Paul’s Confidence

by: Geoffrey Cox

Big buildings need solid foundations. Life that is eternal needs a foundation that is eternal, and that is exactly what Paul has – and what he wants for every Christian. A foundation gives assurance, a basis for confidence. The basis for most peoples’ confidence in life is “the flesh,” as Paul puts it here. People are proud of their class, or ethnicity, or education, or accomplishments. That’s all “flesh.” But Christian faith is founded on Jesus Christ: his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again. So Paul’s confidence is entirely in Jesus. He even rejects religion (expressed here by the symbol of circumcision) as a ground for boasting.

Had Paul wanted to glory in the old way, few could have had more to boast about, as he details so crisply in verses 4 through 6. But Paul put no confidence in the flesh. He only “gloried in Christ Jesus” (v. 3). That is the background for his repeated challenge in this letter, and here in verse one, to “Rejoice in the Lord.”

For Paul confidence in Christ always leads to rejoicing in Christ. As we trust in him, so let us learn to rejoice in him. Not in your money, or your family, or your education, or your church. In him.