“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)
All of us have likely heard the maxim, “Confession is good for the soul.” It’s an old Scottish proverb but there is a word missing. The proverb actually reads, “Open confession is good for the soul.”
I believe there is biblical truth to this maxim as well. In fact, the Bible supports the conclusion that absent open confession, salvation is not guaranteed. That’s the truth exposed in the Scripture leading today’s column.
You can imagine how startled I was to learn that a mainline denomination doesn’t believe that open confession is necessary for salvation. Just yesterday, a friend of my wife told her she asked her pastor if confession was necessary for salvation. He told her no and emphasized that Jesus saved her 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross.
I was stunned, and wondered how any denomination could read what Scripture says repeatedly and reach such a conclusion. Interestingly, this parishioner told my wife that all she needs to recite for salvation is the Apostles Creed. “I say it every Sunday,” she told her.
I believe the Apostles Creed, too – every word of it, but the Apostles Creed is a statement of faith, not a tool to secure one’s salvation. I like what the Concordia Theological Seminary, a Lutheran-based seminary had to say about the role of this long-standing Christian declaration of faith. “It is intended to be used daily in the life of the Christian and the Christian family for the purpose of faithful meditation upon the Word of God and as medicine to help the Christian against the ravaging disease of sin which infects his life.”
We need to be careful to examine whether our church’s doctrine lines up with Scripture. If you believe for a moment that Jesus’ work on the cross saved you automatically from hell, you are dead wrong. The verse I used to begin today’s column says that you have to do two things to secure salvation. Note that if you do, the verse emphasizes, “You will be saved.” “The verb “will” is the future tense. In other words, salvation was been provided for us by Jesus’ death on the cross, but it is secured at a future date and time when the two conditions prescribed by Romans 10:9 are met. That is exactly what Jesus meant at John 14:6 where he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus death on the cross is the “way” to salvation – the means, not the end.
There are other verses that support this truth. Think about these as you examine what your church believes.
• 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
• Matthew 10:32: “Therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my father who is in heaven.”
• Psalm 32:5: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
• Acts2:21: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We are creatures who have been given free will. When it comes to salvation, Jesus provided the way, and God will knock on the door to our hearts. But the next move is up to us. Indeed, confession is not just good for the soul. It’s what saves it for an eternity.
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i was challenged by a skeptical seeker of
Truth concerning the validity of my belief in The Loving LORD JESUS CHRIST because i was tempted to sin in view of the non-believer.
i immediately informed him that i am a sinner SAVED by GRACE, and that as long as i am in the FLESH, i will sin occasionally.
GOD’s purpose is to return His children to Himself, in spite of the fact that Satan (GOD’s once TRUSTED chief angel) betrayed Him (GOD), by secretly betraying His (GOD’s) TRUST!
Satan secretly and deceptively tempted Mankind to sin against GOD, then in turn reported to GOD that Mankind had sinned against Him (GOD).
With knowledge of the deceptive information that satan delivered to Him (GOD), GOD determined to destroy Mankind, whom He (GOD) had created upon the face of the Earth!
However, Jesus, The Son of GOD, requested that He and GOD, through His (GOD’s) Holy SPIRIT go down to the EARTH and examine the heart of Mankind. {I hope you know the BLESSED story from there,,.read the full chapter of the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible}
And since GOD had declared that the sinner who sins shall die, He (GOD) remained TRUE to His (GOD) WORD, in that, we DO indeed die NATURALLY, but PRAISE GOD, we are Holy Spiritually RESURRECTED through The LORD JESUS CHRIST!
In OTHER WORDS-because of The UNDERSTANDING FORGIVING LOVE OF GOD…and our TRUE open confession of our NATURAL sinful state,including our open confession of the FACT that Jesus has SAVED us from our sins, NOTHING can pluck us from HIS (GODS) HOLY HANDS!
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!!
We MUST BELIEVE that JESUS PAID THE PRICE OF DYING NATURALLY-as we MUST DO(for our sins, but
then PROVING that we, as we FOLLOW HIM (JESUS), are RESURRECTED HOLY SPIRITUALLY, through THE BLESSED PROOF of HIS HOLY SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION!!!
“I LOVE YOU NICKOLAS…TRUST GOD; PRAY for HIS (GOD’s) WISDOM when studying HIS (GOD’s) HOLY WORD!!!
you made the statement: If you believe for a moment that Jesus’ work on the cross saved you automatically from hell, you are dead wrong.
That is a very brash and bold statement that is unbiblical: There are two types of confession that the bible speaks about: confession of faith and confession of sin. But what we must first understand is we are quickened, brought to life first, before we can repent or confess.
