Life Under God’s Knife: Philippians 3:3 As Strategy

By Gerald M. Bilkes

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones was fond of saying that “every institution tends to produce its opposite.” [1] What he meant by this is that regardless of how someone or something begins, it often ends promoting ideals that it never originally intended.

When you look at the history of denominations and seminaries, there are an alarming number of instances in which this proves true. Many a seminary or mission institution is started with the purpose of studying, teaching, and adhering to the Bible. Yet, after several decades, these seminaries and institutions militate against the Bible and advance a syncretism with culture and society. Likewise, many of the great philosophical movements throughout history did not set out intentionally to undermine the Christian faith. But loosening themselves from the moorings of Scripture, these schools of thought soon paved the way for secular thinking and the development of a system that is militantly anti-Christian.

This trend is also seen on a personal level. Some start out seeming to follow Christ. Over time, however, they transgress into unbiblical thinking and teaching. These are serious issues that churches, worldviews, and individuals are prone to fall prey to in our day and age.

These scenarios are not unique to contemporary society; they were true of many of the Jews during the time of Christ and Paul. Claiming to be sons of Abraham and priding themselves in it, they did not follow in the faith of Abraham; rather, they followed the way of Ishmael, enslaving themselves and others to unbiblical institutions and thoughts (see Gal. 4:21-31). Wherever Paul took the gospel in his mission to the Gentiles, these Judaizers seemed always to follow close behind, bringing another gospel, which was no gospel (Gal. 1:7). [2] As Paul made his missionary journeys throughout the world, the Judaizers were traveling land and sea just to make one convert (cf. Matt. 23:15). [3] Upon arriving at the churches Paul established, these zealots attempted to undo the message of the free offer of the gospel received by faith alone, exhorting their hearers to keep the law in order to receive the righteousness that comes by the law. And this message was having success in drawing away the young converts from the simplicity in which they had been established in Christ.

Much of Paul’s polemical ministry, then, was aimed at striking a death knell against these Judaizers who would have people rely on their own righteousness as the means of salvation. In Philippians 3:1-3, Paul shows how he armed himself against this threat. First, there is a command: “Rejoice in the Lord” (v. 1). It seems counterintuitive to direct people who are suffering and in danger of making a shipwreck of their faith to have joy and rejoice. However, this is the pattern throughout Scripture. Christ admonished His disciples to rejoice when persecuted (Matt. 5:12). Centuries earlier, Nehemiah encouraged the struggling Jews, saying, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). The Scriptures teach that one of the best ways to fight the temptations that accompany suffering is to find our joy in Christ.

The joy Paul—and the rest of Scripture— commends is not a shallow optimism that many are prone to paste on their faces. [4] Neither is it a joy that only blossoms in prosperity and comfort. Rather, it is a joy that is deeply tethered to the Person and work of Jesus Christ (cf. Heb. 12:2). It is firmly established in following the commandments of God (cf. Ps. 19:11), and it can only be divinely given (cf. Acts 5:41). Paul understands that the enemy of believers seeks above all to rob them of their source of strength, namely, joy in Christ. Jonathan Edwards once preached: “The common argument is the profitableness of religion, but alas, the wicked man is not in pursuit of profit; ‘tis pleasure he seeks. Now, then, we will fight with them with their own weapons…. What pure delights have the godly in this life.” [5] The Christian’s great defense against such false gospels is to rejoice in the Lord.

Second, there is a caution: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (v. 2). [6] This verse serves as a large triple “beware” sign that potently warns unsuspecting people of the danger of the Judaizers. [7] The words “dogs,” “evil workers,” and “concision” all refer to the same group of people attempting to dissuade believers from the gospel of Christ. [8] These three words are very potent. In Paul’s day, the Gentiles were largely known as “dogs” (cf. Mark 7:27). [9] Paul succinctly turns the tables on these Jewish false teachers and calls them unclean, ferocious, hungry dogs. In this way, he desecrates the teaching of the Judaizers as nothing more than defiled false teaching. That Paul uses the term “workers” to refer to the Judaizers is not surprising; they were known for their rigorous works and practices. Notice how Paul labels them as “evil workers.” The Judaizers prided themselves in their works: their strivings after God and their fidelity to the ceremonial law. Rather than commending them to God, though, these works were the source of their condemnation and judgment.

The Greek word translated “concision” in this verse means “mutilation group.” [10] The Greek word is used nowhere else in the New Testament but is closely related to the word “circumcision” (katatome instead of peritome). These Judaizers saw their circumcision as a badge that set them apart from the “uncircumcision,” and it was a source of pride and superiority on their part, assuming standing with God that was elevated, righteous, and without which you were nothing. Paul shows their view of circumcision to be nothing more than a mangling of one’s flesh rather than serving their standing with God.

