Most people, even people who don’t call themselves Christians, have asked God for deliverance.
Those aren’t bad prayers, and God is faithful to hear and respond to them (1 John 5:14–15). But they’re short-sighted in what God truly offers us when we put our trust in Him.
Consider Paul. He was falsely imprisoned for preaching the gospel, and in his letter to the church of Philippi, he expresses a deep trust that he will be delivered through the Holy Spirit and the prayers of his friends. But this deliverance includes something we don’t often associate with freedom: death.
“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, Prayers for healing in a hospital waiting room, for the light to turn green when we’re running late, for our late-night studying (or lack thereof) to turn out OK when the test is turned in. We plead for God to make things easier and clear our lives of any affliction..” (Philippians 1:18–20)
Paul is confident his struggles will end in victory, but he doesn’t know if he’ll make it out alive. On the surface, what he’s saying doesn’t make sense.
He wants his readers to know that even if he doesn’t make it out of prison and is executed, he will still have been delivered by God in the end. Paul doesn’t bank his joy on fulfilling his own desires but in Christ being proclaimed.
Only when you are convinced that this earthly life is not your sole existence, only when you are so overcome with the beauty and glory of Jesus, only when your greatest desire is for Christ’s name and message to be advanced to all people, only then can you live in the freedom that the best is yet to come and anything that happens today—whether life, or suffering, or even death—is worth it for Jesus.
You’re probably not waking up each morning wondering, “Will I live or die today?” But Paul is saying that his salvation and confidence extend beyond mere life-and-death matters. Instead, it invades every aspect of our lives, because we know our life and death are settled in Christ.
Because of Jesus, we can remain firm in any circumstance: good or bad, success or failure, strength or weakness. Even if everything feels like defeat, we know victory is our ultimate end (John 16:33).
Fix your eyes on Jesus: He faced suffering (Matthew 26:39), yet obeyed the Father to the point of death. But this seeming defeat was short-lived. Three days later, Jesus was raised to life, conquering sin and death and claiming victory for all who place their trust in Him (1 Corinthians 15:55–57).
Christ’s life and death give us hope that even if nothing goes our way now, we will have victory in Jesus.
What has God given you in this short life? Maybe it’s a life of ease and joy: choose to steward it for God’s glory. Perhaps it’s a life of suffering and pain: choose to steward it for God’s glory. The enemy will try to use them for our demise, but we have a greater hope that lasts beyond this world.
If life’s true purpose is for Christ to be proclaimed, we need not fret any affliction, failure, or weakness. Christ is on His throne, now and forever, and so we can endure to the end.
Want to dive deeper into learning about deliverance and endurance? Check out our sermon series guide on the book of Philippians, or watch the most recent sermon from our Philippians sermon series.
