In

yesterday’s verses we saw that Paul loved the gospel so much that

he could put up with selfishly motivated preachers. Now Paul

increases our awe at his Christ-saturated view of life by saying that

even if he dies, it will somehow work out for God’s glory. It’s

not that Paul wants to die, but he knows that if God grants him the

courage to stay true to Christ, even his own death will bring glory

to God.

Once

again we are challenged. But this fits a larger New Testa­ment

pattern. After all, we proclaim that Jesus was glorified on the

cross. But in the Roman world cross

and glory

were not words anyone would put together. A cross was an instrument

of terror, a threat to scare people into paying their taxes and never

say anything against Caesar, the Roman emperor. If you ended up on a

cross, it was the shameful end of you. Period.

Yet

Jesus’ death opened up the pathway to eternal life. He was somehow

exalted on that spit of wood. Paul knew this. He wrote about it in

all of his letters and preached it wherever he went. The kingdom of

God is an upside-down reality and is the only way to flip a sinful

world that is already upside-down.

To

live is Christ, and to die is gain. It is that simple. It is that

profound. The remarkable truth is that our only hope is Christ!