02.03. The Essence Of The Confession

THE ESSENCE OF THE CONFESSION That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9.

It takes time to live and grow. All what lives and grows takes time to develop. Artificial stimulation of growth results in green house plants, that have no resistance against storms and bad weather.

Spiritual life is also subject to this law of development for organic beings. Holy Scripture knows of a great diversity among God’s children. It speaks of lambs and sucklings among the sheep of Jesus’ flock; it mentions children, young men and fathers in the faith. Scripture makes a distinction between minors and adults, and in connection with this, between milk and solid food that is administered to believers. Repeatedly it admonishes them, to increase in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to put on the new man, which is created in true righteousness and holiness, to be strengthened after the inward man and renewed in the spirit of the mind. As the natural, so must spiritual life develop. It may not remain hidden from man or buried like a treasure in the field. Life is foreign to being idle. Life is movement, life is power, life is to act. All what lives moves and develops. It can be hindered in its growth and resisted, but as long as there is life, there is activity from which it cannot be separated. This is certainly true of spiritual life, that is implanted by the Holy Spirit by regeneration, and bears an everlasting indestructible character. It reveals itself wherever it is found in word and deed, and shows itself in deeds of faith and repentance. And when there is faith, there is confession.

Confession is a glorious word for a more glorious matter. But it has largely lost its beauty and power for us. When we ourselves mention it or hear it mentioned by others, we usually think of the doctrinal standards of some Christian Church, or the public confession, when the young people of the congregation, once in their life time, confess their faith, before they are admitted to the Lord’s Table. But the meaning of the above are derivatives of the word confession. The original sense in Scripture is much richer and much deeper. It is none other and none less than someone’s testimony and speaking of his personal faith in Jesus as the Christ.

Two things are included here. In the first place a true, upright faith, a deep, solid conviction of the heart. A confession in the real sense is not possible, when there is no faith in the heart. Confession is a matter of the heart. Its roots are in the heart. It comes from the heart. It is the, fruit of faith in the heart. Without faith, confession is a work of the lips only, words from the mouth, an impersonal, untrue, hypocritical act, that may not have the fair name of confession, and was condemned by the Lord in the Pharisees of His day. In the second place it is included, that faith is not ashamed and speaks out, openly to the world. Without faith it is impossible to confess. But he who believes in truth and uprightness, must make confession, he will speak in front of friend and enemy, before the face of God, angels and men. Whatever insult may be connected with it, what hate and persecution may be involved, those who believe will speak, loudly, forcefully and boldly. We believe and therefore do we speak.

Jeremiah, by his prophesying, made himself a mockery in the midst of his people, but he could not be silent. The Lord deceived him, was too strong for him and prevailed over him. He said, "I will not make mention of him. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones" (Jeremiah 20:9). The lion roared, who will not be afraid? When the Lord speaks, who will not prophecy?

Believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth go together. To believe and not to confess is acting against the Lord’s will. Both are necessary, said a certain church father: a sure, solid faith and a voluntary confession, that the heart may be decorated with the certainty of faith and the tongue confess the truth unashamedly. Another witnessed: the heart needs the mouth, for what fruit is it, to believe with the heart, without openly confessing before men? Faith may justify, complete salvation is found in its confession. Only then faith shines, when it speaks out in confessing, and many profit. On the other hand, the mouth is in need of the heart, for there are many who confess Christ, but their heart is far from Him.

Paul the apostle says that faith grants us righteousness, but confession of the mouth must be added to obtain salvation. We cannot think of both separately, even as confessing the Lord Jesus cannot be taken apart from belief in His resurrection. Faith without confession does not grant righteousness, and confession without faith does not grant us salvation. Faith and confession cannot be thought apart from each other, just like Jesus being lord and His resurrection from the dead, and righteousness and salvation cannot be seen separately. Yet it is true - and this is what Paul wants to say - that although faith justifies, this faith must first become known as a true, justifying faith, when it makes confession. Faith, not the confession justifies. But when this faith is a true faith it is shown in confessing it. True, justifying faith leads only to salvation in the way of confessing. Without sanctification, no one shall see God. Without confessing faith, no one will see heaven. Confessing is not meritorious, but the royal way to salvation.

