Confessing Christ before men
Posted on April 9, 2007
Filed Under Matt Clifton, Salvation
by Matt Clifton
Jesus caused a lot of friction in His earthly ministry, especially among the prevailing Jewish groups of that day. The biggest issue was that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and most of the Jews were not ready to accept Him as such. In John 9:22, we read that “the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” In other words, owning up to a belief in Jesus as the Messiah would get them kicked out of the Jewish fellowship.
There were many Jews who believed in Jesus. The disciples were all Jews. The early church was mostly Jewish in the very beginning. Of course, there were also many who outright rejected Jesus as the Messiah. But in between those two groups was another sector of the public: those who believed, but kept their belief hidden.
The apostle John tells us, “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God” (John 12:42-43). Because they would rather maintain the fellowship of their Jewish brethren in the synagogue, they would not own up to the fact that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah.
A hidden faith, however, is not a saving faith. We know this because Jesus Himself plainly says so: “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32-33).
An open faith, confessing Christ publicly, is the kind of faith Christ calls on us to have. In John 12:48, Jesus says, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” Jesus says we will be judged by the things He has spoken. If we know what the scriptures say, and yet continue to practice things contrary to what He says for the sake of maintaining fellowship with a certain religious body, then we are practicing religion much like those in John 12:42-43, and not adhering to His word for fear of being put out of the fellowship of men.
We have learned in previous articles in this series that this faith in Christ comes from hearing His word (Rom. 10:17), and that Jesus calls on us to believe in Him as the Messiah (John 8:24), God who came in the flesh (John 1:1,14), repent of our sinful lives (Luke 13:3,5; Acts 17:30). We now see He also wants us to openly confess Him as our savior. In the next article, we will examine Jesus’ command that we be baptized.
RELATED POSTS:
Repenting of sin
Baptism into Christ
‘Am I a member of the true church of Christ?’
We Are Not Those People!
Why I Left the Catholic Church
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