If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in…
Summary: The opening words of Paul’s statement about why people put confidence in the flesh provide a jumping-off point for us to consider what the true meaning of the Gospel is.
Before we begin with today’s meditation, Thank you to all of you who took the time to write and share your thoughts. I deeply appreciate the encouragement and the feedback! God bless all of you! — Jeff
Looking at this passage, it is easy to get caught up in the larger picture of Paul’s thought. His full sentence reads:
“If someone else thinks they have reasons 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 righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4b-6)
But let’s look at the first words again. Paul is pointing us to the most critical issue every human being must face: When it comes to your survival, who or what do you trust? Who or what do you put your confidence in and why?
This question is confusing for a lot of people because they do not understand the difference between our physical survival and our spiritual survival. If all you think about is your physical survival, then it makes sense to put your trust in physical things.
Paul’s list of reasons for “confidence in the flesh” is all about the physical things of this world. Paul’s message of the Gospel is all about the things of God.
This is why Paul is so defensive of the true Gospel. Everything is about Jesus! There is nothing we can do on our own to earn our eternal survival. We need a relationship with our Lord.
So what do you put your confidence in?
Can you tell the difference between the things of the flesh and those of the spirit?
Is your faith based on what you do or who you know?
What are your reasons for what you believe?
Do you think about eternity in heaven, or is your focus on the here and now?
The world is constantly competing for our attention. Satan wants us to put trust in anything but Jesus. Life can feel like a carnival ride with ups and downs and surprises at every turn.
Paul isn’t distracted by any of this. He is confident in the one person who can restore our relationship with our God and Creator. His reason is simple. He knows Jesus personally (Galatians 1:11-12).
Application: Get to know Jesus!
Food for Thought: If you were asked why you have confidence in Jesus, what reasons would you give?
If you were asked why you have confidence in Jesus, what reasons would you give?
For some the reason might be of a child’s. “Because the bible tells me so”
For me I get to look at my wife every morning and know, I know that philosophers look to the bible for historical facts, I have many answered prayers, I know and talked with some highly reputable and educated people i trust about the bible and Jesus, I see how so many things can’t be just an random mistake that created such complex things, brilliant minds have searched into this universe and can not explain things and have in result turned into believing. I have felt his presence and blessings at times and with people, I’ve been in really bad situations some of them my fault on purpose, done some really stupid things never expecting to live past 35 years old, Yet Jesus wanted me to know Him first and He’s not done with me yet. Plus I can’t, and nobody else can explain why Angela is my wife except Jesus is the reason.
Awww…
Beautifully said, Tim! 🙂
The things of God are indeed beyond good and beyond understanding.
If you were asked why you have confidence in Jesus, what reasons would you give?
I think the simplest answer is that I know I was born a sinner. I know this because of the life I lived before I surrendered it to Christ. I spoke to God from my heart and asked Him to show me His presence in my life. He did not fail to reveal Himself to me.
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
In time, I began to understand the consequences of my sin, both on my life and in my relationship with God. In His Word, I truly began to understand that Christ paid the price for my rebellion, that He paid the price and gave me the gift of life freely, apart from me and any “works” I could do. I believed it and I confessed it, and belief turned to faith. My confidence in Christ is that He lived blameless, yet took the blame for me, and God raised Him from the dead. As I walk with Him, I can see Him raising me from the dead. A new creation. This bolsters my confidence in Him.
Romans 10:9-10 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
I have confidence in Christ because, as a believer and follower, I can feel His holy presence living within me. I, a fallen man, am allowed to have Holy God live inside of me through Christ.
Hebrews 10:19-23 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
My reasons are:
His presence in my life
His redemption of my life
His presence within me
Thank you, Chris!
I love how you point us to the “testimony of change” — that is the visible change that can be seen in a believer’s life. Well said!
Great comments as usual. To me confidence in Christ points to His Incarnation, sinless life, superior teachings, His death on a cross and the Resurrection from the dead. The cross shows the depth of His love and the Resurrection (along with creation) shows the depth of His power.
Thank you, Rich!
The testimony of Scripture is the most powerful of all!
Wonderful comments from all today.
THANK YOU!!
If you were asked why you have confidence in Jesus, what reasons would you give?
Because He has made himself known to me.
Came into my heart, made himself known, as He has become the power to make His ways my ways. His love for others has become my love for others as I travel the path of allowing Him to serve the unlovable, share life with the dead, and feed His truths to the hungry.
Thank you, Ron.
Personal experience with Jesus is a POWERFUL testimony!
If you were asked why you have confidence in Jesus, what reasons would you give?
To be honest, my instinct is to answer with all the reasons I should have confidence in Christ, which are all valid and support my faith, like the crucial triangle supports inside a square…. and the question I answer quickly morphs into why do I have confidence in the Bible, because a big reason I believe in Jesus is that I believe in the Bible as a whole.
The first reason I have confidence in Jesus, is because he gives me the most logical hope. (As if scrpture is true, I can logically come to the conclusion that what Jesus promises will happen) Any religion asking me to be perfect before getting hope is no hope wrapped in shiny paper. There are several that diminish looking to the future, diminish the value of people, diminish everything I value, that just have nothing appealing to me.
The second is trees. I love trees and trying to understand how one grows all the branches and roots and leaves and rings and bark and leaves and colors and becomes those shapes and then there are forests of them … all over … and God seems to do that part of creation for fun. Kinda like the scripture about how no sparrow falls without God giving the go ahead, and people are 1000x more important, God has us taken care of.
Answered prayers, hindsight that reveals how everything in my life has worked together to shape me into who I am, we could talk about archeologeocal digs based on scripture (pardon my spelling), eyewitness testimony from the first century AD.
Unfortunately, I’m very emotionally driven. I feel better when I do things Jesus’ way. I just have faith.
Angela,
What a beautiful conundrum! Powerful logic mixed with compassionate emotion! What a great place to meet our Lord!