Phillipians 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."
We are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit.
First, to worship God in the spirit is to serve him with reverence, giving only him the honor and glory in salvation—this worship begins in the heart, the inner most part. When Paul says we are the circumcision he is not speaking here to Jews. He is speaking to Gentiles who trusted Christ alone. Paul is saying that the true believer is not the man who trusts his outward forms of religion but those who worship and adore from the inner most being. Paul said in his Roman epistle, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
What is the source of this internal worship? Paul began this epistle to the saints at Philippi by saying, God, which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul says it is God who started the work in you. It is God, through the Holy Spirit, who has given spiritual life in you. It is by the work begun by God in you that you believe and rejoice in the Excellency of Christ and that you have the ability to recognize those excellent things that honor him. It is God, also, who will perform it in you until Christ returns. Paul says for it is God, which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The believers willingness to worship God, to believe on Christ, to defend his honor and glory, to love one another, to be likeminded, to stand fast, to serve one another, to endure till the end is the result of God's working in you his will and good pleasure.
How so? God gives a new heart. He destroys the enmity that causes the sinner to hate the God of judgment. He fills the new heart with the knowledge of the person and work of Christ Jesus the Lord. And from that new heart flows faith in Christ and a sincere adoration for God. It is like those deep, unseen places in the earth where God has placed a spring that leaks out pure, crystal clean water. If he has made the source pure within in a sinner then that which it produces will be true and ever flowing, ever praising him.
Those whom God has circumcised in heart worship his infinite goodness. True worship praises him for he is just and yet full of mercy. He is sovereign. He rules in righteousness. The circumcision praises him for his glorious grace in Christ Jesus. True worship is not a chore it is a joy. And though the result of this inward worship may be evidenced outwardly it is not an outward thing done to appear righteous before men. Those who truly know him worship God in the spirit. The circumcision gives God all the glory in all things.
We are the circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Secondly, a believer rejoices in Christ Jesus. A believer rejoices in the wisdom of Christ for Christ is the believer's wisdom. In wisdom Christ Jesus faced the punishment required for our peace and finished the task at hand. It is Christ's wisdom that shines in the sinners' heart and causes him to know and rejoice in the Father's will and purpose in accomplishing salvation while bringing glory to himself. The true circumcision rejoices in Wisdom, for in him God is both just and justifier of all who believe—what man has ever been that wise! It is by Christ, the believer's wisdom, that he rejoices in those excellent things which bring honor to God and become holiness—as Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. A believing heart rejoices that Christ robes the believer in spotless perfection. In him believers are accepted, sons of God. His blood, and his blood alone, cleanses the believer of all his sin. He is the believer's separation from the world and from all uncleanness. The Lord Jesus is the believer's resurrection—the believer's life. Paul says of [God] are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. How the believer rejoices in Christ Jesus!
We are the circumcision who has no confidence in the flesh.
Lastly, the circumcision does not trust self in any way for righteousness. John gives three ways in which the flesh can give no confidence. One, the sinner that receives Christ is born, not of blood—ancestry can afford us no confidence in the flesh. Two, John says those who believe Christ are not born of the will of the flesh—the will of the unregenerate man is a slave to sin and death, it can afford him no confidence in the flesh. The end thereof is just that, sin and death. Three, John says those who believe Christ are not born of the will of man—no matter how persuasive a preacher may be, his ability can afford him no confidence in the flesh. No matter how badly a mother wants her son to know Christ she cannot reveal Christ to him. But, John says, those who receive Christ do so because they are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Spiritually dead sinners must be given power to become the sons of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Paul continually declared that the believer has no confidence in the flesh, even saying it about himself. In his Roman epistle Paul wrote For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do…I delight in the law of God after the inward man: [I worship God in spirit.] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? So if Paul knew so well that his own doing could not deliver him, where then was Paul's confidence? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Those circumcised in the heart know, that of God's own will he hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. The believer knows that by one offering [Christ] hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those who truly believe God know not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The Lord Jesus said, it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.
The apostle Paul, as well as the other apostles, bore these three traits. It was common among the circumcision of Paul's day. It is the three common characteristics of all believers today. We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
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