"Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God." (Luke 12:8-9)
If we desire for Jesus to confess us before the angels of God, we must first confess Him to the world around us. This being the case, we would be wise to know what it means to confess Christ.
First, part of confessing Christ is verbally speaking our belief that He is, in fact, the Son of God. Notice the confession of the Ethiopian Eunuch; "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." (Acts 8:37). Before he was baptized, he had to make the confession that he believed Christ to be the Son of God. Notice also; "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).
Our confession of Christ does not stop there. We must confess Him in our everyday lives. We confess Him in our actions; "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." (James 2:18). Even though one may speak their belief in Christ (there are millions in the world who already have) that is not enough. We must show that we believe our confession by submitting to the commands of Christ and doing His will. He commanded us to repent (Luke 13:5) and to be baptized as well (Mark 16:15-16).
-- Ralph Price, 2001 --
|
|