One of the most important things to know as a believer is the importance of confession. Now it's always very important to remember to confess sin according to 1 John 1:9:
1 Jn 1:9 (KJV)
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (Amplified)
9If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
Make sure you are staying cleansed from all sin by continuing to confess that sin to your Heavenly Father each and every time you miss it by making a selfish decision or choice to do things your own way instead of God's way. Then receive His forgiveness and move on. That's vital to your Christian life. But that's not the confession we want to talk about today. The confession we want to look at today is found in the Book of Romans.
Rom 10:8-11 (KJV)
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;9 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.10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
The "word" that is nigh is the Greek, rhema, which means: an utterance, what is or has been uttered by the living voice, a thing spoken by the voice and having definite meaning, a declaration of one's mind made in words. It actually refers to the Word of God spoken from the mouth of a believer who has meditated on that Word until it becomes real to them, then they speak that Word out of their mouth and it WILL come to pass! We see that the Word is nigh, or near, even in our mouths (speaking it) and in our heart (the spirit & soul combination) after meditating on it until we really know, that we know that it is Truth! This Word is the Word of "faith", the Hebrew word, pistis, which means persuasion, reliance, assurance, trust and confidence, which we preach!
What IS that Word of Faith which we preach? It is that "thou shall confess", the Greek, homologeo, which is a compound word that means: to assent, to covenant, to acknowledge, to say the same thing as another, to agree with, to declare, to profess, to declare openly, with our mouth, the Lord Jesus and "shalt believe", the Greek, pisteuo, which comes from the word pistis, which we covered in the previous chapter, and means, to be persuaded, to place confidence in, to trust. What are we to believe and have confidence in? That God raised Jesus from the dead! We're told here that when we believe that in our heart and speak it out of our mouths, then we will be "saved", the Hebrew word, sozo, which means: to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, do well, make whole. For with the heart (spirit/soul combination) man believeth, the same Greek word, pisteuo, that we see above, which results in "righteousness", the greek word, dikaiosune, which means, integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, and actually refers to our "right-standing" with God. You can also say it is our right to stand in the presence of Almighty God as though we've never done anything wrong, because of the precious blood of Jesus! Hallelujah! And then confession is made with the mouth that results in "salvation", the Greek word, soteria, which means: deliverance, preservation, safety, health, healing, wholeness, wellness and fitness!
We are born again by believing that Jesus Christ came to this earth, died on the cross for our sin, rose from the dead, and is now alive and seated at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven. Then we ask Him to come into our hearts and to be the Lord of our lives! We "confess" that He is our Lord. Once we've done that, then we need to find out what God's Word says about us as believers and continue to "confess" what God's Word says about us so that all of those Truths can become real in our lives. Confessions plays a vital role in the life of a believer. We are to be saying about ourselves what God says about us. That's true humility, agreeing with God!
We'll talk more about what we should be confessing about ourselves in our next post.
Shalom in Him!
