True Christian spirituality is not a blend of Christ and self-effort. It is the utter abandonment of confidence in the flesh—whether that flesh is marked by obvious sin or by the best of our virtues, religious pedigree, or spiritual achievements. Paul’s message in Philippians 3 is uncompromising: you are either boasting in Christ or boasting in yourself; you are either standing in the righteousness of God or clinging to your own. There is no middle ground in God’s reckoning, even if our experience is often a confused mixture.
Christ Versus the Flesh—No Middle Ground
Paul draws a sharp line: those who persist in relying on the flesh—on their own strength, goodness, or religious attainments—are not just misguided, but are, in God’s eyes, “dogs,” “evil workers,” and the “concision” (Phil 3:2). This is not because their intentions are evil, but because the flesh, no matter how refined, is ruined and opposed to the New Creation. All such efforts, no matter how busy or impressive, are “wood, hay, and stubble” (1 Cor 3:12)—worthless before God and destined to be burned up.
The alternative is the “true circumcision”: those who serve by the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3). This is not a call to get busy for God, but to see what God has set forth in Christ and to say “Amen.” The only proper response to the New Testament ministry is to approve God’s way—Christ as everything—and to count everything else as loss.
The Flesh: Not Just Sin, But Human Virtue
Paul exposes the flesh for what it is: not merely our obvious sins, but the totality of the old man, including our best qualities apart from Christ. Our intelligence, zeal, religious history, and even our spiritual “successes”—if these become our ground of confidence, they are flesh. When brought into ministry, flesh becomes a source of pride, comparison, division, and condemnation. It produces sectarianism and self-exaltation, not unity in Christ (1 Cor 1:12; 2 Cor 10:12).
The world system operates on this principle: people grasping for position, boasting in their own attainments, and despising what God treasures. But God has chosen the foolish, the weak, and the despised to nullify what the world esteems (1 Cor 1:26–28). He makes His servants spectacles and offscouring, so that only those who see Christ will value them (1 Cor 4:9).
Counting All as Loss—The True Circumcision
Paul’s own story is the pattern. If anyone could have confidence in the flesh, it was him: circumcised on the eighth day, of Israel, a Pharisee, zealous, blameless in law-keeping (Phil 3:4–6). But all these “gains” he counted as loss, even as dung, for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ (Phil 3:7–8). This is not self-improvement or moral progress; it is a total repudiation of self as the ground of acceptance before God.
This is the meaning of circumcision: the cutting off of everything we would boast in, even what we thought was “gain” in serving God. Abraham had to let go of Ishmael—his own effort to fulfill God’s promise—because God would not recognize the flesh. Only what is of Christ counts.
What Is Lost If We Revert to Flesh
If you revert to measuring your progress or standing by fleshly standards—your works, your zeal, your religious attainments—you lose far more than a sense of peace. You forfeit true fellowship with Christ. You obstruct the Spirit’s transforming work. You trade the riches of Christ for the poverty of self. Worse, you set yourself up for condemnation, division, and eventual shame at Christ’s appearing. The Galatians, by returning to law, “fell from grace” in their experience: Christ became of no effect to them, the Spirit’s supply dried up, and they began to bite and devour one another (Gal 5:4, 15). This is not a minor error; it is a collapse of the very foundation of justification, inheritance, and sonship.
Gaining Christ—God’s Way, Not Ours
To “gain Christ” is not to accumulate spiritual merit, but to have Christ Himself wrought into us by the Spirit. As we behold Him, the Spirit transforms us from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). God’s New Testament ministry is not a demand for performance, but a ministry that impresses Christ’s image into us, making us living epistles (2 Cor 3:3). The Church becomes the fullness of Christ, His inheritance, not by our striving, but by God working Christ into us (Eph 1:18, 23).
How do we gain Christ? By faith alone. We approve what God has set forth in Christ, count all else as loss, and rest in His finished work. Like Abraham, we do not consider our own deadness, but trust the One who gives life to the dead (Rom 4:16–22). This is the only ground of justification and qualification before God.
Not Having My Own Righteousness
There are only two kinds of righteousness: that which is of the law (self-effort) and that which is of God by faith in Christ (Phil 3:9). You cannot have both. If you pick up law, you lose Christ. If you cling to Christ, you must drop law. The law was given to expose sin and drive us to Christ, not to be a means of life or merit (Rom 3:20; Gal 3:24). The righteousness of God is credited to those who “work not, but believe on Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5).
The Special Resurrection—Abundant Entrance and Confidence
Paul’s pursuit is not mere survival, but an “out-resurrection”—an abundant entrance into the kingdom, marked by boldness and joy at Christ’s coming (Phil 3:11; 1 John 2:28). Those who rest in Christ’s righteousness will stand confidently before Him; those who cling to their own will shrink back in shame. This is not about losing salvation, but about losing the very confidence and fellowship that is our inheritance in Christ.
Being Conformed to His Death—The Power of Resurrection
To know Christ is to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil 3:10). This is not morbid self-denial, but the daily reckoning that our old self is dead and Christ alone is our life (Gal 2:20; Rom 6:4–5). God brings us again and again to the end of ourselves so that Christ may be manifested in us (2 Cor 4:11). Every accusation, every defeat, every exposure of our inability is God’s tool to turn us from self to Christ, to teach us to rejoice in Him alone.
The Mindset of the Mature—Pressing On in Christ
Paul confesses he has not arrived, nor are we perfect in this. But the mature are those who, forgetting what lies behind—whether failures or fleshly “gains”—press forward to lay hold of Christ (Phil 3:12–15). This is not a call to self-perfection, but to a continual reckoning: “I have nothing, I can do nothing, but Christ is everything.” Every accusation, every temptation to justify ourselves, is an opportunity to agree with God’s judgment on the flesh and to declare Christ as our only righteousness.
This is the pursuit that perfects the conscience, that trains us to stand boldly in Christ’s presence, that fills us with the fruits of righteousness by Jesus Christ (Phil 1:10). It is the only way to an abundant entrance into the kingdom (2 Pet 1:11). Anything less is to settle for shame, division, and spiritual barrenness.
The Only Way Forward
You cannot mix Christ and self. You cannot stand on your own righteousness and Christ’s at the same time. The New Testament ministry calls you to approve God’s way, to count all as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and to press on to be found in Him. This is not a secondary issue—it is the very heart of the gospel, the foundation of our justification, inheritance, and sonship. To accept any other way is to lose everything that matters.
Today, lay aside every confidence in the flesh. Count it all as dung. Rest in Christ’s finished work. Approve what God has set forth in His Son. Press on to gain Christ and be found in Him—not having your own righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God. This is the only ground for confidence, transformation, and glory—now and at His appearing.
