02.07. The Duty To Confess
THE DUTY TO CONFESS For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:20.
The root and origin of the confession are from the heart, but confessing itself is a matter of the mouth, a work of the lips.
However, many think that the latter is an addition, in any case, a good work that is superfluous. And they are happy to defend their meaning, for, as they say, concerning our personal faith in Christ and the salvation of the soul, the heart is important, not what we say. Silently confessing and witnessing in the quiet is of more value and bears richer fruit than speaking great words and the use of pious terms. Jesus Himself said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). It is better to confess God in the inner room, than to do so in public, and cast your pearls before swine. For the kingdom of heaven is not of this world, it does not come with observation, it is within us. Man looks at the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Over against the great lie which often dominates confessing with the mouth, the reminder of the necessity of a converted heart is wholly in its place. The confession of the mouth is often rife with hypocrisy. There is a so-called orthodoxy, which seeks to be justified before the Lord, by an outward and intellectual acceptance of the doctrine. We will not be saved by works, but neither by doctrine, which also looks down at the multitude, that does not know the law, and is unfruitful in the works of mercy and charity. That is why it is our duty and calling, over against a false orthodoxy, to emphasize uprightness before the face of the Lord. For "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight" (Proverbs 12:22). The lord is not pleased in a people that honors Him with their lips, but their heart is far from Him. The Lord requires the heart of men in the first place, for from it are the issues of life. It is not for the Christian to speak great words, but to do great things for and with the Lord. But this does not mean that Holy Scripture does not attach great value to the witness of the lips and the confession of the mouth. There is no book that exposes all hypocrisy like Scripture, and at the same time speaks so highly of the significance of the word and the power of testimony.
Speaking is nothing less than one of God’s essential attributes, His eternal, unchangeable work. Speaking, the Father generates from eternity from His Being, the Son, Who is the Word, the spoken and at the same time the speaking Word, which was in the beginning with God, which was God. Speaking in and through that Word, the Lord creates all things from nothing, and at the same time He maintains, rules, recreates and renews them. His Word is action, His Word is power. He speaks and it is, He commands and it stands fast. He calls things, that are not, as though they were. In this respect also, man is created after the image of God. He received from His Creator not only mind and heart, but also the tongue and language, and is therefore called upon, not only to think and feel, but also to speak and witness. His speaking must be praise, a proclamation of God’s mighty works. That is how the angels praise Him, when they, standing before the throne, call out, the one to the other: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is filled with His glory! That is how the saved praise Him when they sing ’the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name?" (Revelation 15:3-4). Yes, repeatedly God’s creatures are by Scripture called upon to praise the name of the Lord. "Bless the Lord all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure! Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion! Bless the Lord, 0 my soul" (Psalms 103:21-22).
Men, who received the word to utter his thoughts, may not be silent in the midst of those praising and God glorifying creatures. He cannot be silent. Even his silence is counted for consent. Neutrality for the heart, as for the mouth, is impossible. Not to confess Christ, is to deny Him. Silence will shortly turn into doubt, unbelief and enmity ’The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; it defiles the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and is set on fire of hell. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God" (James 3). That is why in re-creation, the Lord will have men speak and proclaim His virtues. God redeems the tongue not less than the heart, language as well as thought. Men’s soul and body are both liberated, and his tongue is loosened to speak. He fills the mouth with laughing and the lips with singing. Thought and word belong together and cannot be separated. The word is the finished thought that has become independent and free. The thoughts within men are as it were the branches, and the words are the blossoms, which through the lips and mouth come to fruition. Also of these fruits of the lips, consisting of the sacrifices of praise, God is the Creator. That is why the godly in the Old Testament pray: Lord, open my lips, so shall my mouth proclaim thy praises. Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise, all the day with Thy glory. When the lord sends forth His Spirit, Moses’ prayer, that all the people may be prophets, is heard. Then sons and daughters, old people and servants begin to prophecy, each in his own tongue proclaims the mighty works of God. At such a time silence is impossible, the mouth runs over with the things of the heart. I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. I shall praise thee with all my heart. I shall sing psalms to thy praise, 0, most high; I shall tell of all thy wonders. I shall praise Him among the nations, I shall praise Him at all times; His praise shall be in my mouth continually. I shall praise Him evermore. The Lord values the fruit of the lips so much, that over against enemies that dishonor His name, He ordains strength from the mouth of sucklings and babes, Psalms 8:2. When the disciples are silent, the stones almost call out. The Lord demands all of our lives for His service. He wants men to love Him with heart and mind, with mouth and tongue and all their strength. When men because of sin withholds honor from the Lord, it is He Himself Who through Christ gathers a Church, which proclaims the virtues of Him, Who called her from darkness into His marvellous light. It is God Himself Who obliges and calls, enables and makes His people willing. He urges them by His Spirit, for the Spirit leads them into all truth, makes them confess Jesus as Lord, testifies in them of their adoption to children and makes them call out: Abba Father. Because they are bought for a price, the blood of the Son of God, they are called to glorify God with body and soul which are God’s.
