Confident in What? Part 1 – Philippians 3:4-8

When you are given a traffic ticket that you feel was undeserved, you are given the opportunity to stand before a judge and to contest the ticket. If this has ever happened to you, you know that everyone has an opinion of how you ought to go about it. Some tell you that you should be respectful but firm. Others say that you should show confidence because any show of doubt will influence the way the judge rules. However, no amount of advice will really prepare you to stand before the judge. You just have to do it and hope for the best.

Standing before a human judge can be intimidating. But think what it would be like to stand before God. Someday, we will all stand before the judgment seat and we will have to answer for our lives. As you are probably aware, God's standard for righteousness (goodness) is holiness (no sin). None of us can meet that standard. But despite this fact, there are still some who cling to their own righteousness expecting God to be impressed with how they have lived their lives.

This seems to be the case with some of the people who were influencing the Philippian church. They made the Jewish rite of circumcision so important that they believed it was required for someone to be made right with God. Paul addressed this several times in the previous verses and in other parts of the Bible. But in the verses that follow, he showed the foolishness of trusting in your own achievements to be considered righteous by God.