it’s awesome here in Luke to see that the word of God in flesh (who is Jesus) is actually the one explaining the written Word of God (who is Jesus). The Word of God is explaining the Word of God.

See Jesus took out the Bible and showed them how all of it is connected; leading and point us to the savior Jesus, himself.

Maybe Jesus showed them the story of the final plague to hit Egypt - killing of the first born and the passover blood of the lamb, which was actually all about Jesus. Or maybe the story of the Bronze Serpent when Israel was in the wilderness and how it was about looking to Jesus to save them. The stories of how the Israelites were looking for a good king to restore the nation, but all failed - and how Jesus is that good king that has come to restore all that is broken. Or walked them through the Psalms and showed them how this longing for redemption is found in Jesus. Maybe he showed them how the tabernacle, temple, sacrificial system, the offices of prophet, priest, and King - how it all pointed to the one, Jesus.

The Bible is all about Jesus and not only that, the scripture itself is Jesus. When we start seeing and exploring that, that’s when an excitement, joy, a burning fire is kindled within us. When we open the Bible, the Holy Spirit is at work in us helping us to recognize our Savior.

In the beginning, the question we wanted answered was this: “Why were their eyes kept from recognizing him?”

Here’s the Answer: Their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus in the flesh, so that they would see him clearly and most importantly in the Scriptures. Jesus is fully and personally revealed in the scriptures. And recognizing Jesus in the Scriptures is what set their hearts and our hearts on fire.

This is a really big deal, because maybe you are like me and struggle with doubts and we think: “Oh if I just saw the real Jesus once, then that would remove those doubts, and I would know him.” You do have Jesus, he’s right here in the Bible. You can know him. He has been revealed to you. Open your Bible - meet him.

Maybe you are struggling because you feel distant from Jesus. This passage should be a great encouragement to you. You can grow close to the actual Jesus. You can know him personally through the scriptures. You don’t need to see him physically because he has been right here all along. Open your Bible - get to know Jesus: grow close to him because he is there.

Maybe you lost the fire, excitement, and joy for Christ. You want it back but not sure what to do. You don’t need the latest Christian book. You don’t need a spiritual conference. You need your Bible. Open your Bible - see the gospel message from Genesis to Revelation. See it all pointing to and talking about your savior.

Maybe you struggle with how to share Jesus with kids. You don’t need to be cool. You don’t need to come up with an exciting story: You already have it. Open your Bible - show the kids that Jesus is there: from beginning to end. Show them a savior that gave his life for the lost and wants to draw near to them.

We all want to know and be known by someone deeply. There is someone who is worth knowing and wants us to know him. It’s Jesus. He’s right there in your Bible. Open it, read it, see him, know him.