That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:9-10
Confession of Christ as the son of God is a requirement of our souls’ salvation and before a person is ever immersed in baptism, we follow the example of scripture in Acts 8:36-37 which says, “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”. Why would Phillip ask this? He wanted to verify the Ethiopian Eunuch had a whole-hearted belief and was thoroughly convinced of what he had been taught.
Look at it this way. We have no problem “confessing” our beliefs. When we feel strongly about something that matters we have no reservation in making our feelings known. This past Wednesday night after services, one of our ladies told the story of her young nephew who had no reservation in telling her that the homemade soup she had prepared was “almost as good as Progresso” which he meant as a compliment evidently. The point is, our confession reveals our convictions. God commands the sinner to make the good confession, because without a whole-hearted belief, it is not even possible to please God (Heb 11:6).
Jesus was plain in teaching the necessity of confessing him before men. We read in Matthew 10:32-33, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven”. In Matthew 10, Jesus is teaching us not to have any fear regarding persecutions that may come. Faithfulness to Him is to hold more value than life (Rev 2:10).
One confesses Christ in obeying the gospel. However, confession really is how we live our lives. We continually confess Christ as we obey the Word and live as a faithful New Testament Christian. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
By Jason Barger