Free Will Concerning Our Testimony
9. Free Will Concerning Our Testimony
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. (32) But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 10:32-33
If we begin with the first part of Chapter 10, we find that the disciples were told to go out as Christ had chosen them and given them their instructions.
He states in Matthew 10:22 :
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved."
Therefore, if they endured to the end of their ministry they would be saved alive. We find that they were protected until God was through with their ministry. In Matthew 10:30 :
"But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Now we come on down to Matthew 10:32-33 :
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven, (32) But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." (33)
Here, again, we find that they had a free choice. Christ goes on to tell them in Matthew 10:35; Matthew 10:40 that they are going to have trouble with their own households. But they have a choice. Will they yield to some of their relatives? He also tells them in Matthew 10:36 :
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." In other words, if you love your father and mother more than me, then you are not worthy to be my disciple. So, they had a choice to make. Many today have the same problem and the same instructions apply.
There are many that are out of the ministry because the wife would not let go of her mother and father. Or the husband would not let go of his mother and father. I remember one Catholic man I led to the Lord and later performed his wedding. His parents were staunch Roman Catholics and did everything imaginable to break up his marriage and get him out of our church. It came to the point where he finally had to tell them, "Don't come to my home anymore and I will not be back to see you because I am getting tired of you trying to take away from me what I have in Jesus Christ!" You see--he had a choice. He could have yielded to the influence and listened to his mother and father. But he did not--the choice was his. The conviction of the Holy Spirit will always be at work. But it never impedes over the free will of man.
Notice in Matthew 10:32 :
"...if you will confess me." And in Matthew 10:33 :
"...if you deny me."
You see--the choice is ours. We can be a witness for Christ or we can deny Christ before men. Christ assures them that He will confess to the Father their faithfulness or unfaithfulness and they will be judged by their decision. We stand responsible for the decisions we make.