IT’S TIME TO LAUGH
NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH
Philippians 3:1-11
A while ago I talked with a man who said that he needed to work harder at being happier. That got my attention. He said he’d been raised in an ultraserious home. He said, My parents taught us that we could achieve whatever we wanted in life if we just worked hard enough and long enough.
He went on to say, it’s funny, in my sixty-plus years I have achieved about everything I dreamed of doing and I have been awarded for it. My problem is that I don’t know how to have fun and enjoy all these things hard work has brought me. I cannot remember the last time I laughed.
The last line caught me attention, I suppose I now need to work harder at being happier. I’m not sure anything I said got through, only the Lord knows. Most likely this high achiever is up and at it, pursuing a game plan to earn happiness. It’s not going to happen that way.
The problem is that human achievement results in earthly rewards, which fuels the fire for more achievement leading to greater rewards. There is something within all of us that warms up to human strokes. We are motivated to do more when our efforts are noticed and rewarded. That is why they make things like trophies and silver platters and bronze plaques and gold medals.
All this leads me to an important subject I have been wanting to address. What is it? It is the temptation to believe that earthly honors will automatically result in heavenly rewards.
This kind of thinking is at the root of a philosophy that says, by working hard and accomplishing more than most, I will earn God’s favor and receive his approval. This subtle, heretical philosophy is universally accepted as true! Even in parts of the Church.
The tragedy of this philosophy is that enough is never enough. Life is reduced to work, tasks, effort and endless list of do’s and don’ts. Why does this happen? One word answer, Pride.
The hidden message is I can gain righteousness all on my own, by my effort, ingenuity, and energy. Why is this wrong? Because this philosophy says, 1st I really won’t need divine righteousness, and 2nd I will find lasting joy in my own accomplishments. This will bring me ultimate satisfaction. The truth is that it is a dead-end road.
So, how do you know if you’re going down this road? There is always one telltale sign when pride takes charge: the fun leaves.
One of the countries I grew up in is Colombia and it is 95%+ Catholic. They are Christians. The problem is they have been taught that they can do things to merit their salvation. What I just mentioned about gaining righteousness on our own.
Bogota is a beautiful city in the Andes mountains. On one of the hills surrounding the city is the Santuario de Monserrate.
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Every year during the holy days people go up this hill to find favor with God. Some will carry a cross on their shoulders and climb the hill on their knees, just to seek God’s blessings. Others will light candles and pray at each station of the cross. Somehow, they think, by doing more God will look kindly on them.
All this brings us back to the letter to the Philippians. Paul was very close to these believers, so he wasn’t afraid to be honest and allow them to see the dark side of his past. Before going there, he emphasizes the theme of his letter.
Rejoice!
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is not trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 3:1
Paul is about to delve into his past, those intense years of his own existence when he worked so hard to impress God. Just before he does, he wants the believers to hear again the importance of being people of outrageous joy. Paul calls it a safeguard.
Not only are the pressures of life enough to steal one’s joy, there are the ever present legalists, grace stealers, joy suckers, on the loose. Nobody can rob one’s joy quicker than a narrow minded legalist.
Paul’s great concern here is that his Philippian friends continue to enjoy their freedom in Christ. Not to let anyone or anything get the best of them. He never got tired of telling them that.
A strong warning
Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. 3:2-3
Strong words! Three warnings. First, Who let the dogs out? When Paul refers to dogs he doesn’t have in mind our pets, man’s best friend. The dogs of his day were dirty, disease-carrying scavengers who ran in packs through the streets of the city. They posed a threat to anyone who got in their way.
Paul is saying, Watch out ... Beware! These people will assault you and you will lose your joy.
Second, watch out for men who do evil. These men were legalists that taught that one was saved by works, keeping the law. Their message was, and is, to do more, to work harder, to witness longer, to pray with more intensity, because enough is never enough.
These kind of people are evil because they take away any joy that you might have. It is also evil because you never know how much is enough to satisfy God, you are left in a continual state of shame and obligation. Your mind never rests.
The message of the legalist always finds you lacking. It never brings relief. We need to watch out for these messengers, they are men who do evil.
The third group Paul mentions to watch out for is those mutilators of the flesh. Paul is directly referring to circumcision. He is describing those Jewish leaders who denied the gospel of grace, teaching that circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses were necessary for salvation.
The message is the same, one must work hard to be acceptable to God. The result is the same, confidence in the flesh.
Notice the last six words of verse three, put no confidence in the flesh. God’s grace has come to the rescue once again. When it come to our relationship with God, we put no confidence in the flesh.
The gift that brings back the laughter, God’s gift of eternal life with him, is based on what he has done for us and not what we have done for him. Those who put confidence in the flesh have missed the whole point of grace.
