Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” NKJV
When you think of the word, “confession”, what comes to your mind? Is it the confessional booth in a cathedral? Maybe it means getting caught, and telling the truth (confessing) about what you did! Or is it something entirely different?
In my previous post, I wrote about watching what we say! Today, I want to talk a little about biblical confession! First, let’s look at the Hebrew word for confession. The Greek word “homologeo” literally means “to speak the same thing”. In relationship to our key text it means, “to declare openly by way of speaking out freely such confession being of deep conviction of facts”.
Have you ever met a Christian that had a negative viewpoint about the things of God? Have you had a Christian discount the way Jesus was born? Have you felt conflicted about the resurrection? Well, it is time to get your confession right and then hopefully you can help them get their confession right!
Paul said that it was with the mouth that confession was made to salvation(v.10). The word for “confessing to salvation” in verse 10 is the same word in verse 9, “homologeo”, saying the same thing!
Saying the same thing as who? Saying the same thing as what? That’s an easy answer! We are to say the same things about Jesus that God, in His word, has said about Him. It makes no difference who we are talking to, or what we are talking about, we should have a deep conviction in our heart about what we believe about Jesus, and should always find ourselves saying those things!
What you believe impacts what you say! I tried to convey that in my last post. If you believe negative things about yourself, you will say them. And as you say them, you will believe them even more, until you find yourself living them!
The same is true about God and His word. What you believe about God and His word, should impact what you say about Him and His word, which ultimately will impact how you live!
You know I have an example! Paul speaks of confessing the Lord Jesus Christ!
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 NKJV
When we confess the Lord, many think it is a simple matter of saying that Jesus is Lord. However, when we use the literally translation, to say the same thing, then confessing Jesus means to say the same thing about Him that God says about Him! So what are some things that God says about Jesus? He says:
- Jesus is His Son- Matthew 3:17
- Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost- Matthew 1:18
- Jesus would save His (God) people from their sins – Matthew 1:21
- He was born in Bethlehem of Mary- Matthew 2:1
- Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to God except through Him – John 14:6
- Jesus died for our sins- 1 Corinthians 15:3
This is a short and important list about what we must confess about Jesus! He came in the flesh, He was born of a virgin, He is the Son of God, and He is the only way to the Father. We confess it, and we believe it in our heart, and we confess what we believe to obtain salvation! When we are talking to others about what we believe about God, these are the things we should be confessing. If we are confessing that other stuff, then we can’t possibly believe what we say we said to be saved! If we did believe it at one time, but now find ourselves confessing the wrong things to others, we will talk ourselves out of what we say we believe!
The other important thing Paul said that we must confess about Jesus is that He was raised from the dead. Paul explained the importance of this truth when he wrote:
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
1 Corinthians 15: 16-17 NKJV
In other words, it is the resurrection of Jesus from dead that gives potency to the gospel message. His resurrection is proof that He is alive, and no longer dead! His resurrection is proof that He defeated Satan! His resurrection is proof that we are free from our sins!
Is that your confession of faith? Is that what you say about Jesus? Because if you say these things, because you believe these things, then you have been saved. And if you have been saved, then these are the things that you should be saying about Jesus. And if you say these things, and believe these things, and are saved, then righteousness should manifest in your life! Remember! What we say, we believe, and it produces fruit in our lives! Good and bad!
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:11-13 NKJV
Whoever! Doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Greek, rich or poor, male or female! If you call on the name of the Lord, you shall be saved! And Jesus, who is Lord over all, is rich to all who call upon Him!
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV
In 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us that Jesus became poor that through His poverty we might become rich. Many people think that this poverty is the poverty we are familiar with, the place of lack! But when you are God of the universe, and all things are made by you and for you, when you leave heaven to come to earth, your status changes. Any human status is poverty to His deity! So I don’t think that He had a vow of poverty, I just believe that because He became a man, and left heaven, it was a lowly state in comparison! But this lowly state of humanity/deity was an extension of the grace of God towards us that we might experience all of Him, at His expense!
The Bible speaks of all types of ways that we can “say the same thing” that the word of God says. As a matter of fact, that was my original plan for the blog! But I thank God for Jesus, and the leading of the Holy Spirit!
Confession time is not in a booth, to an individual, that your sins may be forgiven! Confession time is saying what God says about Jesus that you might be saved! If you have already made this confession, I am so grateful that you are a part of our family! If you have not made this confession, my heart is that you now want to make it! It’s simple, and you will find a prayer at the end of this page to assist you with that! Please drop me a comment to let me know if you are in the family already or if you have joined the family! Wonderful Jesus!
Wonderful Jesus! 