When a man believes with all his understanding that he will not die before he is raptured into heaven, he has one expectation of life, very different from one who does believe that he will die, and in fact that it will be a very uncomfortable death. St. Paul was both of those men. We who are still alive will be caught up together with those in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

(1 T Thessalonians 4;17) Later in his ministry Paul knew that in fact he would not be spared the death of a martyr: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20-22)

Paul was a man of contrasts. Before his conversion he was a merciless pursuer of Christians, and held the garments of those who were stoning Steven to death. Steven was a disciple who was preaching the Gospel of Christ. Only a few years later Paul wrote one of the most enduring definitions of love ever written. He wrote 1 Corinthians 13, that ends with , And now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. The man who could hardly have acknowledged such a thing as love became the great definer of love. This would be a total mystery except for the presence of the Spirit of Christ living in Paul.

To me an even greater mystery is Paul’s saying that for him, “death is gain”, when he has earlier believed that his very real relationship with the risen Christ would preempt death for himself altogether. When he knew the truth, he never withdrew, but actually grew in faith: Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready, not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21:13)

If there were no other evidence in the whole New Testament of the existence of the risen Christ, the life of Paul could suffice to reveal the Living God present in the soul of a human being, simply by the changes wrought in Paul and the fruit of those changes. Finally, Paul wrote: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7) Amen and Amen.

Love in Him,

Prue