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The Need To Confess Unto Salvation (1)
John R. Gentry
Thus far in our study of what the New Testament teaches concerning God’s plan for our salvation, we have noticed that after hearing the good news of the gospel we must believe in the gospel and repent of our sins. We now turn to the subject of confession.
Most every religious person will tell you that a person needs to confess something in order to be saved. Unfortunately there are many false teachings surrounding confessing. Some teach one confesses by the way they live. Others teach one must confess their personal salvation experience. Still others teach the alien sinner must confess his sins in order to be saved.
But what does the Bible teach? In this article I want to discuss what the New Testament teaches concerning confessing as it relates to our salvation.
The Necessity Of Confession
If a person does not confess their faith in Jesus, they will not be saved and Jesus will not confess that person before God.
So everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven... (Matt. 10.32-33).
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. For with the heart one believes unto justification, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation (Rom. 10.9-10).
What Is To Be Confessed?
As mentioned earlier, there are many different things taught concerning what is to be confessed. Our interest, however, is in what the Bible says, so we turn now to the scriptures that clearly tell us what must be confessed in order to be saved.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God (1 John 4.15; cf. 5.5).
And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8.37; cf. Matt. 16.13-16; 1 Tim. 6.13 w/ Matt. 27.43).
Lord willing, next week we will conclude this article by considering what the New Testament teaches concerning how this confession is to be made and the reality of every person confessing Jesus either now or later.
Have you confessed your faith in Jesus?
originally published in the Banner-Gazette
2007.10.24