Fasting Encouragement Day Seven

Hi Church family, I am so excited to share a few nuggets from Philippians 3:1-11 with you on this blessed Sunday. I want to encourage you to read through these verses and to meditate on them.

Two central themes of Christian faith and life are mercy and grace, yet mercy and grace are two of the hardest aspects of Christianity to wrap our minds around. This is mainly because it runs counter to everything that we have been taught most of our lives. For example, we have laws which if we are caught breaking, we must pay a price as laid out. When we borrow money, we must pay it back, often with interest. When we wrong someone, whether intentional or not we often must make amends, which is why things such as liability insurance exist. We must say we are sorry; we must make it up somehow. Hopefully you are getting the picture. The world we live in is often very heavy on guilt and shame, and very light on grace and mercy. In one way or another, many of us have been taught this from a young age. No wonder we often struggle to accept, believe, and walk in God’s love towards us and others.

I believe that this sets the stage for us to walk out of grace and into works. It seems obvious that God would expect us to at least pay for some of our sins. This is why the Christian message is so hard for many to accept. It seems foolish to not have to pay anything, to not make amends, to not suffer at least a little bit for the wrongs we have committed, or not have to do anything to be saved other than believe.

The Apostle Paul in this passage warns the Phillipian believers to watch out for those who would try to lead them out of Grace and into the works. The issue at hand is circumcision. There were some going around teaching that gentile believers should observe the practice of being circumcised, touting it as a sign of true allegiance to God. Let’s be honest, even though many of us know, even if it is just mentally, that works don't move the spiritual needle in terms of our salvation, it helps to soothe the guilt and shame that so often plagues our souls. Our works can sometimes become a tangible measure of how our souls are doing. The problem is that we can quickly be drawn into putting confidence in it rather than in Christ and his perfect work on the cross.

Paul then lays this thought down: “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh” (v3). This parallels what he wrote in Romans 2:28-29, “A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God."

Thankfully, to circumcise or not circumcise is not the issue we face today. However, the issue of falling into works and being confident of what we have done is still a danger to us. God isn’t concerned so much with what we cultivate outwardly but more so with what we cultivate inwardly. For Paul, it was about gaining Christ and being found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law (works), but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

So here is the key to disarming the temptation to find fulfillment in works. First, rejoice in the Lord always; and secondly, seek to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. I would like to leave with a few words from Romans 6:3–4 to meditate on “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE.”

Blessings and love,
Jeremy