Faith and confession work together, they support each other. Faith that does not confess is timid, fearful, withdraws and fades away. Confession without faith is like a flower without stem, it fades and fails to the ground. On the other hand, by confessing faith is strengthened, it is established, and it roots grow deeper in the heart. In confessing, faith receives its glow and inspiration; gains courage and boldness; is continually kept and fed as by a hidden fire.

It follows that the so-called public confession is not an act all by itself, that takes place only once and is thereby finished. Many think that is the way it is. A few weeks before the solemn occasion takes place preparations are made. One abstains from public amusements. One attends church and catechism classes with greater regularity. On the very day a new garment is put on. After that they participate only once in celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Then, everything is forgotten. Life continues as if nothing happened.

Such a confession is without value. It is not confessing the faith. Confessing is much richer and has much deeper significance. It is a serious act and a solemn hour, when youthful members for the first time do confession of their personal faith in the midst of the congregation. It is a die-stone on life’s way, when one becomes of age, and requires entrance into all the rights, which Christ grants His believers. For time and eternity we are bound to the confession we make. God holds us to it, and at one time we shall be judged accordingly. Christ will remember it and shall ask us to give an account of it. The Holy Spirit shall point back to it until the hour we die, unto eternity. It will, if not for us, witness against us in the day of days, and make our judgement heavier.

It is not a matter all by itself that has no connection with life that went before and that follows. It is not a sacrament like what Rome made of it. It has no supernatural holiness in itself. It is not fenced off by the area of unhallowed, natural life. We do not become a new kind of soldier under Christ as King. Confessing our faith publicly is a weighty and grave matter, but is does not stand by itself, it is narrowly connected with the preceding life, and that which follows.

It is preceded by a daily confessing. All faith confesses, after its own measure, in its own way, its own language. Even the faith of the playing child and the youth who is full of life. If it is but a true faith, if there dwells but a true childlike fear of God in the heart, it will come out into the open. It reveals itself in a piety of soul, and upright mind, a tender heart, reverence for what is holy, a delight in prayer, fear for what is evil, in keeping self and others from evil. Our children already confess from the time they were very young, and their confession is pleasing to the Lord. For what says Scripture? "Suffer the children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Mark 10:14). It is because the name of the Lord is glorious in all the earth, for, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger" (Psalms 8:2). "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:27). Children in their simplicity, their uprightness, their humility are proclaimers of the glory of the Lord, which is found in all the earth and appeared most glorious in Christ. And as confessing from early youth precedes doing public confession, so it is followed by one during one’s whole life until the hour of death.

