Why should I hope if my death is imminent?

Looking into the verse halfway through the first chapter of Philippians where Paul claims 'to live is Christ but to die is gain.' What on earth does he mean? Looking at the whole book and what Paul was writing for, it appears Paul was almost definitely heading to his own execution. Paul was the kind of guy who'd stirred everything up. Jesus was around and had told plenty of Old Testament scholars (or experts in the law, or Pharisees) that they were completely religious and were working to their own destruction making law-keeping higher than God. Paul, so oblivious to the fulfilments of prophecies and the law over the years suddenly had his eyes opened in some kind of 'Damascus road' experience. He saw Jesus fulfilling the law, and the prophets' words, and realised the 'Messiah' had come. Paul spotted, in Jesus, after years persecuting the church, that the liberator of the political system and a whole alternate life had been accomplished in Jesus. He turned things around in his ministry because of what Jesus had done on the cross.

This was good news for the body of Christ, bad news for the Jews, and the Romans, and the terrorists of the day, and almost every other belief system in effect. In practical terms that meant 'the world' was not a fan of Paul. It meant the authorities thought it best for Paul to stop preaching this 'good news' and he should be sent to jail. (In the book of Acts he is recorded to have been arrested by the Romans, by persuasion of the Jews, at least three times.) So now, writing to the church in Philippi, he's living out every day, working closer and closer to his execution. I guess, in some sense, his death looked like a relief. His letter to the Corinthians gives some insight:

I know I sound like a madman, but I have served [Christ] far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying. When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas kept guards at the city gates to catch me. I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him.

He's had a rough time of it. Now he's in prison waiting for the day when he can leave it all behind and go to be with Jesus. And we get to the point after he's just said 'But the ones who are jealous of us are not sincere. They just want to cause trouble for me while I am in jail. But that doesn't matter. All that matters is that people are telling others about Christ, whether preached in pretense [we need more converts] or truth [these people need to hear] I will rejoice [says Paul].' Then we get a bombshell. He goes from having a hard time, to death. And the gold comes forth from his lips; and it's quoted many times with little understanding as to what he really meant.

'For to live is Christ, but to die is gain.'

What?

What the hell does that mean?

If I'm alive then it's Christ, but if I'm dead it's better?!

Me living=Christ?

What?

Yes. Paul has gone mad. Twice in two letters. He's saying first that he is a much better apostle because he's been given more punishments for good than anyone else. And then he says that that life is Christ. Oh. Wait. It makes a little more sense. Jesus' life consisted of constant rejection because He was doing good. Jesus' death was complete agony, punished for not sinning at all. Well. Obviously people don't like people who make no mistakes. They wouldn't fit in. Paul has been living a life exactly as Christ. What it means is the reaction to his actions will be the same as the reaction that Jesus got to His actions. And everyone who realises who Jesus was and what He achieved through living and dying and rising and ascending really was want to be just like Jesus. A mini-Jesus; a mini-Christ; a Christ-ian.

So to live as Christ is to live with the consequences Jesus showed us. And it is to persevere through those things as if they were 'momentary afflictions.'

To die is gain? Well, perhaps Jesus' death is a lot more meaningful than any Christ-ian, but I begin to think that perhaps Paul was onto something. Jesus died, went before God suffering the death He didn't deserve but chose to take it, rose again in this wicked new body (that's wicked in a good way) that could walk through walls, tried it out on the cursed earth, probably playing a few tricks, opening scriptures, eating fish, and then He flies off to heaven to be with His dad. Pretty awesome.

Until Jesus comes back to judge all the world, to die is to just get up to Jesus be with Him and the Father, in fact be with the whole Triune God for ages and ages, until we get our fresh new bodies with add-ons. Of course, that would only be for those who have experienced the 'live is Christ' bit. That's the hope of an imminent death. Being with Jesus. Look it up; it'll be pretty cool.