Confession and Believing
Reading 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Romans 4:3, “For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
In these two verses we discover that God promised that ALL our sins and iniquities against Him would be removed, forgiving them, and no longer remembering them, if we would only confess our sins, and believe.
Confess in 1 John on the other hand, is more a change of heart rather than simply saying I’m sorry. Confess is to declare fully, implying the yielding or change of one’s conviction.
The word believe in Romans 4 does not mean to simply acknowledge: The word means the conviction and trust to which a person is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of the soul; thus, it stands absolutely to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something.
Far too often people say I confess, or I believe, which usually means that profession is just said to thwart any further discussion around it. I believe it is said in jest, with the mind and heart not congruent with that profession. In other words, simply uttering the word does not mean anything on its own: There must be a heart to mouth connection.
What does Romans 10:8-10 say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” This is done by faith in Jesus Christ, just as the women who had a bleeding problem reached out by faith and was healed. In order for a person to confess their belief in Jesus Christ with their mouth, their heart filled with knowing they will be freed from the shackles of sin and death, they. byte faith, will be saved. Just confessing you believe with faith is counter productive.
So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 (KJV).
“In other words, faith comes when we focus our attention on God and His Word. Unbelief comes in a similar way, but from the opposite direction. Unbelief comes when we focus our attention on what people have to say. It comes when we listen to all the negative things the doctor has to say. If we consider, ponder, and think on all of those negatives, they’ll negate our faith. So the key to the Christian life isn’t learning how to develop a huge faith, it’s learning how to decrease the amount of unbelief in our life. Very few Christians have this understanding.
Most Christians will spend an extra hour a day in the Word trying to build their faith. But then, during the day, they wash it down with two or three hours’ worth of “As the Stomach Turns” on television and reading through all the bad news in the newspaper. They’ll allow all this sewage from the world to flow through them: thoughts, attitudes, and concepts that are completely contrary to God’s Word; and then they wonder why their faith isn’t working.
You don’t need a huge faith. You just need a pure faith that isn’t counterbalanced by everything else.”
Wommack, Andrew. God Wants You Well (pp. 110-111). Harrison House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Shalom
Views: 6