Our world revolves around “the performance plan.” If we work hard enough, perform well enough, and impress the powers that be sufficiently enough...we’ll make the cut. 

It’s not surprising, then, that “the performance plan” shows up in the realm of religion as well. 

Religion could be defined as: a system of beliefs, rituals, and behaviors by which a person can be made right with God. It is an attempt to make the ultimate cut.

This “performance plan” approach is what Paul is warning about in Philippians 3. “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh…” (vs.2-3)

In order to understand what Paul is talking about, we have to go back to the story of Abraham found in Genesis 17. There God makes a covenant with Abraham. In essence, “I will be your God and you and the descendants I give you will be my people.” Then God chose circumcision as the outward sign of this covenant. 

Circumcision became the symbol of man’s need to be cleansed from sin at the most basic point of his identity. But from the very beginning, this outward act was secondary to something of far greater importance: an inward belief. 

In Genesis 15:6 we read that “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” Faith came first – then the symbolic action.  

The problem is that all too quickly the Jewish people came to believe that to get right with God all a man had to do was to be circumcised, bypassing the heart change altogether.

But making the cut and getting on God’s team has never been a matter of performance. It is a matter of turning to Him in faith, confessing your sinfulness and receiving His forgiveness.  

In the N.T. this became clearer. Jesus came to replace the old system, giving His life to offer access to not only God’s team but to God’s very family. And He offered that to one and all as a free gift received by faith.

Enter the Apostle Paul – or Saul as he was formerly known. He had not only been taught this misunderstood performance plan, he had become its greatest proponent.  In fact, he was so committed to it that he had sought to snuff out the Jesus movement.   

And then one day, he encountered Jesus who offered Him grace, forgiving him and freeing him from the need to perform. Paul never got over that and devoted the rest of his life to sharing this good news.

He would go from town to town, planting communities of Jesus-followers. After getting these churches grounded, Paul would head off to a new city to continue spreading the gospel. 

Now, many of these new believers were Gentiles – uncircumcised non-Jews. And after Paul left, often a group of people called “Judaizers” would come in behind him and tell these young non-Jewish believers that in order to truly be saved, they had to become Jews. More specifically, they had to be circumcised. In other words, faith alone wasn’t enough. They had to jump through the hoops of the performance plan. 

When Paul heard about this, he came unglued! This is what he was confronting in Phil. 3:2. 

He says, “Do you want to compare performance? My pedigree, degrees, and zeal are second to none. Yet all of that is utter garbage because it didn’t deal with my heart. Only Jesus can do that.”

Are you still depending on the performance plan to be made right with God?

Text: Philippians 3:2-9 

Originally recorded on October 26, 2008, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN