Paul's Strait

Will a man leave the prison when he knows he will be carried to execution? Oh, no; he had rather be in the dungeon still. So for those with guilt on the soul and no assurance of salvation; they would rather abide in the flesh if they could, forever, for all eternity. Therefore, if we would come to Paul's desire, labour to come to the frame of the apostles spirit. He knew whom he had believed; he was assured that nothing could separate him from the love of God, neither life, nor death, nor anything whatsoever that could befall him (Rom. 8:38, 39). Paul had an art of sweetening the thoughts of death. When death was presented to him as a passage to Christ, it was an easy matter to desire the same. It should be the art of Christians to present death as a passage to a better life, to labour to bring our souls into such a condition, as to think death not to be a death to us, but the death of itself. Death dies when I die, and I begin to live when I die. It is a sweet passage to life. We never live until we die. Would we cherish a desire to die, let us look on death as a passage to Christ, and look beyond it to heaven. All of us must go through this dark passage to Christ, which when we consider it as Paul did, it will be an easy matter to die.
I come now to the next words, 'But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.' This is the other desire of Paul, that brought him into this strait. He was troubled whether he should die, which was far better for himself, or live, which was more needful for them; but the love of God's people did prevail in Paul, above the desire of heaven. Oh, the power of grace in the hearts of God's children, that makes them content to be without the joys of heaven for a time, that they may do God's service, in serving his church here upon earth.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Christ is Best, pp. 25-28
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