So far this week, we have seen that a person must hear the Word of God, believe in Jesus, and repent of his sins to be saved, but there is more. After repenting, a person must be willing to confess Christ. We are not specifically told why this is necessary but probably to demonstrate that the person is not ashamed of Christ.
The life of a Christian involves openly serving Christ. Christians must be willing to contend for the faith (Jude 1:3), defend the gospel against the enemies of Christ (Philippians 1:15-17), and let their light shine by living for Jesus without hesitation or shame (Matthew 5:14-16). A person not willing to confess Christ as a part of obeying the gospel is unlikely to be willing to live openly and unabashedly for Him. That person is not worthy to be a disciple of Christ.
Matthew 10:32–33 (NKJV)
32 “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.
That confessing Christ is necessary for salvation is made abundantly clear by Paul.
Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)
9 Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Neither belief nor confessing Christ will save a person by themself. We have already seen that repentance is also demanded by God. Salvation comes only to those who do all that God has commanded. Nothing He demands of us involves meritorious work. No one can earn salvation, but complying with the will of God is essential. Here is what the Hebrews writer said about Jesus.
Hebrews 5:9 (ESV)
9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
While Jesus tasted death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9), only those who obey Him avail themselves of the salvation that He offers.
Confessing Christ does not involve a person confessing all their sins, nor giving some kind of religious testimony. It simply involves confessing one’s belief in Jesus being the Son of God. We have an example of this in Acts 8. Philip, the evangelist, was sent by an angel of God to meet with an Ethiopian eunuch. He was on the road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza and reading from the book of Isaiah. When Philip reached him, he preached to him, and that resulted in the eunuch wanting to be baptized. Here is what followed.
Acts 8:36–37 (KJV)
36 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? 37 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.
This is the confession that must be made to receive justification and become a child of God. It is the fourth step in God’s plan of salvation. Tomorrow night we will consider the fifth and final step in God’s plan that moves a person from outside of Christ to inside of Christ where salvation is located.
As you wind down for the night, think about these things.