It is the duty of every believer to confess the name of the Lord. In confessing with the mouth it becomes clear whether we are serious about it, whether the service of the Lord means more to us than the friendship of the world. It is the crown upon God’s work in us. In confessing by the mouth, returns again to God, what through grace and love He worked in our hearts. It is no hard duty, no command difficult to follow up, but a service of love, a blessed privilege, a great honor. For the children of man there is nothing more glorious, than to be able to confess God and proclaim His praises.
It is the privilege of the individual believer, but also of the congregation as a whole. God’s people believe and therefore they speak. The congregation confesses all through the ages. To enemy and friend she gives a reason for the hope that is within her. Her witness is as the voice of many waters. She speaks about her faith in assemblies and other religious duties, her prayers and songs, in her works of mercy and gifts of love. She is, and cannot be anything but a confessing congregation. When the Church makes confession of her faith, it would be very one-sided to think only of the written expression of that faith. It is certain that because of errors, written confessions are needed. Even when the Church comes to the world with its written confessions, that too is a glorious witness of her faith. The right of the congregation to confess its faith in writing, in order to be able to maintain its purity, has been denied from several sides, and we think altogether without basis. For with a written confession she does not curtail the Word of God in any way, but only develops the content of the Word, after the measure of faith and knowledge, that was given her at certain times. The authority of the Word is not at all affected, but an attempt is made to maintain the truth, that Scripture shall not be given into the hands of some who would use it to please self. With her written confessions she does not bind the consciences, but makes them free from the repeatedly returning errors of men, and strives to lead every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Development is not cut off, but an attempt is made to keep and lead in the right track, a way that builds up and does not destroy. The Church places the confession not beside, much less above Scripture. Scripture is, and remains the only, perfect, sufficient rule of faith and life. Is a Church without a written confession, she would always, as long and in as far she is Church, have a confession. But when she describes her faith, she has the advantage, that the truth, in as far as by her acknowledged, can be delivered from generation to generation and better maintained against all error and heresy. The confession of the Church has great educational value. The individual, growing up in the Church, takes these in, freely and independently. Like a child in all areas gradually entering into the labours of former generations, so it identifies itself from year to year with the spiritual inheritance of the fathers. No one begins anew. We all stand on the shoulders of those that went before. Everyone lives off the treasures gathered by the forefathers. Only to us comes the demand, with great effort to make into our own possession, whatever we inherited from the fathers. That is how the child accepts the confession of the Church, in order that this confession may become the free and independent expression of its personal faith. But therefore, no matter how important the written confession may be, it may never be separated from the cohesion with all the testimonies and acts, wherewith the congregation is distinct from the world and places itself against the world. It is not a document that binds us because of its age. it bears no authority laid upon us by the distant past. But she is, with all other acts, from moment to moment inspired by the faith of the congregation, and accompanies her from generation to generation. At the present it is still our confession, not because it was framed by the Fathers and by them delivered to us, but because, like it was for them in another age the most pure expression of God’s truth, so for us it is the most beautiful demonstration of the treasures of salvation, which are given us by God in Christ.
Brought up from our earliest days with the confession of the Church, we now confess therein our own faith.