It is true, public confession in the midst of the congregation is done in the first place to gain admittance to the Lord’s Table. It opens the door to the table of the Covenant. It appears as if it separates baptism from the Lord’s Supper. However, this is not so, much more does it connect the two and keeps them together. That is how it should be. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are sacraments that have the same value. They have the same strength and significance. They are signs and seals of the same covenant. The Word directs both, they are ordained to point our faith to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, as the only foundation of our salvation. They are given to the same believers. Baptism in the New Testament was mostly administered to adults, therefore confession came before baptism. The one baptized was instantly admitted to the Lord’s Table. But since infant baptism came in general use, there gradually came a separation. Baptism can be administered to the children of the covenant, for it is the sacrament of regeneration and incorporation into the Church of Christ. But the Lord’s Table presumes that we ourselves take the bread and eat, that we receive the cup and drink. In order to celebrate the Supper of the Lord to our comfort, it is necessary before all things, rightly to examine ourselves, and distinguish the body of the Lord. It is the sacrament of the growth of our spiritual life in communion with Christ, and is therefore repeated at regular intervals. That is why the confession came gradually between Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, not to separate them, but to the contrary, to keep them connected, and to point from Baptism to the Lord’s Supper. The confession presumes baptism and prepares for the Lord’s Supper. In confession, the one baptised accepts his baptism and it is his desire to be admitted to the second sign of the covenant. By grace the Lord accepted him as His child; and at the present time, having come to years of discretion and awareness, he speaks humbly and childlike, but also believingly, before all God’s people, that God is His God. He places his hand in the hand of the Lord. Wholeheartedly he consents to the covenant, in which he was taken up since birth. At the promise of the Lord: I am thy God, he now answers: I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid, thou hast loosed my bonds. Ps. 116. The Lord brings His children up to be free and independent. He wants a willing people at the day of His power. We love Him, because He first loved us. That is what. the believer says, when at the solemn hour of his confession he is admitted to the Holy Supper. Of that he does confession, when with the congregation he celebrates the Lord’s Supper. What the Lord does at the Lord’s Supper comes first, it is His gift, His grace. Therein He offers Christ to us with all the by Him obtained benefits. The Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, instituted the Supper to feed and nourish all those who already regenerated and in His family, are by Him incorporated into His Church. We eat His flesh and drink His blood with the mouth of faith, to strengthen our spiritual life. But in the second place, the Lord’s Supper is our confession. The Lord’s Supper follows a, true examination of ourselves, which exists of three parts. In the first place, ’We must remember our sins’ accursedness, that we may abhor ourselves and humble ourselves before God." (Form for the Lord’s Supper) In the second place, "Let everyone examine his heart whether he also believes this sure promise of God that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that the complete righteousness of Christ is imputed and freely given him as his own. (idem) In the third place, "Let everyone examine his conscience whether he is minded henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life, and to walk sincerely before His face. (idem).

How significant is the confession we make with the Lord’s Supper! We do not go on the Table to testify that in ourselves we are perfect and righteous, to the contrary, since we seek our life outside of self in Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of death. In celebrating the Lord’s Supper we confess that Jesus Christ is the true food and drink of our souls, and that we are members of His body. For it is one bread, seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body.’ for we all partake of the one bread. But the Supper is also not far removed from everyday life. It is extraordinary in the sense, that at all times God’s special grace meets us, and in an extraordinary way is set before our eyes and assured to our hearts. We also see it often as strange and wonderful, since it is only celebrated a few times every year, and then not nearly faithfully by everybody. But the grace granted us in the sacrament, is no other then what continually is preached by the Word of the Gospel which feeds us from day to day. The first Christian congregations therefore celebrated the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day, even in their assemblies during the week. It was the highlight of the worship service, where believers exercised the fellowship of the saints, as provisions, they took along on the pathway of life. The Lord’s Supper signs and seals the fellowship we have with Christ, in which we share at all times, and which we enjoy by faith. We testify of that faith, not only when we participate of the Supper, nor just on Sunday on our way to the sanctuary.

We confess that faith all our life long, as certainly as we are true believers. For faith can do nothing but confess. It does not ask the question whether good works are in order, but does them before the question can be asked. Confessing with mouth and heart, with word and deed, in our walk and dealings cannot be separated from faith in the heart. It is fruit from the tree, the fragrance of the flower, the light of the sun, the sweetness of honey. It is impossible that those incorporated in Christ should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness. To believe is to confess, not only on Sunday but also during the week, not just in Church, but also in family and school, in shop and factory, in store and office, in state and society, in science and art, among believers and unbelievers, before men and angels.

He confesses in maintaining the public worship service, in giving to the poor, in supporting schools, in visiting the prisoner, in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, comforting those who mourn, admonishing the unruly, in refuting those who are contrary, in giving account of the hope that is in him, in keeping oneself unspotted from the world. To believe, is to confess. Life itself becomes a confession, a living, holy, sacrifice in Christ Jesus, pleasing to God.