“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” (Phil 1:21-23 NKJV)

“In no way was the apostle saying here that immediately at his death he would be changed into a spirit to be with Christ forever. Such getting to be with Christ the Lord will first be possible at Christ’s return, when the dead in Christ will rise first, according to the apostle’s own spirit inspired testimony in 1 Thess 4:15-17. It is to this return of Christ and the apostle’s releasing to be always with the Lord that Paul refers in Phil 1:23.”

This was the great object of desire and of expectation of all the early disciples, and of which Paul often speaks –His coming in glory and power to set up his kingdom on the earth, to complete the work which he had only inaugurated by his first coming–his second advent to raise the saints who were sleeping in death, to change those who were living, to judge the world and purify it by the utter destruction of Satan and all his hosts, and to begin the everlasting reign of righteousness and peace, which had been so fully promised to them.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this I say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

This is what Paul means in the passage we are considering by the return, and the being— (einai, another word in the infinitive used as a noun,) with the Lord, which is far better.

Far better than what?

Far better than either of the alternatives, between which he did not know which to choose, viz. “whether by life or death”. This is evidently a third object. It is a side thought, introduced by way of parenthesis–a practice so common to the apostle–and then leaving it, he goes on with the main current of his letter, and tells them how confident he is that he will be spared to them “for the furtherance of their joy.”

What if the apostles and primitive disciples were in error respecting the time of our Lord’s return, and supposed it might occur in their day?

It was not an injurious error. Indeed it served to keep them active and vigilant in their Master’s service, and to cheer and to comfort them in their trials. Would that the same expectation had been kept alive in every subsequent age–and especially, that this same expectation and hope were more operative at the present day– for surely, everything concurs to assure us that this long expected– long delayed consummation, must be near, very near at hand. But this mistake of these early disciples was not so great a mistake even with regard to its nearness, as may appear to us who look back upon them from this age, and count the generations that have come and gone since their day, for the lapse of time is as nothing to those who are sleeping in their graves.

To those who fall asleep in Jesus, the very next event of which they are conscious of is the coming of the Lord, and we shall see him together. We are expressly told in the passage just cited; that those who are alive shall not have any advantage of those who are asleep and conversely those who are asleep shall not prevent these who are alive. We all shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Continued with next post.