Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Philippians 3:2-7.

 

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;  for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,  although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.  If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:  circumcised the eighth day, of the nation 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 the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.  But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”  Philippians 3:2-7.

 

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Even Paul with all of his advantages and accomplishments according to the flesh, put no confidence in the flesh.  He warns us to beware of those false preachers and teachers who try to lead us astray to trust our own flesh (our own ability) rather than to totally trust God. 

 

These false preachers and teachers seem pious on the outside, and they want us to trust them, so they can boast that we are their disciples.  “For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.”  Galatians 6:13 

 

These false preachers and teachers will use the Law to try to get us to depend on them and to just try harder (according to the flesh).  Even a little of this false teaching is dangerous.  “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”  Galatians 5:9.  

 

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision”.  Paul is so strong in his condemnation of these false preachers and teachers that he concludes:  “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”  Galatians 5:12.

 

 

“Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?  So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”  Galatians 3:3-5.

 

 

“⁵ Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
⁶ “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
⁷ “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD.
⁸ “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:5-8.

 

“Total Depravity”, the “T” of “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation, is our axe to chop down the tree of confidence in the flesh.  The following three articles from the Canons of Dordt teach this total depravity, this inability of the flesh to produce righteousness either independently or even through the assistance of the Law (“the decalogue”, the Ten Commandments), and the work of God “by the operation of the Holy Spirit” to save us.

                                   

Article 3.  Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, nor to dispose themselves to reformation.

Article 5.  In the same light are we to consider the law of the decalogue, delivered by God to his peculiar people the Jews, by the hands of Moses.  For though it discovers the greatness of sin, and more and more convinces man thereof, yet as it neither points out a remedy, nor imparts strength to extricate him from misery, and thus being weak through the flesh, leaves the transgressor under the curse, man cannot by this law obtain saving grace.

Article 6.  What therefore neither the light of nature, nor the law could do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the word or ministry of reconciliation: which is the glad tidings concerning the Messiah, by means whereof, it hath pleased God to save such as believe, as well under the Old, as under the New Testament.