Paul continues in Philippians 3:3 to develop the theme of looking to Christ spiritually in our worship of God in this present Church age. We “rejoice [glory, JND] in Christ Jesus.” This is a different word for “rejoice” compared with verse 1; the same basic word is used in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”1 We do not glory in anything of self; we exult “in Christ Jesus,” the crucified One who is now the risen Christ seated at God’s right hand. Believers in Him are positionally in Christ; our eternal union is with the risen, exalted, glorified Man in heaven who appears in the presence of God for us. As “a great priest over the house of God” (Heb 10:21 JND), He intercedes for us as we engage in spiritual worship.
No Confidence in the Sinful Flesh
In keeping with glorying only in Christ, the apostle then writes, “and have no confidence in the flesh” (Php 3:3). That is, we put no trust in what the sinful flesh can produce. That truth is clearly exemplified in Paul’s personal life experience as detailed in verses 4-8. As Saul of Tarsus, he had gloried in being “circumcised the eighth day” (v5), the first thing he mentions in a list of facts that he thought gave him a right standing before God. But everything he was as a man in the flesh, even excelling in every aspect of the Jewish religion, meant nothing when he was brought to appreciate the risen Lord Jesus Christ. As a believer in Christ, he now had “no confidence in the flesh”; he no longer gloried in any fleshly ritual such as circumcision, and he counted all such fleshly things as of no value, that he might have Christ for his gain. Paul gloried only in the risen Lord Jesus and what Christ accomplished in His work on the cross.
The apostle gives similar teaching in Galatians, again warning about the same Judaist false teachers who were compelling the Galatians to keep the Law and demanding their physical circumcision. “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ” (Gal 6:12). Their primary motivation was to produce an outward show of conformity to religious ritual, and to display the religious flesh in all its fullness. Their secondary motivation was to avoid the persecution and reproach that came upon those who are linked with the cross of Christ. We remember the exhortation of the writer to the Hebrews: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb 13:13).
Paul continues: “For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh” (Gal 6:13). They gloried in outward conformity to the ceremonial aspects of the Law, but they themselves were inwardly guilty of not keeping the moral aspects of God’s Law. They only desired the Galatians to be circumcised so that they could boast of their success in proselytizing Gentiles, and so promote themselves in the sight of men. This is how evil, insincere and hypocritical the religious flesh can be. We today must carefully guard against glorying in outward displays of conformity to the Word of God when inwardly our hearts may not be right before God.
Some today will put confidence in the flesh in a general way, glorying in human attainment, human works and achievements, what might be termed “the best of the flesh” (humanly speaking). But just as the flesh gave us absolutely nothing for salvation, likewise the best of the human flesh means nothing in our continuing relationship with God, and gives nothing that will be acceptable for the worship of God. We engage in a spiritual worship, recognising the doctrine of the circumcision of Christ, and that at Calvary Christ ended the sinful flesh before God. Any product of the human flesh cannot be the basis for communion and the worship of our God; we must glory in Christ alone.
Judging the Sinful Flesh
Whether it be the noblest forms of human attainment or the basest expression of the sinful flesh, as the Saviour said to Nicodemus, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh” (Joh 3:6). The sinful human flesh cannot be changed into something in which God will find any delight. You cannot improve, educate or reform the sinful flesh to make it acceptable before God. The only thing to be done with the sinful human flesh is for it to be judged and cut off; we recognise that is what Christ did for us in His death on the cross.
These truths are well typified in the consistent Old Testament type of the sinful human flesh (i.e., Amalek). In 1 Samuel 15, after the victory over Amalek, Samuel instructed Saul to utterly destroy all of Amalek. In disobedience to the prophet, Saul saved alive what looked to him to be the best of the spoil and the animals, including Agag their king, who thought he would be spared; “surely the bitterness of death is past” (1Sa 15:32). Samuel then did what Saul had failed to do: he hued Agag in pieces with the sword before the Lord in Gilgal. The repercussions of Saul’s disobedience were massive, and not just for Saul personally. Israel was subsequently divided in two: the northern kingdom of ten tribes, and the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin.
The only way to deal with the sinful human flesh is to ruthlessly judge it before the Lord and utterly destroy it. That is what Christ accomplished for us in His death on the cross; we must be in the good of the position into which we have been brought in Christ. The practical challenge to every believer in Christ is this, Do I still have confidence in my flesh? Am I looking only to Christ for that which can truly please God, or am I still seeking to find something in myself that I think might be pleasing to God? We must recognise the doctrine that before God the flesh was brought to an end at Calvary, and Christ alone is our only glory. Only when we get to that understanding can we truly say with the apostle, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14).
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