Third, there is a characterization: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (v. 3). For the Judaizers who were attempting to divide themselves and Christians asunder, this verse would read as a sharp criticism. Here Paul masterfully divides his readers from the false and pretentious Jews who had nothing in common with true believers (i.e., “we”). True believers, Paul argues, are marked by the true, trinitarian, practical, and experiential religion that avoids the pitfall of becoming its opposite.

What Paul is promoting can be characterized as “life under the knife of God.” Such a life is not simply a fleshly incision or external separation from Gentiles. Rather, it is a separation from anything that would keep one from Christ; it means continuing on the knife edge of true religion without straying from God’s will. We will unpack what this means and how this operates in the life of grace.

Sharpness Felt

Paul makes a remarkable claim: “We are the circumcision” (v. 3). Circumcision was a holy ordinance that God gave to Abraham and his seed in order to signify and seal the covenant of grace (see Gen. 17:1-14). [11] Outwardly, circumcision rendered Abraham and his descendants a separate people in three ways: they were dedicated to the service of the Lord, they were marked by the promise of the Lord, and they were called to live out of the grace of the Lord.

Both the Old and New Testament, however, speak of the true nature of physical circumcision as symbolic of the circumcision of the heart (see Deut. 10:6, 30:6; Jer. 4:4). That is to say, outward circumcision was meant to point to the inward change by grace that would expose and abolish sin and death, and bring life to light in the gospel through the work of the Spirit. Outward circumcision alone signifies nothing if the inward faith and repentance does not accompany it. True people of God are those who are internally circumcised by the Spirit of God (cf. Rom. 2:18-19; Col. 2:11).

By the time of Christ’s coming to earth, sadly, most of Abraham’s physical seed had altogether lost this spiritual significance. Exchanging the command for inner transformation, their hope rested only in their outward separation. They failed to follow Abraham in his works because they failed to follow him in his faith (see Rom. 4:12; 10:3). This, Paul makes clear, does not deserve to be called “circumcision,” which is why he uses the pejorative term “concision.” Their precious hope rested in nothing more than mangled, bloody, and mutilated flesh— certainly no hope and no “badge of honor.” [12]

This externalism should be a chief concern for every institution, philosophy, or individual. There is a real need to distinguish carefully between a mere outward performance and inward commitment through faith by the Spirit. We must seek, like Paul, precisely to discern whether we are of the “concision” or “circumcision.”

To live a life united to Christ, we must feel the sharpness of this knife. Our hearts must come under God’s knife. The Spirit cuts His people off of the old tree, Adam, and engrafts them into Christ, the second Adam. [13] To be a true Christian is to be living under the knife of His gospel. [14]

Spiritually Fostered

The three participial phrases in verse 3 —”which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh”—is a list that shows what type of spirituality evidences itself in those who have felt the sharpness of God’s knife. These three descriptions characterize those who are of the true circumcision.

They Worship (Gk. Latreuo) God In The Spirit

Worship, broadly conceived, is revering someone or something with our cognitive faculties, affections, and wills, and giving our loyalty to that someone or something. Worshipping is an act of emulating.15 Those who worship God in the Spirit render to Him the honor, praise, glory, and commitment that is due to Him. Sadly, many who profess to worship God fail to do so in Spirit and truth (cf. John 4:24).16 Without the Spirit, there can be no true worship of God; He redeems His people to be priests unto Him through the Spirit (cf. Ex. 7:16).17 A Christian’s life ought to be one of continual and constant worship of God, of walking by the Spirit so as to squelch the desires of the flesh (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31; Gal. 5:16).

Such worship, however, does not naturally surface in the depraved hearts of men; worship of this caliber is only given and worked by the Spirit of God. As soon as the Holy Spirit regenerates someone, there will be the beginning of true, inward, heartfelt worship. Every song, every prayer, every Bible reading or meditation, every act done to the praise of God, has its rise, strength, aim, and end through the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. Anything less is false worship. Any worship centered on anything else—accouterments, fanfare, emotionalism, or anything not appointed in God’s Word—is not true worship or service. Such false worship is the worship of the concision.18

They Rejoice In Christ Jesus

The word “rejoice” here is literally “to boast” or “to glory.”19 The natural man boasts in himself, his actions, his zeal, his forbears, his badges, his attainments (cf. Isa. 10:13). But true circumcision of the heart causes one to glory “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31). This boasting or glorying in Christ Jesus is what Paul learned himself and urgently impressed upon his readers (Gal. 6:14). Christ was the most excellent one in all the earth, especially through His work on the cross and His resurrection (Phil. 3:7ff). Paul says that those of the circumcision rejoice in Christ Jesus—that is, in Messiah Jesus, the anointed Savior. They worship Christ as the Savior of their worship, and this is the cause of great rejoicing. They are fixed on Christ, they esteem Him highly, they praise His glorious covenantal work. The hearts of the circumcised are to be taken by Christ and overflow with joy for what He has done on their behalf (Phil. 4:4).

