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.
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would be hard-pressed to find one, today, who is not familiar with this passage
of scripture. One can find it used in many churches as a profession of
salvation. While it is true that one must confess what one believes, there is a
difference between just confessing "something"
and confessing what one believes.
It
was James who challenged us to try to show him our faith without works while he showed us what he believed by his works. You see, some years ago,
the Ameritech telephone company adopted a slogan advancing that "Talk is
Cheap." The same can be said of many calling themselves followers of God. You
see, while more-and-more people profess salvation, righteousness and a walk
with the Lord, few can follow-up their profession with action.
Will
the people of God never learn that there is more to the operation of faith than
just making a statement? We look for any type of action to take, profession to
make, words to say and prayer to pray which we feel will absolve us of any
personal responsibility. The fact is that the life of salvation involves
"calls" and "responses." That is, the Lord makes the
"call" and we are expected to "respond." Now, there is a
"trick" to this, for though it may seem that we can make more than
one response, there is only, ever , one response that the child of God can make if he
intends to be a part of the kingdom and will of God.
So,
what is left for the child of God? Well, one must weigh the fact nothing will
ever get accomplished in the life of the child of God apart from him making conscious
choices and decisions to do the right thing! There is no way around
doing things God's way--and the sooner we learn this, the better. To use a
familiar phrase, "Resistance is futile." The Lord will bend no rules,
will do nothing "new," and will make nothing "disappear."
If
one wants a different life and wants to be
different and "do" differently, then he must leave the life of the
flesh, behind. In order to leave the flesh behind, one must believe God. He
must believe that all that the Lord says that He has already accomplished is
true. He must believe that the blood that Jesus shed is sufficient to redeem
him and he must believe that he is, indeed, a completely different person than
before salvation.
One
of Man's biggest problems after salvation is that he still tends to be moved by
what others feel and think about him. Only when one accepts that we are not
judged according to what others think or believe of us, but rather, our reaction to them will he
truly be free. Part of this acceptance is understanding that each of us is absolutely in control of what we do , think , feel and accept .
A
"positive confession" is impossible without knowing the Word. After
all, how could one possibly be
positive about what one does not know. Once one accepts the word of the Lord, he will be able
to resist the spirit of the "wishy-washy." You see, when one reads
enough of the Word, he becomes convinced of the power and identity of God. The
more that is read, the more victories one sees the Lord giving His people and one
realizes that as one of those children, we can positively stand on the proclamations and promises of God.
Jesus
did not give His life for us to go around broken down, defeated, disgusted and
degraded. Everything that comes from His hand is good,
all that He does is right and His only concern in all that He allows is that it
leads us to be saved. If we sincerely desire "a positive confession,"
we will "accept" as He accepts and in so doing, be able to profess Him for all
that He is--and manifest all that He is calling us to be. n