Transcript

The story is told about a man that fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.

A philosopher came along and reasoned with him why there are pits in our world. A psychologist came by and researched the procedures by which he landed in the pit, and tried to help him to accept his pit.

A religious man came by and told him to keep trying to pull himself up by his bootstraps to keep working at getting out of that pit.

A Christian Scientist came along and said, “You only think you’re in a pit.” A televangelist came by and promised to raise 50 million dollars to minister to his needs and told him that his lack of faith led him to be in this pit.

A politician came by and volunteered to start a National Pit Elimination Program. A county inspector said, “Did you have a permit for that pit?”

An optimist said, “Things could be worse.” A pessimist claimed, “Things are gonna get much worse.” But then Jesus Christ came and He lifted him out of his pit.

Outside of Christ, each of us are in a pit we can’t get ourselves out of, a pit of sin, death, condemnation, and judgment. We are without strength and unable to save ourselves, and we each need a Savior.

Religion doesn’t save anyone. Only Christ saves. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. No matter how good you might think you are, no matter how religious, no matter all the good you’ve done in your life, no one can earn their way to heaven.

We need to lose religion to find salvation, because the only way anyone is saved from all their sins is by trusting the perfect provision made for our sins at the Cross, trusting that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

Philippians 3:3-4: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.”

Spiritually speaking, Paul wrote, “For we [that is, believers in the Body of Christ] are the circumcision.”

In time past, under God’s prophetic program, the “circumcision” was the Jews, but today under grace it is all who’ve trusted Christ. We are the circumcision, not because we happen to be born of Jewish parents.

We are the circumcision because of what Colossians 2:10,11 teaches: “Ye are complete in Him…In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

The believer is complete in Christ apart from religion or any ritualism, and completely by the Cross and resurrection.

“The circumcision made without hands” refers to a spiritual circumcision, a spiritual cutting off. “The body of the sins of the flesh” refers to our sinful, fallen human nature. “The circumcision of Christ” refers to Christ’s death on the Cross.

This verse teaches that the moment we believed and were placed into Christ, we underwent a spiritual circumcision in which positionally and judicially before God, “the body of the sins of the flesh,” or our old sin nature was cut off by Christ’s death for sin.

By the Cross of Christ, “we are the circumcision,” because the flesh, our sin nature was crucified with Christ and cut off positionally before God.

And practically, we now have power over our sin nature, so that we are set free and no longer have to be enslaved or be servants to its sinful, selfish, worldly desires. Christ has spiritually separated us from sin’s rule and reign over us.

As Romans 6:6 states, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

In Philippians 3:3, Paul gives 3 characteristics of the circumcision. First, we “worship God in the Spirit.” We worship God, not by the deadness and meaninglessness of ritualistic ceremonies and religion, but by the living Spirit of God. True worship of God is not based on externals, but on the attitude of the heart.

In John 4:24, the Lord said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

We worship God in the spirit by faith and obedience to the truth of His Word. And worship in its truest sense involves the whole of our lives. We worship God by living set apart lives which bring honor and glory to our Savior.

We worship God by being faithful and obedient workers in our jobs, and godly and loving husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, as we serve other and are an authentic, consistent testimony for Christ.

And Paul says we, the circumcision, rejoice not in religious observances or in ourselves or what we’ve done, but instead we “rejoice in Christ Jesus” and what He’s done. Our boast is Christ and we glory in His Cross.

All that we are, and all that we have spiritually and eternally is all because of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:29-31 says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption…He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.”

As the circumcision, we “have no confidence in the flesh,” we do not rely in religious attainments, accomplishments, or external works for acceptance with God.

We are God’s because we have not placed our confidence in these things, but because we have placed our confidence solely in Jesus Christ and we rest in what Christ has done on our behalf to save us from our sins.

While the religious often display great confidence, sinful man in their flesh, have absolutely no grounds for confidence before God. Without Christ we are powerless to achieve righteousness or gain eternal life.

Each person must come to the point of having no confidence in the flesh, and then to humbly trust Christ alone that He died for our sins and rose again.