They Have No Confidence In The Flesh [20]

Paul knew what it was to have confidence in the flesh. He was the epitome of someone who had all the reasons and benefits of the flesh (Phil. 3:2-6) and even of his own spiritual life (2 Cor. 12:1-6). But when Paul was truly circumcised, all this fleshly confidence was cut away. “Flesh” here refers to all those things, privileges, actions that, though legitimate in and of themselves, have no ground for acceptance before God. [21] When God deals with the soul by the knife of His law, He takes away anything and everything that would detract from His grace and Jesus Christ, the only resting ground (cf. 2 Cor. 11:30). Confidence in the Person and work of Christ dashes all other confidence a sinner may have.

Later in Philippians, Paul clarifies how his own confidence is dashed in light of the confidence of Christ. He was so established in Christ that he could boldly declare that any gain was considered nothing less than dung compared to the righteousness of Christ imputed to those who by faith receive Him (see Phil. 3:7-9).

If there is such a great spiritual divide between those who worship as the concision and those who worship as the circumcision, the question is: how does the church avoid becoming its opposite?

Strategy Pursued

Paul is not simply stating a truth in these verses; rather, like a great surgeon, he is making a careful, and preventative, sharp incision into the ploys of the enemies of the gospel. He is preparing his readers with a strategy to withstand the anti-gospel cancer (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13).

Since the original fall into sin, the serpent has remained the subtle and sly deceiver he showed himself to be in the Garden. Throughout history, he has been the great deceiver and tempter who has diverted the allegiance of human beings to do his will (2 Tim. 2:24-26).

A comparison of Revelation 12 and 17 manifests the serpentine subtlety by which Satan has assailed the church throughout history. Revelation 12 leaves the woman in the desert as she is being pursued by the dragon; but when we read of a woman again in Revelation 17, we find her a harlot, sitting upon the beast—the apostate church, people who have abandoned the simplicity of the gospel because of persecution and have embraced harlotry with honor. [22] Paul is aware of this danger, and aims to forever warn, prevent, and secure God’s elect from this deadly digression. How does this sharpened incision surgically help us to withstand such a temptation?

We should, firstly, not be surprised that the work of Satan follows on the heels of a true gospel work. We should prepare and expect that his infectious work will follow closely on the heels of the true circumcision of God’s people (cf. Matt. 13:25). This expectation ought to direct, warn, and teach us— even as Paul gives us these balmy words. Next, we need to be cautious not to get distracted by impressive labels or energetic works. Our hearts are easily led astray by the works of men. We must hold fast to the work of God in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures (1 Cor. 1:12-17). And we need to exercise discernment and discretion in taking upon ourselves anything but the name of Jesus Christ.

Finally, the only way to continue progressing further is to submit to the knife of God in our worship, our churches, and our lives. Instead of worshipping through fleshly means, we need to worship in the Spirit (Heb. 9:14). Instead of building churches on manmade ideologies, we need to be built up in the Spirit (Eph. 2:22). Instead of relying upon the flesh, we need to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). Everything about our life and conduct must be rooted in the Spirit of Christ (Eph. 4:1-8).

This is not simply the way that Paul makes his incision; it is also the way Christ saves His people. The living Christ appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and converted him. This former chief representative of the legalistic perversion of the covenant who rested in his mutilated flesh finally experienced spiritual circumcision. Thus he was “graced” to preach and teach and write: “We are the circumcision.” As Christ redeems and circumcises His people, He leads them to say, “We worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.”

So what does life under God’s knife look like? How do we live this all out practically in our lives? Robert Wodrow tells the story of an English merchant who visited Scotland around 1650: “On his return home his friends asked him what news he had brought with him from the north. ‘Good news,’ he said; ‘for when I went to St. Andrews I heard a sweet, majestic-looking man, and he showed me the majesty of God [Robert Blair]. After him I heard a little fair man, and he showed me the loveliness of Christ [Samuel Rutherford]. I then went to Irvine, where I heard a well-favored, proper old man with a long beard, and that man showed me all my own heart [David Dickson].’” [23]

These three things—the majesty of God, the loveliness of Christ, and the sinfulness of sin—are the exact things that Paul is speaking of in Philippians 3. And these three ideas serve to show how Christ’s sharpened incision is applied to the church, or any institution, to avoid it from becoming its opposite. This is essentially what is meant by life under the knife—an apprehension of the glory and beauty of Christ as it applies to our sinful hearts. We need to be always characterized by these three aspects:

First, true reverence of God’s majesty. As the psalmist contemplated the majesty of God, he was led to question his own humble estate (cf. Ps. 8). When the majesty of God, His righteous demands, and the glorious perfection of God’s exalted Son are applied to our hearts, we begin to understand how we need the Spirit of God in order to worship the great and glorious Christ. Charles Spurgeon once preached: “Labor, O soul, to know your nothingness, and learn it by contemplating God’s greatness.” [24] A glimpse at the majesty of Christ humbles us to worship Him by the Spirit, which alone is acceptable to God.

