This Sunday is Reformation Day!  It’s also the Sunday that we come to the Lord’s Table, and it’s also the day of the Fall Festival.  Lots to pack into a single day, and there’s a lot to unpack from our passage this week too.  Our passage this week, Philippians 3:1-11, addresses an old issue.  Where do we put our confidence for salvation?  Do we put our confidence in the flesh?  Or do we put our confidence in the grace of our God? 

Before Paul’s letter, Jesus often would have to address this as the chief priests and Pharisees trusted in their obedience to the Law.  And now, in Philippians 3, the same issue arose within the Philippian church, but this time it looked a little bit different.  The Judaizers trusted in Jesus, but not in Jesus alone.  Rather, it was Jesus plus obedience to the Law.  Do you see the trust being placed in the flesh?  Old habits die hard, I guess.  And as we move forward through history, we find that 1500 years later, Martin Luther had to deal with the same issue, just with a different wrapping.  In Luther’s day, the church had committed to a theology of works righteousness.  Your good works could bring about forgiveness of sins.  Unfortunately, those good works included giving money to the church and participating in the Crusades.  And so they didn’t trust in the work of Christ on the Cross, rather, they trusted in their own obedience, wealth, power, and influence.  Sounds familiar right?  It should because we deal with this issue all the time too.  We trust in ourselves almost reflexively.  And while we at Potomac Hills might say that we trust in Jesus, practically speaking, we usually trust in ourselves.  And as we prepare to hear from the Lord on Sunday about where we ought to put our confidence, I encourage you to meditate upon how you put confidence in the flesh, be it yourself, others, or the institutions around us.  And then I encourage you consider how the Gospel enables us to transform us so that we now trust in Him.  See you Sunday!

-Frank