A woman was arguing with a pastor about faith and works for salvation. She said, “I think that getting to heaven is like rowing a boat. One oar is faith, and the other is works. If you use both, you get there. If you use only one, you go in circles.” The pastor replied, “But the problem is, nobody is going to heaven in a rowboat.”

We’re going to heaven through Christ, because of Him and what He has done for us. By faith in Christ alone we’re going to heaven.

So many see salvation as a work of man for God and they trust in their good works to save them. But God’s Word declares that salvation is a work of God for man by grace, and we just need to trust it and receive the free gift of eternal life.

Writing about having “no confidence in the flesh,” triggered memories and emotion in Paul, as he recalled when he placed his confidence in the flesh for his salvation.

This led Paul, by the Spirit, to give us a personal testimony, and to give a self-portrait of a religious unbeliever.

And Paul shows the Philippians here that his attainments and heritage surpassed everyone. If anyone could boast about strict observance of religion it was himself.

If anyone had good reason to trust in themselves and believe that their religious credentials could gain heaven, it was Paul.

And he lays his merits on the table; he pulls back the curtain revealing his large trophy case for all to see and shows how he had more ground for boasting than anyone else.

He opens the book of his life like an auditor to show us his wealth, but then he reveals the truth of how he was actually in every way spiritually bankrupt and lost.

Paul wrote this like a showdown and a challenge, but even before he gets specific he concludes ahead of time that he had exceeded any advantage or credential given by any opponent: “If any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.”

We often think of the flesh as only that part of man that drives them to commit sin and live in sin and for self. But we learn here that the flesh is also very religious.

And when the flesh tries to do good and be good or be better than others that is when it is the most dangerous, because then that person sees no need for Christ. They think they are fine in themselves, that God will accept them, and that they need no Savior.

Philippians 3:5-6: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Paul lists 7 things here, the first 4 he had by birth apart from choice, the last 3 he voluntarily chose. The first 4 are in relation to Israel, the last 3 in relation to the law.

Paul says that he was “circumcised the eighth day.” Paul was a Jew and child of the covenant. Paul was not a proselyte to the Jewish religion who was circumcised later in life. And he was not an Ishmaelite who was circumcised in their thirteenth year.

At the proper time, he had gone through the ceremony that initiated him into God’s covenant people. He started out in life in strict adherence to the law.

Paul bore in his body the mark that he was one of the chosen people, marked out by God as His own, set apart from other nations. He possessed this important pedigree.

Paul was by birth “of the stock of Israel,” a member of the nation who were in a covenant relationship with God. No other nation or people had this relationship. Paul inherited all the blessings of being a member of the covenant nation.

Romans 3:1,2: “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way…” Paul had these advantages being of the stock of Israel.

Paul was a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was not descended from Ishmael (Abraham’s other son) or Esau (Isaac’s other son). The blood of Jacob flowed in his veins. And from Jacob, he was “of the tribe of Benjamin.”

Benjamin was one of the two sons born to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. He was the last of Jacob’s sons to be born and the only patriarch born in the Promised Land.

This tribe had a rich history. They had the honor of Israel’s first king, Saul, being a Benjamite. This tribe was faithful to David during Absalom’s rebellion. When the kingdom split after Solomon’s death, the tribe of Benjamin, with Judah, remained loyal to the Davidic dynasty and stood true to the temple as God’s rightful place of worship.

Mordecai who was used by God, with Esther, to save the Jews from genocide, was also of the tribe of Benjamin. This was a prominent and prestigious tribe to have come from! In pride, this fact was worn as a badge of honor for Paul.

Paul states that he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” He was a Hebrew son, of a Hebrew father and Hebrew mother, a pure-blooded Jew, having a pure Hebrew lineage, with no unclean Gentile blood in his family line. In the flesh, Paul could and did trust in his rich heritage.

Being a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was also thoroughly acquainted with the Hebrew language, Hebrew customs, and the Hebrew Scriptures.

