7 Ways to Confess Christ
.. 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. Romans 10:9
I just read a book[i] about confession. I was expecting it to be about the need to confess our sins –and it was. It was also about the kind of confession Paul is talking about in Romans 10 (verses above). This is a confession of faith that will come from the believer’s mouth when she believes in her heart that Jesus is Lord.
In the book, the author uses the illustration of tithing. When Christians so trust God with their finances that they are willing to tithe on what the Lord gives them, then they are confessing that Jesus is Lord over their finances. Perhaps the only ones who will ever hear that particular “confession of faith” are the Lord Himself and the treasurer of your local church. It is still a confession of faith before the Lord.
This understanding led me to rethink how I live in other areas of my life and how we Christians should be confessing our faith. Most Christians say we believe that God had our best interest in mind when He gave us the scriptures as a pattern for our lives, that His ways are the best ways. Do we live like we believe that Jesus is Lord over some of what we do or over all?
Is He the Lord of our marriages? Are we respecting our husbands? Ephesians 5:33 Do we honor our own, as well as all other marriages? Hebrews 13:4
Do we allow the Lord to rule over our child-rearing practices? How are we disciplining our children (are we disciplining them?) Proverbs 12:1, 13:24, 19;18, 22:15) Are we teaching them to love and serve the Lord? Deuteronomy 6
Is the Lord Jesus confessed as the Lord over your local congregation? This is not a question about the words that come out of the mouths during corporate times of worship. In a practical way do those who worship there look to the Lord to lead, is Jesus Christ the head of the church? Is the church set up and operated from the teaching of the scriptures? If a local church is ruled by a man (or men) whose own life does not confess Christ as King, Christ is not Lord of the congregation. Beware of people who say, “This is our church.” If Christ is head, it is His church. Ephesians 5:23, 1 Timothy 3 and 5, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5
Is Christ Lord over the work we do? Do we do everything with a goal of excellence and to glorify God? Jesus did the work that God the father gave him to do. Is that the example we live by? Is our work extending God’s kingdom or our own? 1 Corinthians 10:31, Philippians 2:14, 4:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:10
Is Jesus Lord of our politics or do we think that politics is an earthly sphere that God should not rule over? Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” It seems that many Christians reject that teaching as if the elected officials will not answer to God. Do we confess Christ as Lord when we vote?
Last, and most personally, is Jesus Lord over our minds? Do we strive to think in a way that confesses our faith in the Lord to the Lord as the only One who truly knows our thoughts? Have we, or will we, train ourselves to take every thought captive to obey Christ? 2 Corinthians 10:5, Philippians 4:8, Matthew 22:37
Confessing our faith with our mouths is what God calls us to do to be saved. I am convinced now, more than ever, that the way we live confesses our faith that He is ruler over every aspect of our lives…for His glory and our good.
[i] The Cure of Souls, Recovering the Biblical Doctrine of Confession, R.J. Rushdooney. Download here for free: . http://chalcedon.edu/research/books/the-cure-of-souls-recovering-the-biblical-doctrine-of-confession-2/