The Ultimate Gain

Acts 21 

As the journey unfolds, Paul’s conviction to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit grows stronger. Even though dangers await him in Jerusalem, and even though his own friends urge him not to go, he’s more surrendered to the will of God than ever. Such is the passion of those who deny themselves and take up their crosses daily to follow Jesus their Lord.

Here’s how Paul saw it: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Again: “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” (Phil. 1:20-21).

All this from the heart of the man who counts believers as “more than conquerors through him who loved us,” and was convinced that nothing in all creation, neither life nor even death, “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38).

So then it’s not surprising to hear him say to his well-intentioned friends, “I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 13). To Paul, dying for Christ would be the ultimate gain.