"Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32 (Luke 12:8, Romans 10:9-10)
Confession: to voice the same conclusion, i.e. agree ("confess"); to profess (confess) because in full agreement; to align with (endorse). [Greek definition from Strong’s Concordance]
Admit: acknowledge to be true or to be the case, typically with reluctance
Picture this: Jesus, the son of God, is here on earth. He has gathered his disciples, and he has shown them the truth. He has performed miracles and proved the power in His message. He is ready to give these disciples apostleship; in other words, it is time for Him to send them on their own mission. Matthew 10, starting in verses 1-4, we are told that this actually happened. His disciples were given power to rebuke demons and heal people of illness, power to perform miracles. With these new abilities, He gave them a message.
Verse 5-42 is what Matthew recorded of Jesus’s commands to His newly appointed apostles. He forewarns of persecution that will come from following His word and preaching His message. But, Jesus says, “do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
In other words, it is going to be a hard choice to speak Jesus’s gospel when everyone else is threatening physical, social, and emotional harm. But, God is greater than whatever and whoever can harm us on earth. The reality is, hellfire is much worse than a false rumor, a discriminatory action, or even death. Twice, Jesus says not to fear these people and the persecution of the world.
Jesus then takes His request a step further. Not only don’t fear, but be ready to proclaim Him and His message to all of the world. “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (10:32-33).
We have the same responsibility. When we hear and accept the truth that Christ is our savior (the one who died to pay the price for our sins so that we could be reunited with God), and we have decided to have faith (to act based on those truths) and repent (to change our actions to support those truths), it is time to start confessing Jesus to men.
Confession, as used in Matthew 10, is defined as a professing or endorsing. It is not a private action, and it is not done with reluctance like admittance is. It is a fearless proclamation. It is difficult to confess Jesus, which is why it is a confession that is preceded by “do not fear.”
When we endorse our favorite TV show, politician, or musician, we constantly talk about it. Anyone scrolling through our facebook accounts immediately notice that there is no shame in our love and support for that show/person. Can people look at our actions, social media profiles, and speech and walk away with the same conclusion about our faith in Jesus? Do we daily admit Jesus before people, or do we daily confess Him?
This is difficult. If we confess Him, we are risking ridicule, humiliation, persecution, and broken relationships. It’s easy to say we believe in Jesus in front of people who agree with us, but Jesus asks for more. Our consistent lifestyle of proclamation and endorsement even when it gets really hard, that is real confession.
In Acts 6-7, a believer (Stephen) of Jesus is set before the council and the high priest. He had been, according to verse 14, talking about “Jesus of Nazareth” and what He would do, and people of the local synagogue were upset and set up false witnesses against him to persecute him via the court system. If anyone had a reason to fear those around him, it was Stephen, this believer. If he confessed Jesus, he could be sentenced to death or rejected from all of society. Admitting, much less confessing, Christ as supreme authority was a dangerous thing to do. Yet, taking Christ’s commands of Matthew 10 to heart, he did not fear. Instead, Stephen gave a speech proclaiming the truth of Christ’s message and the unjust actions of those who crucified Christ. He confessed Christ before men. According to verses 57-58, Stephen was then stoned to death, becoming the first recorded martyr for Jesus. Knowing the potentially bad outcome, Stephen told the court that he believed in the Just One. This is the kind of daily confession we are told to have. We should live out a confession of Jesus, and if that leads to further harm or persecution then so be it. Our choice to confess Jesus stems directly from having faith in Him. We will either be fully convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, or not, and it will be visible in our talk and actions. Stephen's faith was so strong that he could confess Christ without fear of the world. And, this faith did not start when Stephen was put in this situation. It was not a spur of the moment that led Stephen to be put on trial. His confession started long before his trial in chapter 7. They put him on trial because he was always fearlessly confessing Jesus.
There is another type of confession we are asked of by God. First, we confess Jesus. But, after we start the walk with God confessing Jesus, we may mess up. We may sin, but God's mercy has given us yet another way to be with Him. Just like how God gave us a second chance through Jesus from our first sins, He has given us a way to reunite with Him if we fall back into sin.
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
We have an advocate. Jesus is ready not only to confess us before His Father, but also to defend us. These Christians were told that, when they sinned, they could confess (proclaim/endorse) that they were in the wrong with God. They could profess that they had broken the law of God and wanted to fix it. And this confession of sins, the willingness to be humble and make public to God and others that we have a need of healing, is what leads God to see our repentance and forgive us. We, as Christians, can confess our sins to others and to God. James 5:16 lets us know that other Christians can help us when we have sinned; we just have to tell them about it. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. This confession of sins is hard, because our pride says to keep our flaws out of the spotlight. Satan does a good job of keeping us from confession. Just like we should not fear confessing Jesus, we cannot let fear stop us from confessing our sins. It's okay to be ashamed of what we've done. But we should never be ashamed of the power of God's forgiveness, and that is why we confess our sins. This confession is not without shame for the sin we have committed, but it is without shame of God's gift to us. It is recognition that God, the all-powerful, all-just, and all-merciful, can and will forgive our sins if we confess to Him and others our wrongdoings.
Both confessions we are asked to do are challenging. We can easily be too afraid that others will persecute or judge us for our faith in Jesus or for our past sins. But, to help others see the magnificence of God, we must tell and show them what He has done for us. He gave us His only Son, and He gave us a promise of forgiveness if we confess our sins and change our ways.
If we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came to earth and died for our sins, we will be ready to confess Him and His greatness in word and in deed. And if we sin, we confess those sins and then go back to confessing Christ, so that others will know that in our imperfection, God has been loving and merciful.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (Hebrews 4:14)
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)