Before Martin Luther was saved, he saw God as an angry judge who had passed a sentence of death on all sinners. Luther longed to be free from the heavy weight of guilt and condemnation that he carried, so he turned to the church and its sacraments.
Hoping to earn the salvation he so desperately wanted, Luther became a monk, fasting often and spending much time in prayer. Frequently, he inflicted physical punishment on his body and went to confession so often that the other monks would hide in embarrassment when they saw him coming. He would often spend long hours confessing the most trivial sins. Still he found no peace.
What Luther could not obtain by his good works, he discovered as he studied the book of Romans. When he came to 1:17 The just shall live by faith, he saw for the first time that salvation was by grace alone and not by any of his good works. Throwing himself fully on the grace of God, Martin Luther was saved.
Paul’s religious record
I know that the words, confidence in the flesh, triggered a lot of emotion in Paul. As he wrote this letter he must have had a flash back to the way he had live for so many years. Before he met Jesus, Paul was a proud Pharisee. Nobody had a larger trophy case than he did.
If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 3:4-6
As Paul writes these words he is not padding the report or trying to appear important. He had earned the respect of every law-keeping Jew in the know world. When he said, I have more, he had the record to prove it.
That pedigree and brief list of achievements may not seem impressive to you today, especially if you are not Jewish, but do not discount their significance. Paul was the ultimate achiever of his day.
Paul lists seven items that he once put in his spiritual profit column that are now in the loss column.
1. Salvation is not by ritual
He was circumcised on the eighth day. This indicated that he was born a Jew. He wasn’t a Gentile convert, who would have been circumcised later in life.
2. Salvation is not by race
He was of the people of Israel. All the promises of God made to Israel belong to Paul by the privilege of his birth.
3. Salvation is not by rank
He was of the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe stood alone with Judah in loyalty to the Davidic covenant when the nation of Israel was divided into Southern and Northern Kingdoms.
4. Salvation is not by tradition
He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. No one can claim to be more a part of God’s covenant people than Paul.
5. Salvation is not by religion
He was in regard to the law, a Pharisee. This was the strictest sect in the Jewish religion. They were devoted to keep the law in its entirety. This was an elite group of totally devoted followers.
6. Salvation is not by zeal
He goes on to say that as for zeal, persecuting the church. Paul was so dedicated to keeping the Jewish religion pure that he sought to stamp out this new movement of Jesus followers.
7. Salvation is not by legalistic righteousness
And finally, he points out that as for legalistic righteousness, he was faultless. He kept the ceremonial law, prescribed in the Torah, concerning Sabbath observance, food, and ritual cleanliness. He had no blemishes on his record along these lines.
These are impressive credentials. If Paul had wanted, he could have placed a great deal of confidence in who he was by race, religion, reputation, ritual, and rules. But he saw that none of that was enough. None of that brought him to know Christ.
A change of life
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 3:7-11
Wow! Saul of Tarsus had it all. While riding the crest of that wave of religious acclaim, Paul met Jesus. God called an abrupt halt to Saul’s maddening pace. His entire frame of reference was altered. His whole perspective changed.
Paul saw for the first time how completely misguided he had been. As this newfound perspective replaced the old hunger for earthly applause and human righteousness, he felt himself totally bankrupt.
All the honors he’d worked so hard to attain, given his life for, he now counts them as loss and rubbish. Having been clothed in the pride of self achievement, he now stood naked and spiritually bankrupt.
Having once set records when evaluated by other men and women, he now realized what a total failure he had been when appraised by God. That changed everything in him and about him.
This is the point where Paul started to live. It is the point where he began to laugh again. Rather than being driven by confidence in the flesh, his consuming passion was to spend the balance of his years on earth knowing Jesus more intimately. To become like Jesus. To draw on his resurrection power, to enter into his sufferings personally.
To be like Jesus, to know him and the power of his resurrection. The greatest treasure in life is to know Christ.
Many of us have seen the movie Ben-Hur. It is the story of Judah Ben-Hur and his conversion to Christianity.
The author of Ben-Hur was politician Lew Wallace. Lew’s friend Robert Ingersoll challenged him to write this novel. You see, neither Lew or Robert were Christians. Ingersoll was a lawyer and an agnostic who over a thirty year period attacked Christianity at every opportunity.
One day these two friends were riding together on the train when Ingersoll challenged Wallace to write a novel on the life of Christ. Ingersoll’s suggestion was that an interesting novel could be written on the moral character of Jesus.
Wallace accepted Ingersoll’s challege and during the time he was governor of the New Mexico Territory, Wallace wrote Ben-Hur.
A strange thing happened as Wallace wrote his novel. In studying the Lord of Jesus from the Gospels, Wallace met Jesus. Similar to Paul’s encounter Lew Wallace gave his life to Jesus, he’s met his Lord.