Second, relishing Christ’s beauty. Seeing the majesty of God is not the end all of the Christian life anymore than a peasant who simply acknowledges the king’s majesty. Rather, our King not only calls us to recognize but to love the beauty of Christ. Samuel Rutherford once wrote: “I have a lovely and desirable Lord, who is love-worthy, and who beggeth my love and heart, and I have nothing to give him. Dear brother, come further in on Christ, and see a new treasure in him: come in, and look down and see angel’s wonder, and heaven and earth’s wonder of love, sweetness, majesty, and excellency in him.” [25] Our hearts should find no contentment in lesser forms of beauty, but rest in the One who is the fairest of the sons of men (Ps. 45:2).

Third, utter renunciation of human confidence. In light of the majesty and beauty of God and Christ, we need the Spirit’s work of robbing us of all confidence in self, fleshly reliance, and human pride. Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said: “‘Ah! there is nothing like a calm look into the eternal world to teach us the emptiness of human praise, the sinfulness of self-seeking, the preciousness of Christ.’” [26]

This is what the true people of God have stood for from the beginning—the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). This is how we will stay standing and it is the only way forward. Anything else will start cutting away at the gospel and the church, and we will become mutilated and mangled— our opposite. If we are not the true circumcision, we are the concision—it is one or the other. May Christ make it that we would join Paul and say, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.”

Notes

1. Quoting Dean Inge in Setting Our Affections Upon Glory: Nine Sermons on the Gospel and the Church (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2013), 51.
2. Silva argues that the agitators were Judaizers, that is “Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile Christians submit to the Mosaic law, including circumcision” in Moises Silva, Philippians, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 147.
3. See also G. F. Hawthorne, Word Biblical Themes: Philippians, WBC (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1983), 125. See also John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, trans. William Pringle, Calvin’s Commentaries, vol. XXI (repr., Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), 88.
4. Cf. Peter T. O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 349.
5. Jonathan Edwards, “The Pleasantness of Religion,” in The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 23-24.
6. Some commentators argue that v. 2 is grammatically disconnected from v. 1 and that Paul interrupts his thought with this imperative; see O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, 353.
7. See O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, 347.
8. See O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, 353-54.
9. Silva, Philippians, 147.
10. Cf. G. B. Caird, Paul’s Letters From Prison (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), 134.
11. This is an important definition for Paul as it regards his understanding of the covenant promises of the Old Testament. See Silva, Philippians, 148.
12. See also B. S. Mackay, “Further Thoughts on Philippians,” New Testament Studies 7 (1961), 163.
13. Thomas Boston writes: “The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock is performed by the pruning-knife of the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God, Gal. ii. 19. ‘for I through the law am dead to the law’” (Human Nature in its Four-fold State [Bungay: C. Brightly, 1812], 237).
14. See also Andrew V. Snider, “Christian Identity and Christian Worship in Philippians 3:3, ” MSJ 22 (2011), 204 where he writes that the significance of v. 3 is that Paul characterizes “the true people of God as worshipers.”
15. Cf. G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2008), 16.
16. Silva argues that Philippians 3:3 is the conceptual equivalent to John 4:23-24. Philippians, 148.
17. See O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, 361.
18. See also Calvin, Philippians, 87-88.
19. BDAG, 536. See also H-C, Hahn, “καυχημα,” in NIDNTT, 1:228.
20. Some believe this third designation is a restatement of the second; however, see Calvin, Philippians, 89.
21. Cf. Calvin, Philippians, 86-87. Cf. also to Thomas R. Schreiner, Paul: Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 140-46.
22. Cf. William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Guardian Press, 1967), 200-202.
23. Alexander Whyte, Samuel Rutherford and Some of His Correspondents: Lectures Delivered in St. George’s Free Church Edinburgh (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing, 2006), 10.
24. C. H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit (repr., Pasadena Tex.: Pilgrim Publications, 1975), 3:392.
25. Samuel Rutherford, letter to Alexander Gordon, 1637, in Letters of Samuel Rutherford, ed. Andrew A. Bonar (Edinburgh: Oliphant Anderson, 1891), 426.
26. Robert Murray M‘Cheyne, Memoir and Remains, ed. Andrew A. Bonar (repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973), 85.