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0:20 Welcome back to the Daily Blade. 0:22 As you know, I've just been walking through the book of Philippians. 0:25 We've made it all the way to chapter one, verse 27. 0:28 We're going to do, I think it's four verses this entire week, and uh I'm gonna read it all each day. 0:35 Beginning in verse 27, Paul tells the church at Philippi, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything 0:56 by your opponents. 0:58 This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. 1:04 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. 1:19 Today we're gonna do a deep dive on verse 27, where Paul says, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. 1:26 Some translations say, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. 1:30 Other translations say literally the Greek means only behave as citizens worthy of the gospel. 1:37 Well, first and foremost, you have to know what the gospel is. 1:40 The gospel begins with creation itself, that the reason that you exist is because God created you in his image. 1:48 That God, out of an overflow of God's love for God's self, created you, and he created you before sin ever entered the world on purpose, and it was good. 1:58 In fact, it was very good, that God's intention was for you, that you would be in a right relationship with him, and then sin entered the world. 2:05 And not just Adam and Eve sin, but you and I have been born into sin, that by nature and nurture we are sinners. 2:12 And so Jesus Christ came on a rescue mission for us. 2:15 He came to live a perfect life. 2:17 He obeyed every promise and prophecy of the scripture. 2:19 Every single time he obeyed the will of God. 2:22 He literally lived a perfect life, and then he died a death on the cross. 2:25 And when he died that death, he paid the penalty that our sin had incurred. 2:30 But he did not stay dead. 2:32 On the third day, he was resurrected from the grave. 2:34 And whoever would believe in him, that just like he was resurrected, we too would be resurrected. 2:38 And then he ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and he promised to return. 2:43 And the Bible says, if you believe, then you receive the right to become a child of God. 2:48 Now, Paul says that the way you live your life ought to be worthy of that free gift of the gospel. 2:54 That does not mean that if you act right, then you'll be made right with God. 2:58 It's the exact opposite. 3:00 Because you have been made right with God through the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it should change the way you act. 3:05 I wrote a whole book on this called Run Over by the Grace Train. 3:08 That when we interact, when we encounter the love of Christ through the gospel, it's like getting run over by a train. 3:15 If you told me that you were run over by a train, but nothing changed in your life, then I would suspect that you're lying, that you didn't actually encounter the power of a locomotive. 3:24 And yet in reality, all the time we see people that say they know Jesus, say they believe in Jesus, say they believe the gospel, but their life hasn't changed. 3:32 And when you encounter the almighty power of the gospel, it changes everything about everything about everything. 3:38 Now, Ephesians 2 lets us know that we are saved by grace through faith. 3:43 But it also says that we're saved to good works. 3:47 You see, again, in the gospel, the verdict comes before the performance. 3:53 We don't get our act together in order to be made right with God. 3:57 But God demonstrates his love for us at this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. 4:02 And when we believe that Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promise return counted for us, when he pushed up on his nail-pierced feet and says, It is finished, that that counted for me. 4:13 Then when you turn over the reins of your life to Jesus in surrender by faith, because of grace, then you are saved. 4:22 But the moment you get saved, that same chapter in Ephesians that says we're saved by grace through faith and not by works, it also does say that we are God's workmanship and we have been saved to good works. 4:35 Therefore, because of the work of Christ, we should get to work. 4:39 That grace, the gospel is not anti-effort, it's just anti-earning. 4:45 You see, faith alone saves, but a saving faith will never be alone. 4:51 This means that the gospel frees us from sin. 4:54 It does not free us to sin. 4:56 We cannot do whatever we want with our lives, live however we want, and still claim that Jesus Christ is our Lord. 5:03 The gospel frees us, not to sin, but frees us from sin. 5:07 It frees us from the penalty of sin. 5:09 It frees us from the power of sin. 5:11 One day when we get to heaven, we will be free from the very presence of sin. 5:15 This means that the gospel justifies us, that your legal standing before God is just as if you've never sinned because Christ has paid the full penalty for the price of our sin. 5:25 The gospel sanctifies us that over time, the gospel transforms us to conform into the image and likeness of Christ. 5:33 And then one day, when we breathe our last here on this planet and we breathe our next in His presence, we will be glorified. 5:42 So if that is true of you, men, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.