2 Tim 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
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WHERE DOES YOUR CONFIDENCE LIE?
TUESDAY, MAY 23
Philippians 3:3-8
Galatians 6:11-18
“…and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh.”
WHERE DOES YOUR CONFIDENCE LIE?
Paul was not in fact deriding the God-ordained practice of circumcision, for he himself was a Jew who was circumcised at birth. However, the problem was that the Jews were insisting on circumcision as being a necessary condition for salvation. That was salvation by works, and was what Paul described as having “confidence in the flesh.”
He wanted to correct that notion by teaching them that true believers were those whose worship of and service to God were spiritual in nature, and not physical. In saying “we are the circumcision,” he was including the non-circumcised Gentiles together with him, for they might not have been physically circumcised, but they had the circumcision of the heart (Rom 2:29), having believed in the same Gospel. Like any believer, their rejoicing is now in Christ Jesus. Note that the word for “rejoice” here has the idea of boasting or glorying. It is contrasted with the vain confidence that the Jews had in the flesh, for they boasted because of the physical marks they had, whereas Christians boasted of what they had in Jesus.
From Philippians 3:4 onwards, to further reinforce his point, Paul shared a very personal testimony of how he was so proud and confident in his own works in the past. He shared it not to show off, but to his shame. He very sharply disavowed the life he used to live for he would later describe it as but “dung.”
Yet our human tendency is to be very impressed with the tangibles. We look at one’s credentials, their long resumes, their worldly accomplishments. This is how the world functions, and sadly this is how it sometimes is in the church as well.
Paul had to give this list, not by way of a boast, but to prove to the Judaizers once and for all, that he understood their theology well, for he once fully subscribed to it as well. But now he had left it behind for something far greater, and that was the knowledge of Christ!
THOUGHT: What is more impressive to me: a wealthy self-made billionaire, or a faithful, humble servant of the Lord?
PRAYER: Father, may I never glory in anything, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ.