"...that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;" (Phil. 1:27).
Paul was writing to the chuch in Philippi, Greece. He was urging them to stand together as a church. They were to stand for the same faith together. There was to be no division among them over the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Christendom today there is much division about the gospel. Some add baptism to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Some add good works to the gospel, and thus change the gospel.
But the gospel is entirely about who Jesus is. It is in the character of his being. There is no fault or sin in Christ. he is the essence of holiness. Thus he is pure. Therefore when they preached Christ, they preached a pure gospel, a pure person!
When we accept Christ we believe the purity of God is in the place of our evil. We accept his holiness to replace our unholiness.
But we are to do more. Paul wrote the Corinthians to, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong," (I Cor. 16:13).
We are to stand fast in the faith. We are to belive that we stand fast in our faith in Jesus. There are times when a believer may doubt his faith. There are times when he may stray. But, when he returns to his commitment, his faith is that he has Christ's sinlessness in the place of his sinfulness. This is before God. This is in his heart. This is before others. He is saved and he knows it.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free...." (Gal. 5:1). We believers are, in Christ, made free from sin, free from the separation of death, free from hell. We are in the liberty that Christ makes possible for us. It is not that we are to sin. It is that we are free from the yoke of bondage. We are in the liberty of freedom to live for Christ in a sin-sick world.
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