“As touching [or regarding] the law, a Pharisee,” Paul says, meaning he was a devout Jew, belonging to the group who were the strict, meticulous observers and defenders of the Mosaic Law. Unlike the liberal theology of the Sadducees, Paul was orthodox to the core.

His father before him had been a Pharisee. Before the Sanhedrin in Acts 23:6, Paul said, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee.” Before Agrippa, Paul said, “that after the most straitest [strictest] sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.”

He had been trained and studied under Gamaliel, a celebrated and revered Pharisee. As it’s been said, “To be a Pharisee was to be a member of an elite, influential, and highly respected group of men who lived to know, interpret, guard, and obey the Law.”

Next Paul stated, “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church,” which tells us that Paul was also an activist, and not some passive religionist. Paul ardently put his belief in action.

He was a zealot of Judaism. He punished those who did not agree with his religion, and punished those who believed in Jesus Christ. He was the ring-leader of the persecution of the kingdom church from the death of Stephen until his own conversion.

Acts 8:3 says, “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” Acts 9:21 speaks of how he “destroyed them which called on [Christ’s] name in Jerusalem.”

As a result of his zealous persecution, many in the kingdom church in Jerusalem were scattered abroad. So Paul, in his zeal, got permission to go beyond Jerusalem to Damascus “to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished” (Acts 22:5).

Paul was relentless and passionate in doing what he thought was God’s will. He defended his orthodox faith zealously by persecuting the followers of Christ.

Paul was willing to make any effort, and pay any price to please God. But Paul later would say of himself that he did it all “ignorantly in unbelief” (I Tim. 1:13).

Next Paul wrote, “Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” By all outward appearances, Paul conformed perfectly to the law.

Those who observed him and his life found his behavior to be blameless, they found no fault, nothing worthy of blame.

He doesn’t say he was sinless, but where and when he failed he brought the prescribed sacrifice. He was to those who knew him and in his own eyes, a model Jew, who lived faultlessly and meticulously by Jewish law and tradition. He was perfect before men.

When judged by men according to the righteousness the law demanded, he was blameless. He scored “a hundred in Judaism,” you could say, and Paul believed himself to be righteous and right before God, because of his own self-effort and self-righteousness.

Philippians 3:7-9: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Paul once put these seven items in his spiritual profit and gain column, but now he placed them in the loss column. All his religious credentials, achievements, privileges were worthless. They could not save him and could not give him righteousness.

Paul had much to lose by placing his faith in Christ, and he did lose much in the way of power and prestige among his peers and in his religion.

But after Paul met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road and he trusted Him as his Savior, Paul’s whole perspective on life and spiritual things changed. All his cherished religious achievements and gains became deficits and losses and meant nothing anymore.

This proud man was humbled and his robe of self-righteousness became a filthy rag, and he abandoned his works righteousness for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul may have lost some things, but his gain was infinite: gaining life, righteousness, and Christ.

In putting these things in the loss column: Paul saw how salvation does not come by ritual or ceremony like Jewish circumcision.

Salvation does not come through mass, water baptism, the eucharist, confirmation, giving up this or giving up that, or any rite or ceremony in the church. Paul also learned how no standing with God is gained by birth, family status, race, or nationality.

And righteousness is not achieved by being a priest, scholar, or being a devout, religious person. And it is not earned by keeping the law or the 10 commandments. Paul learned that religious zeal guarantees nothing and means nothing when it is misguided.

The religious, who by all outward appearances appear pious and good, who are willing to make any effort and pay any price to please God, who zealously pray, fast, sacrifice, serve others, feed the poor, give to charity, without trusting Christ alone to save them from their sins, they’re lost and dead in their sins and headed for judgment.

Paul learned that religion and zeal for religious works accounts nothing toward salvation or righteousness. He learned he had to lose his religion to find salvation. What Paul gained by losing his religion and religious achievements was Christ.

And a personal relationship with our Savior, is infinitely superior to all other things in every respect.

Following his conversion, Paul’s misguided passion for religion, then became a passion for His Savior. And it was following his conversion, that Paul really started living. Paul’s life was truly transformed by the grace of God.

