THEARTOFCHRIST — Issue 04: Self-Confidence Not in the Flesh How Christ brings about life, and how He supplies it more abundantly. The world sells self-confidence. Believe in yourself. Trust your abilities. Take risks. Face challenges. Make decisions without fear of failure or rejection. Develop a growth mindset. Set goals. Celebrate your achievements. Surround yourself with positive people. The promise is always the same: if your confidence in yourself is strong enough, you will never fall. The herald announces a warning. Self-confidence is confidence placed in the self. And the self is a falling foundation. Anchor: The Adequacy of God Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God (2 Cor 3:4-5, paraphrase). Hear the direction: confidence — real confidence — runs through Christ toward God. The apostle names the source plainly. Not from ourselves. From God. We put no confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3, paraphrase). The flesh is not a foundation. It is a weight. Apart from Christ, man is alienated from the life of God (Eph 4:18). His heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9). Tell the alienated man to have confidence in himself, and you tell him to lean on a deceitful heart and call it strength. Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength (Jer 17:5, paraphrase). It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man (Ps 118:8). Watch what self-confidence does with the fear it promises to remove. The world says: believe in yourself, and you will not fear failure or rejection. But failure comes whether you believed or not. Rejection comes. The man who trusted himself has only himself left when the sling misses. Self-confidence does not remove fear. It postpones it — until the evidence arrives. Scripture shows the wreckage. Peter was self-confident: Even if all fall away, I will not (Mark 14:29, paraphrase). Before the night ended, he denied the Lord three times (Luke 22:61-62, paraphrase). The rich man was self-confident: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19). That very night God said to him, You fool! This very night your soul is required of you (Luke 12:20, paraphrase). Confidence in the self is the condemned congratulating the condemned. The contrast that governs this workshop is not "confident versus timid." It is in Christ versus apart from Christ. Apart from Christ, confidence in the self is trust in a falling foundation. In Christ, confidence runs through Christ toward God. One rests on man. The other rests on God. God Gives the Confidence In Christ, God answers the fear that self-confidence only postpones. Do not fear, for I am with you (Isa 41:10). The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Ps 27:1). God has not given a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control (2 Tim 1:7, paraphrase). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). The boldness is real, and it has a source. Peter and John stood before the council — uneducated men, Scripture says — and spoke with boldness, and the council recognized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13, paraphrase). The boldness was not self-made. It was borrowed from presence. They had been with Jesus. That is where confidence comes from. David faced Goliath. His confidence was not in the sling. It was in the God who delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear (1 Sam 17:37, paraphrase). The giant trusted his size. The shepherd trusted his God. Watch who fell. In Christ, man is given confident access. In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him (Eph 3:12, paraphrase). Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace (Heb 4:16, paraphrase). And the command stands: Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward (Heb 10:35). Notice: this confidence is not confidence in yourself. It is confidence through Christ toward God. The man in Christ can attempt hard things — speak when silence would be safer, risk when safety would be easier, accept correction when pride would refuse — not because he trusts himself to succeed, but because his standing does not rest on the outcome. His adequacy is from God. The held man can fail in the attempt and still stand. The unheld man cannot fail safely — falling is all he can do. Confidence Is Physical Every topic in this workshop relates to physical life, and confidence is no exception. Take the world's program and watch God do each item, on His foundation. Growth: the world says develop a growth mindset and learn from your mistakes. In Christ, the growth is God's: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Cor 3:6, paraphrase). Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2 Pet 3:18, paraphrase). Commanded, and caused — by God. Goals: the world says set goals and celebrate your achievements. In Christ, the good works were prepared beforehand by God (Eph 2:10, paraphrase). Walk in them. The celebration is thanksgiving to the God who prepared them. Company: the world says surround yourself with positive people. In Christ, God joined the members into one body (1 Cor 12:18, paraphrase). Support is not cheerleaders for the self. It is the body, each member supplied by the Head (Eph 4:16, paraphrase). Risk: the world says take risks without fear. In Christ, risk is taken under the God who says, I am with you (Isa 41:10). The fear is not denied. It is answered — by presence. Christ came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The abundant life includes confidence — real confidence, the kind that does not crack when the evidence arrives. But it comes as gift from God, not as wages from the self. Stop Trusting the Falling Foundation The world's program says: trust yourself, and you will not fear. Scripture says: cursed is the man who trusts in man (Jer 17:5, paraphrase). Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding (Prov 3:5). So stop asking the cracked foundation to hold you. Present yourself to God instead. Give thanks that your adequacy is from Him. Walk in the good works He prepared. When fear rises, do not reach for self-confidence. Reach for the God who is with you. The held one stands. The self-held falls. Warning and Invitation Apart from Christ, self-confidence is the house built on the sand: the rain falls, the floods come, the winds blow, and great is the fall (Matt 7:26-27, paraphrase). Whoever does not believe stands condemned already (John 3:18). No self-trust moves a man from condemnation to life. Yet in Christ, God gives the confidence that holds. Repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28). He who believes HAS eternal life (John 6:47). Come, and your confidence will no longer rest on the falling foundation. It will run through Christ toward God. This Week Read 2 Corinthians 3, Philippians 3, and Psalm 27. Watch where the confidence rests — on the flesh, or through Christ toward God. When fear of failure or rejection rises, stop and answer it with Scripture: the LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Ps 27:1). Thank God that your adequacy is from Him. Then do the hard thing — not because you trust yourself, but because you are held. This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (1 John 5:11).