'Fess Up

I watched a lot of TV Westerns when I was a boy. The plots weren't complicated. The good guys in the white hats pursued the bank robbers and stage coach bandits (who wore black hats, of course). After the sheriff caught the bad guys he would make them 'fess up and admit their guilt. The shows usually ended with the bad guys locked in jail—justice done, the guilty punished.

The problem is, we all wear black hats. All of us are bad guys, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We don't deserve salvation; we can only receive it as a free gift. And part of receiving the gift is to 'fess up.

The Greek word translated "confess" in the New Testament is homologeo, which means "to say the same thing," to openly agree or affirm. I confess my sin when I agree with God and say the same thing his Word says about my unholy behavior. Scripture says to "confess your sins to each other" (James 5:16) because our relationships won't be right unless we 'fess up and admit it when we've done wrong. Likewise, we need to come clean with God. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

The Good Confession

We not only should confess our sin. We also must confess our faith.

Do you agree with Peter? Others held various opinions about Jesus, but Peter called him "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Peter offered another confession when many of Jesus' disciples had left him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68, 69).

Do you agree with Martha? Her eyes must have brimmed with tears for her recently-deceased brother Lazarus, but nevertheless she told Jesus, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world" (John 11:27).

Do you agree with Thomas? He emerged from doubt after Jesus emerged from the tomb. Face to face with the risen Christ, Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).

Ananias disciple urged Saul of Tarsus, "And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16). All of us need to express our faith by repenting and calling on the Lord's name in baptism, for "if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). But 'fessing up isn't just for new believers; it's a lifestyle for all believers. We make the good confession as soon as we believe and as long as we believe. Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name."

Don't sterilize this. It's a meaningful custom to make the good confession in a church building surrounded by other believers while receiving a handshake from the preacher; but it's relatively easy to confess Christ there. The real test is when we acknowledge our faith in a hostile and unbelieving world.

When Paul was on trial before Governor Felix, he courageously affirmed, "I admit confess that I worship the God of our fathers, as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect" (Acts 24:14). He encouraged Timothy to keep making the good confession in spite of hardship. "Fight the good fight of the faith," Paul told him. "Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:12). When his life was on the line during his trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus himself "made the good confession" (1 Timothy 6:13). Pilate said, "You are a king, then!" and Jesus responded boldly, "You are right in saying I am a king. . . . Everyone on the side of truth listens to me" (John 18:37).

Jesus warned that it wouldn't be easy to confess our faith. He said, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, 33). Some were put out of the synagogue when they openly confessed their faith in Jesus (John 9:22).

It takes courage to 'fess up about Christ, but how could we deny the one who's given so much for us?

According to a second-century tradition, an aging Christian named Polycarp was arrested in the city of Smyrna and sentenced to die unless he would curse the name of Christ. The arresting officer didn't want to see Polycarp killed, so he pled with the old man, "What harm is it to say 'Caesar is Lord' and offer a sacrifice to Caesar?" But Polycarp bravely replied, "Eighty-six years have I served Christ and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" Polycarp was burned at the stake, and he died praying.

Someday every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11). Why not start now?