Confession is Good for the Soul. Matthew 10:32-33

Confession is Good for the Soul!

Text Matthew 10:32-33 with Matthew 26
Jesus talks about CONFESSION. He says, in v32-33  “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. It’s obvious that we must CONFESS CHRIST – acknowledge publicly that he he is our saviour and Lord, and we must do it now. So, what does in mean, to make such a confession? Let’s see:-

1. We Are to Confess Christ.
We are to acknowledge him, for who he is. We claim to be a ‘confessional church.’ Confessional statements are simply to help us to understand who Jesus is, and what he did for us, and the implications of that. This is important. And it’s also Biblical. There are many biblical confessions of Christ…

Peter. Matthew 16:16.
Nathaniel. John 1:49.
The Samaritan Woman. John 4:29
Martha. John 11:27
Thomas. John 20:28
The Ethiopian Eunuch. Acts 8:34-37

All of these biblical believers made a confession of Christ. They declared the truth about who he is. Now, what about us? If someone was to ask us who Jesus is, would we be able to make a confession like that? Do we have a clear Christological understanding?

2. We are to Confess Christ PUBLICLY.
There’s a second aspect to this instruction. As Christians, we have a DUTY to confess Christ before other people! In Jesus’ words, our confession is done ‘before men.’ There should, under normal circumstances be no such thing as a ‘secret Christian.’ Nor should we hesitate to take a stand for him. That’s because…

• Public confession is evidence of our salvation. Romans 10:8-9 Just going about telling people that you are a Christian doesn’t bring about your justification before God It is through BELIEVING we are saved. Our public confession does not save us, it demonstrates our conversion and our belief to others. Romans 10:10  (The AMP Bible is really helpful here):- 10 For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Saviour] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous—being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation.
• Public confession is evidence of our adoption. 1 John 1:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
• Public confession is evidence of possession of the indwelling Holy Spirit. 1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. FINALLY :-

3. We are NOT to Deny Him Before Men. 33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
There are two sides to this coin. We are to confess Christ before all men. But what if we fail? If we deny Christ, he will deny us.

• What if a Christian denies the Lord? Solomon, the writer of the book of Proverbs worries about this. Proverbs 30:7-9 Solomon is right. There is always a temptation to deny the Lord, or more likely, just to fail to confess him in our lives.
  • We can deny him by our actions. Our practice of our faith often falls well short of what Christ would expect of us. when we fail to love our neighbours, to pray for our enemies, to forgive those who have sinned against us, when we live for ease and comfort, instead of taking up our cross and following after Jesus – we deny Christ.
  • We can deny him with our silence. When we keep quiet when we ought to speak up we deny Christ.
  • We can deny him with our words. Surely the story of Peter in Matthew 26 should convince us of this. Yet for Peter there was forgiveness and restoration. See verse 75 for his deeply stricken conscience, his loathing of his sin and his repentance, Matthew 26:69
• What about the unbeliever who denies the Lord? In fact that is the case with everyone who is unregenerate. Sinners are all, by nature, and in practice, Christ-deniers. Picture the scenario Jesus is painting for the disciples here. He’s talking again about judgement day, when we will all stand before God and account for our thoughts, and our words and our deeds in this life. On that day there are two possible positions that will be taken by the Saviour. He will acknowledge that we are his, or He will deny us, and declare that he never knew us.

What an awful thing that would be! What a terrible declaration to hear on that day! You’ll understand then, the importance of these words. If we refuse to confess Christ before people now, how will we expect him to acknowledge us then?

So, confession really IS good for the soul. If we confess Christ before men in this wicked and evil world, he will confess us before his Father, and we need that confession, on the last day, when we stand before God on judgement day, – to hear Christ confess of us – He’s mine! She’s mine!

© BobMcEvoy. October 2018