OUR CONFESSION OF FAITH

             Two men are neighbors.  Both are good neighbors.  They are honest, family loving, hardworking, faithful, conscientious friends.  One is a Christian and the other is not.  Why?  What makes one a Christian?  Hopefully, Christians are characterized by good works, honesty, love for neighbor, and many other desirable qualities, but none of these provide the one essential mark that Identifies us a Christian.

               Is not the one mark simply the fact that we believe in and are committed to Jesus Christ and thus wear his name?  Jesus said in Matt 10:32, “Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father in heaven.”  We do this when we become a Christian and we do it every Sunday when we confess our faith at the communion table.

               The confession of faith we use is actually a composite of several that are found in the New Testament.  When we say it we are saying what people like Peter, Paul, and all of the earliest Christians said.  The four parts of our confession come from four places in the New Testament.

               Consider first, “JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.”  This is what Peter said in Matt 16:16 when Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  They had been hoping for the Messiah, the Christ, for centuries and Peter comes to the remarkable conclusion that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God.

               Second, “AND MY PERSONAL LORD.”  This reflects the shortest and probably the earliest confession of faith in the NT: “Jesus is Lord.”  Paul says in 1 Cor 12:3, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”  In the Roman context Caesar was Lord; in a world of slavery, the owner was Lord and master; among the Jews it was applied to God.  But now, believers in Jesus confess that he is Lord.

               Next we add: “AND SAVIOR.”  In Acts 4 Peter and John are arrested for preaching Christ.  After a night in jail they were brought before the highest and most powerful Jewish authorities who challenged them: “by what power or by what name have you done this?”  Peter’s answer included these words about Jesus:  “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  It is no accident that the very name “Jesus” means “savior.”  And so we confess him as savior.

               We begin with: “I BELIEVE WITH ALL MY HEART.”  Should this be part of our confession?  Yes, Paul says in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

               What does it mean to believe “in your heart?”  Or “with the heart?”  The Bible consistently uses the word “heart” to signify the “whole inner self, the source of the inner life, thinking and feeling and volition” (Thurston, Bonnie, God Alone 18).  It means that I believe this so much that I am willing to invest all that I am, my very being in it. 

               This confession of faith is the essential mark that says to the world: I am a Christian.   Will you say it with me now?

I BELIEVE WITH ALL MY HEART THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD AND MY PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR.