WE SHALL BE WITH OUR LORD JESUS

"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." —Philippians 1:21 [KJV]

O happy, happy soul! who can thus say with Paul, "in life, in death, Christ is my gain!" Verily, if thou believest on the Son of God, thou mayest. Thou also hast the same right and the same reason as he had. Paul was a poor sinner, even as thou art; but Christ was all his gain: so He is to thee and every one who believes in Him. Come Christian, let us, like the wise trader, state our accounts of loss and gain and see the sum total this day. 

In self-righteousness before God, peace with God, love to God, hope in God, power to please God, enjoyment of God, the life of our souls, yea, our souls themselves are ALL LOST. We are all a lump of sin, bankrupt sinners, insolvent debtors to law and justice, and are exposed to lie for ever in the prison of hell. Awful loss. What is our GAIN? Inestimable riches! nothing less than precious Christ, and a precious salvation! O, is His dear name enrolled in the book of our hearts? Can we read Jesus there? 

Then IN Christ we have perfect righteousness before God, full acceptance with God, free access to God, love from God, peace with God, hope of enjoying, yea, present fellowship with God; we are His children in Christ Jesus; all that He has is ours; every attribute and perfection of Jehovah are engaged for us; His Spirit is ours, to make us holy and happy here, and to lead us to eternal felicity hereafter. But, saith the poor believing sinner, "I am put to a stand in my reckoning; though Christ is my gain, yet I have not entirely lost my burden, sin. Sin is still alive in me." 

Stop not, O soul, reckon on. Though we have sin, feel sin raging and rebelling, what then? In Christ we have gained a sacrifice for it, and redemption from it. His precious blood hath taken away all the guilt of sin from us, and all the wrath due to us from the justice of God. So it stands upon record in the court of heaven, and the Holy Ghost is witness of it on earth; therefore record this in the court of conscience. Faith can shew a discharge from the guilt of sin and the curse of the law, therefore reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. 

Dead indeed, how emphatic! yes, as much dead to sin as a corpse buried under ground; and as much alive to God in Christ, as though you had never committed one sin, nor have any sin in you. For, O precious words! the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made us free from the law of sin and death. —see Romans 8:2. Thus in Christ we gain a perfect victory over sin and the law. 

But say, will sin destroy our mortal bodies? let it; this is all it can do; it cannot hurt our immortal souls; for, thanks be to God, in Christ we have a complete victory over death; Christ is our gain in death. We shall lose nothing by death but sin and sorrow: we shall gain—what? eternal glory. We shall be with our Jesus.—see John 17:24.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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