Have you ever placed your confidence in something that couldn't bear the weight? I remember traveling to Cuba as a teenager, where we encountered those ubiquitous white plastic chairs found throughout Latin America. They're useful and serve their purpose well enough—until they don't. What we American teenagers quickly discovered was that these chairs were not designed to handle our weight when we leaned back on them. One by one, the legs would snap, and we'd find ourselves suddenly sprawled on the ground, victims of misplaced confidence.
We do this every day, don't we? We place our confidence, our trust, our hope in things that simply cannot bear the weight:
Our health
Our career
Our financial security
Our identity as a good parent, spouse, or friend
Our religious performance
And for a while, these chairs seem to hold us up just fine—until the legs snap out from underneath us when we least expect it.
Confidence in the Flesh Is Foolish
In Philippians 3:1-11, the apostle Paul gives us three compelling reasons why placing our confidence in "the flesh" (our human abilities, efforts, and achievements) is ultimately foolish.
It Poisons Your Joy
"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble for me and is safe for you." (Philippians 3:1)
Paul opens this section on confidence with an exhortation to "rejoice in the Lord" because the source of your joy is the source of your confidence. Want to know where your confidence truly lies? Ask yourself: What has the power to give and take away my joy?
If your confidence rests on the flimsy foundation of the flesh, your joy will ride the constant wave of circumstances—the price of eggs, your boss's latest feedback, the traffic on your commute. But what would life look like if your joy was rooted in the Lord? If layoffs at work led you to rejoice in God's faithfulness? If a low balance alert prompted thanksgiving for God's provision?
Joy is more than a feeling of happiness—it's the response of your whole person (mind, heart, will) when you're confident that the object of your hope is secure. And only the Lord can truly bear that weight.
It Perverts Your Worship
"Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3:2-3)
Paul uses intentionally shocking language here. The "dogs," "evildoers," and "mutilators" he warns about were actually religious teachers known as Judaizers—people who taught that trusting in Jesus wasn't enough for salvation; you also needed to follow Jewish ceremonial laws like circumcision.
With biting sarcasm, Paul turns their own language against them: If your confidence to approach God in worship is based on your religious performance rather than Christ alone, you're not worshiping as a child of God but as a street dog digging through religious garbage.
Religion says: "Do good things, then you can have access to worship God."
The gospel says: "You have been given the Spirit of God, so you can worship Him."
When your confidence is in your religious performance, worship becomes an opportunity to boast in yourself rather than Christ. This distortion happens subtly—especially as we mature in our faith and "clean up our act." Slowly, imperceptibly, the weight of our confidence shifts from Christ's finished work to our own spiritual accomplishments.
We see this most clearly when we fall into sin we thought we'd conquered. Instead of running to God in repentance, we withdraw, feeling we need to "get right" before approaching Him again. Worship becomes a heavy, guilt-driven chore rather than a delight.
It Prizes the Perishable
"If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless." (Philippians 3:4-6)
Paul had an impressive religious résumé—born at the top of the religious social ladder, from the faithful tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew with deep roots in Israel. He followed the law meticulously as a Pharisee, demonstrated extraordinary zeal, and was externally blameless in keeping the commandments.
He was the model religious person. He was homeschooled, never listened to secular music, always wore Christian t-shirts, and didn't even hold hands before marriage. His kids never talked back, he tithed on his gross income, and he was always on time for church with his hands raised in worship.
What was it all worth? "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." (Philippians 3:7)
Not just a little thing, not just meaningless—but actual LOSS. Later he calls it "rubbish" (literally: dung, garbage, excrement). If you're placing your confidence in your ability to live like a good Christian, you're trusting in something less than worthless.
Confidence in Christ Is Priceless
Paul doesn't just tell us what not to trust; he points us to the only confidence that can bear the weight of our lives. Here are three priceless treasures that come with placing our confidence in Christ.
He Gives Us Relationship
"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8a)
Notice Paul doesn't just count his good works as loss, but "everything as loss" because nothing in this life can hold a candle to knowing Jesus. This isn't just knowing about Jesus, but knowing Him personally as Lord and friend—not as an abstract idea or set of principles, but as a living, loving relationship.
Every other relationship—parent, child, friend, spouse—will eventually crumble under the weight of your expectations. But not Jesus. He will never leave you, never grow tired of you, never roll His eyes when you're talking. You never have to pretend with Him or "hold it together" because He's falling apart.
With Jesus, you can bring your real, authentic, messy self and be fully known, fully loved, and fully accepted. Isn't that what we're all looking for in our careers, relationships, and bank accounts—something to tell us we belong, that we're acceptable? Only Jesus can truly provide that.
He Gives Us Righteousness
"...and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." (Philippians 3:9)
A Christian's confidence isn't in their own righteousness—their ability to always do the right thing—but in Jesus's perfect righteousness on their behalf.
If you mess up enough at work, they'll fire you. If you get enough tickets, they'll take your license. If you miss enough rent payments, they'll evict you. But if your righteousness is found in Christ, there's no point where you've messed up enough for God to take His love from you. The rent of your righteousness is paid from Jesus's account, not yours.
We don't come to Jesus as basically good people with talents to offer. We show up to God's royal feast covered in filth, like dogs with dead rats in our mouths. But Jesus, the perfectly clean and obedient Son dressed in spotless robes, steps away from the table to take our filth upon Himself. God Eternal became human flesh, lived the perfect life we failed to live, died the death we deserved, and was buried in the tomb dug for us—so that we might join the feast clean and pure, seated beside Him at the table.
He Gives Us Resurrection
"...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:10-11)
The resurrection power of Jesus is His promise to give life, joy, goodness, and grace to His people—not by removing them from suffering and death, but by working through these realities to produce eternal, resurrection fruit.
This treasure is so precious because it means that for the Christian, every hardship has meaning and purpose. There is no pointless suffering, no meaningless death in God's kingdom. We all want Jesus's resurrection power, but we often want it without the suffering and death part. Yet you cannot have resurrection without death—resurrection only happens to what has died.
A Christian whose confidence is in Christ can look death, sorrow, and suffering in the face and say, "Bring it on! I have the resurrection power of Jesus." If God is for us, who can be against us? Our brother Jesus has gone before us into death and resurrection life. He is the firstborn from the dead and has promised to bring us safely home.
Where Is Your Confidence Today?
Is it in a place strong enough to endure the trials and troubles of life? Can it weather the storms of suffering and death? Or are you trusting in a flimsy plastic chair that's already starting to creak under pressure?
Place your confidence in Jesus Christ. He is the only secure hiding place from death, the only one who gives purpose to suffering, the only one with resurrection power. Let go of the garbage bag of your good works, and take hold of Jesus's nail-pierced hand. He bled, died, and rose again to give you His relationship, His righteousness, and His resurrection power.
Those plastic chairs will always break. But Christ can bear your weight, both now and forevermore.
Join us this Sunday at Palm Vista Community Church as we explore what it means to place our confidence in Christ alone.
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