Philippians 3:3 “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
To “have no confidence in the flesh” is to have no belief that our Eternal Salvation is in any way dependent upon our human genealogy or upon any works of our own. Paul went on to explain that He was “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;” (Philippians 3:5). Yet, his lineage, things that were done to him, or things that He did for himself could not make him a Child of God or save Him to Eternal Life. Then he explains: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Philippians 3:7-8). He could not even claim his “own righteousness, which is of the law” (Philippians 3:9); that is, he was not “righteous” (fit for Heaven) because of who he was, what had been done to him, or what he had done for himself. But he was a “born again” Child of God and made fit for Eternal Heaven “through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9); that is, our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully fulfilled every detail of the Law of God on our behalf and punctuated His completed work by declaring “It is finished” (John 19:30). It is certain that there is no “salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)! For the name Jesus Christ declares that Jehovah Is Our Salvation and that He alone is The Anointed Of God To Save His People from their sins. The great joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Philippians 3:10). Thus, our Eternal Salvation is exclusively dependent upon our Lord; that is, “his sufferings”, “his death”, his burial, and “his resurrection”. Like Paul, we have “no confidence in the flesh”, but our “confidence” rests exclusively in the Sacrificial Death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God!