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Confess With Your Mouth

Romans 10 gives us a phrase which sounds a little unusual to our ears. Verses 9 and 10 tell us that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved, because with our heart we believe and are justified, and with our mouth we confess our salvation.

God expects us not only to believe the truth about who Jesus is, but to speak it out, or as most translations put it "to confess with your mouth." While it is important to believe the right things to be saved, that alone does not fulfill God’s expectations of His children. People can’t see into your mind. They don’t know what you have accepted as truth. Because God wants others to come to the same conclusions about His Son that we have, He wants more from us. While it is crucial that our beliefs about who Jesus is affects our daily lives in terms of our affections, our attitudes and our actions, this does not entirely fulfill God’s expectations either. You can exhibit all of the fruit of the Spirit, but that doesn’t necessarily direct onlookers’ attention to Jesus. They may just think you are an extraordinarily nice person. God wants us to “confess with our mouth” regarding what we believe and why we act as we do.

Most Christians find this one of the most challenging aspects of their spiritual life. Part of the difficulty may be the struggle to put into words the truth that transcends words. Part of it may be a natural reticence to talk publicly about something so personal. Part of it may be fear of the reaction of others when we talk about the reality of God’s work in our life. Other factors probably exist, but these are the big ones.

I remember a fellow who was, at the time, a new believer. There was someone special in his life with whom he wanted to share his faith and I was working with him, trying to help him express verbally what God had done in his life. He had gone over bits and pieces of his story with me several times, but still doubted that he was ready to talk to his friend.

During this time, my brother, Barry, was visiting our family from his home in Arizona. The new believer dropped in one day to meet him. During his visit, I suggested that he use the opportunity to practice sharing his spiritual story. Barry was very enthusiastic and encouraging, so he agreed to give it a try. Since they would probably never meet again this side of heaven, he didn’t have much to lose, even if he embarrassed himself.

I agreed to help as he went along, so he stammeringly told his story. From time to time he whacked himself on the forehead as he searched for ways to express how he came to the Lord and the difference that had made in his life. I coached him with a few expressions and things he could say that would clarify what had happened. After fifteen minutes or so he got the story out. He had “confessed with his mouth” that he had been a sinner and that the Lord Jesus Christ had died for him and he prayed and asked for forgiveness for his sin. Now he had a new life because Jesus died for him. Next time he has an opportunity to tell his story it will be a little easier, then easier again.

God specifically instructs us to verbalize our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do, we encourage our own heart as we go over our story once again. God can also use it to encourage others to receive the same gift that we have received. Some Christians struggle with this because they have never done it once. Each day that goes by, makes it more difficult to begin. We go from thinking that sharing our faith is difficult, to thinking that it is impossible, to maybe even thinking it doesn’t matter.

As I write this, we are at the beginning of a new year and I can’t help but think that it would be a good idea for all of us who are Christians to set some personal goals this year about sharing our faith. Do whatever you have to do to get started and then, take your faith from being something that is an intellectual exercise, and perhaps a physical expression to a verbalized statement about who the Lord Jesus Christ is to you personally.

Ron Hughes
© January 2008