When the HS breathes life into us, the first
“breathings out” of the Christian is repentance and confession. So we have to understand that regeneration precedes confession ore repentance. Dead people cannot repent or confess.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God . . .14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Heb 10:12, 14 (ESV)
The Greek word for “perfected” is teleioo, it means: “to bring to a state of completion. What the law couldn’t do, Christ did. The Greek word for “sanctified” is hagiaze, which means: “to be set apart for God, declared righteous.” Believers, all believers have been made right with God forever! He didn’t perfect us until we sinned next. He didn’t bring us into access with God until we blew it and deserved to get kicked out. There is no way a believer can lose that forever forgiveness. This is eternal security.
Roman Catholics hold a false view of justification. I share this with you because I think many church goers hold a similar view. Roman Catholic theology teaches that the first plank of justification is found in the sacrament of baptism. By water baptism justifying grace is infused into the human soul. A baptized person remains in a state of grace until or unless that person commits a mortal sin. A mortal sin is called mortal because it kills or destroys saving grace. A person who commits a mortal sin is in need of being justified again. The new justification comes through the sacrament of penance. The sacrament of penance has several parts to it; confession, contrition, priestly absolution, and works of satisfaction. The penitent may be required to say so many “Hail Marys” or “Our Fathers” or other ritual prayers. At times more rigorous and demanding penalties are required. These are the works of satisfaction. They “satisfy” the demand of God and make it fitting for God to restore justification to the penitent.
Martin Luther attacked the sacrament of penance at the point of works of satisfaction. Luther argued that the total satisfaction offered for our sins was performed by Christ. No person can add to that satisfaction. Justification is offered freely to all who embrace Christ by faith.
Sadly, many Protestants do not feel an assurance of forgiveness for their sins. We harbor a lingering, nagging feeling that somehow the atonement of Jesus is not enough to cover our sins. Grace is something we cannot quite grasp. We feel a need to atone for our own sins. We think that we must somehow make up for our guilt. Many believers base their assurance on their performance and not on the finished work of Christ.
When God forgives a person, that person is forgiven whether they feel the forgiveness or not. Forgiveness is objective, feelings of forgiveness are subjective. The sensuous Christian lives by his feelings. The spiritual Christian lives by the Word of God, which declares that we are forgiven when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us that when God forgives us, He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west:
Psalms 103:10-12 (NKJV) He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
The reference to 1 John 1:9 is also something we should all review for our own understanding. The point of the letter was to do with rebutting gnosticism in the church. The first chapter, indeed, does not mention the church. It begins with an apostolic confession that Jesus came in the flesh — John saw and touched him. Verse 9 is about the prayer of salvation to become a Christian. I believe this was offered to the gnostics for their salvation. Chapter 2 of 1 John begins the discussion with the “children,” members of the church — warning them against false teachings of the gnostics.
While Confession of sin (by a Christian) to assuage one’s conscience is certainly all right if kept in perspective. Simple confession and sorrow – all the while realizing Christ’s answer to that prayer is something like the following:
“Oh, my dear, dear servant, (put in your own name) – Don’t you know that no one – not even My Father condemns you. [Rom 8:1] For I died for this and all other of your sins and those of all mankind at the cross. I received punishment at the time in that place for each and every one of them, I was scourged mercilessly and my battered body was nailed to the cross and bled and I, myself, died for sins such as those you were guilty of, even those you may have committed today, and will yet commit. Then, as now, the redemption of mankind, all of mankind, is over, finished, completed and ended. Therefore, neither God nor I can ever condemn you as a child of the living God. Your debt was paid for IN FULL by my suffering and death; YOU WERE JUSTIFIED BY MY RESURRECTION. Go, therefore, dear child and sin no more!!!”
Or, perhaps another alternative to our familiar confession of sin would be a confession of praise, that is, in faith to grasp the sense that Christ commands we go and sin no more because there is now no condemnation for those who are in Him. Maybe, we should praise his justice and grace, and the work of the HS in rendering our new birth, and proclaim the wonder of such love for us in the new creation by removing us totally and completely from the law of sin and death. Maybe we should understand all our blessings and rejoice in them – looking forward to His coming and our own glorification. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME; HE WHO IS THE BELOVED OF GOD, OUR LORD AND MIGHTY SAVIOR – HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH, AMEN.
I am persuaded by the words of the Apostle Paul, soundly echoed by the above commentator that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. The thief on the cross was never told to openly confess his sins. The jailer who asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” was not told to openly confess his sins. While Jesus did say we must openly confess Him as our Lord, He never said we must openly confess our sins, either to Him, or the other believers. Thank you Donald for your beautiful exposition, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Thank you. The Scottish proverb says it better than I thought. Open confession! I did a study on confession and found out that in the Greek it means something like “speak out”. There are at least two words for confession that are similar. One could be just admitting guilt to another person, while the other a much more open confession, publicly.