Paul considered now as loss, not only the things just listed, but expands it to include everything, “all things.” He counted anything and everything that might conceivably be a rival to Christ, all works, comforts, privileges, anything that could possibly come between him and his Lord, Paul says is loss, a liability, and a disadvantage.

Paul did not want to deprive himself of Christ or the excellency of the knowledge of Him.

Paul counted all things as loss that he might gain the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord personally, and to grow in knowing Him more and more.

The personal, experiential knowledge of “Christ Jesus my Lord,” his personal relationship with Him, had surpassing superiority to “all things” in Paul’s life.

And as that faith-based relationship with Christ is preeminent over all other things in our lives, we’ll find the same joy, purpose, and blessing that Paul did.

Paul says “for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” Paul had thrown aside as rubbish everything he had previously counted on and worked for in trying to gain favor with God.

Ancestry, nationality, culture, prestige, education, religion, personal attainments, all these things the apostle abandoned as grounds for boasting and saw them much differently after trusting Christ.

All he had done, everything on which his heart had been placed, all his hopes and dreams of honor and distinction, his religious credentials and accomplishments, all of it was loss and now he counted it as just “dung,” rubbish, waste, refuse, filth.

With the strongest language Paul expresses his disdain for all the religious labors by which he had sought to impress men and God. In view of and in comparison to the surpassing value of gaining and knowing Christ, it was just waste and refuse.

For Christ, Paul wrote, “I have suffered the loss of all things.” He completely severed his ties with his religion when he turned to and trusted Christ.

And in doing so, this likely included the loss of family members, fellow-Jews, and many friends and acquaintances turning away from him. It included the loss of position and prestige within his religion.

But having gained Christ, and a personal knowledge of Him, this far surpassed anything he had accomplished in Judaism, or anything and everything he may have lost as a result of trusting Him.

As Jim Elliot once said: “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” This is what Paul experienced: he lost his religion and his reputation, but he gained far more than he lost.

All that mattered now was to “be found in Him.” He only wanted to be found in Christ. That is a precious place to be found in, “in Him,” trusting in Him, hidden away in Him, a member of His body, losing ourselves and our identity in Him.

Like Paul, our relationship with the Lord can become so close that we don’t know where we end and He begins and where He ends and we begin. We are inextricably intertwined. That’s how close the bond can be; that’s how deep the knowledge can be.

And Paul wanted his life to demonstrate that he is in Christ and righteous in Him.

Previous to knowing Christ, Paul desired for others to find him as a righteous, law-keeping Jew. But now he only wanted others to see him in Christ, wanting his life to demonstrate the reality of his union with Christ by a living faith.

Righteousness had been the great goal of Paul’s life as a Pharisee, and he futilely tried to obtain it on his own by religiously keeping the law apart from faith.

But being in Christ he no longer was clinging to his self-righteousness in keeping the law. He had true righteousness now, the gift of righteousness which is received by faith in Christ, and given by the faithfulness of Christ.

Paul shows us here that salvation requires the righteousness that has its source not in ourselves, but “of God.” And we are given God’s righteousness “by faith” and faith alone.

In the city of Basel, Switzerland, each year there is a carnival that takes place at the beginning of Lent. It is much like the Mardi Gras. It is a wild affair with all of the debauchery that one associates with Mardi Gras. Everyone knows what goes on, even though they may not know exactly who does it because the people wear masks.

Each year the Salvation Army uses the carnival season in Basel to make the gospel known. And it does so in a striking way. All around the city the Salvation Army places billboard and posters which say “God sees behind your mask.”

God sees behind the everyday masks we wear. God is looking on your heart and mine. What does He see behind your mask? Does He see religious deeds that are not backed up by divine life within? Does He see your belief that you can earn your way into His favor? Does He see your rejection of Jesus Christ as your Savior?

We need to come to the same realization that Paul did, that salvation and eternal life is not found by trying, not by being religious or working for it, but by trusting Christ alone as your personal Savior. Please trust Him right now.