Process Toward Salvation: Confession of Faith
Our next responsibility is that of “confession of faith”. Once a person has studied God’s Word, and accepts it and puts it into practice, that person has faith and has repented of the past experiences of sin in their life. It stands to reason, that people will see the change in the life, and want to know why? That’s where the next step comes into play. We confess our faith and trust in Christ, and our willingness to obey by serving and living according to His Will, His Law.
In Acts 8:36-37, the Ethiopian eunuch made his confession that he believed that Christ was the Son of God. With that acknowledgment he was ready for the next step, which we’ll look at next week.
Jesus mentions the value of this confession in Matthew 10:32, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” To be known and accepted by the Father is our goal in life. For Jesus to confirm me acceptable before the Father, I must have conformed to His teaching. According to John 9:22, His words evidently were in opposition to the Jew’s idea of Judaism. So for a person to confess their faith in Christ, they made an unwritten law to cast that person out of the synagogue. That person would be an outcast and ostracized. Matthew 10:33 teaches that if we deny Christ, He will deny us before the Father. It deals with our allegiance to our Lord, God’s Son.
Today, ISIS understands the concept of confession. They torment to get non-believers in Islam, to deny faith in Christ. It is to acknowledge your belief and acceptance, your faith.
Paul in Romans 10:9-10, clarifies this point, “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.”
As we see here, there isn’t just one thing to accomplish to acquire salvation. This text mentions belief and confession necessary for a person to have salvation. The point made is, we have no salvation without these being involved. It is not saying these alone will save. These are preparatory to the next step actually. When applied, the next step has its power, and without these there is no power in accomplishing the next step.
None of these actually will forgive a man of sin. At this point I’m not yet adopted into God’s family, not a Christian. I must be “born again” to accomplish this. Please don’t be confused between our confession of faith, and a Christian having committed sin and making a confession of sin, to seek forgiveness. 1 John 1:9. These are two different things and we will address that one later.