PHILIPPIANS (13): No Confidence in the Flesh (Philippians 3:1-11)

Being a Christian means having a loving relationship with the Lord, rejoicing in Him and trusting in His grace, having no confidence in the flesh. We discuss the dangers of legalism and why it is an evil counterfeit of the true Gospel. Christ alone and His righteousness is the only sure foundation for our salvation, but legalism causes people to look to themselves and trust in themselves and their own law-keeping to establish themselves before God, and in so doing they cut themselves off from the grace of God. Legalism also causes people to focus on outward performance (which we can control to an extent), at the expense of inward Christlike attitudes, which only Christ can produce in us by His grace. Paul shares from his own experience, having come from a life of legalism, how he had a perfect pedigree and performance as a self-righteous law-keeping Pharisee. If any one had a basis to have confidence in the flesh, Paul did, and yet he came to realise that all his self-righteousness had no value before God, in fact it was a big negative.