Title: Faith and Confession / Romans 10:8-15
Contents
♡♥♡ Faith and Confession / Romans 10:8-15
***Introduction
In the morning, I pondered God's Word on thoughts and actions. In this time, I would like to consider the relationship between faith and confession and its importance.
We call a child born just from the mother's womb a 'newborn' or 'newborn baby'. Newborns depend solely on their parents or others for survival. You have no ability to protect yourself, and everything you think, say, and do is at the beginning. They record and store what they hear, see, and learn one by one in a blank space of their mind. That is why children have an 'imitation instinct', and this period is called 'the period of imitation'.
Just as there are physical “babies”, there are also “babies” spiritually. Those who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior and are born again are “spiritual newborn babies.” They grow through the spiritual food of the Word and the breath of prayer. And during this time, we accumulate spiritual knowledge by imitating what we see, hear, and learn at church and through Christians around us. This period is a very important period that determines life.
In the past, neonatal mortality was very high. The more uncivilized the civilization and the lower the quality of life, the higher the neonatal mortality rate. So, our people held a feast on the 100th day after having a child, and a big feast on the first birthday. In my parents' generation, there is a big difference between the actual date of birth and the birthday. The reason is often associated with neonatal mortality. For spiritual newborns, the survival rate is still not high.
Through the parable of the sower, Jesus briefly showed the survival rate of spiritual newborns. In the parable, there are three types of fields and the surrounding roads. That is, the four kinds of land on which the seed falls. The seed here is the word of God, and the earth is the heart of the person who receives the word. 25% of the seeds were sown and did not germinate, that is, seeds that fell on the roadside. Once germinated, the success rate is 75%. There were cases where the shoots dried up before they even started growing. The death of a spiritual newborn. Again, it is 25%, and it falls on gravel. It is a thorny field with 25% of cases where newborns grew up avoiding death, but did not bear fruit because growth was not carried out normally due to pressure from the environment. In the end, only 25% octoin is the only successful growth and fruition. Here, half (50%) of those who hear the Gospel do not have any spiritual life at all, or die as a spiritual newborn after being born. In addition, if you add up the cases in which the environment could not be overcome during the newborn period, it is 75%. So how important is this period?
So, through the text, we are teaching the way to have spiritual children and the way to grow spiritual newborns. Let's look at verses 14 and 15 of the text. Using the gradation method, this verse goes back to the way spiritual children can be born. Let's rearrange them in descending order. Those sent by God preach the gospel. Hear the preached gospel. Those who hear the Gospel will have faith. Those who have faith confess Jesus Christ. This very moment, this moment of believing and confessing, is the birth of a spiritual newborn.
The important point here is to listen, believe, and confess. These three are the three factors leading to salvation, and they are the continuous pulses in the process of “sanctification” in which the saints become holy. This pulse of the Spirit continues until the moment of the ‘glorious’ of the saints reaching the kingdom of God.
A woman who loves children always said something like a habit whenever she met her friend. “I can live without my husband, but I cannot live without my children!” But after a while, her husband died. God took her husband according to the woman's words. The woman thought it was because of her arrogant mouth and regretted it. And then what you say to your friends changed. “You say you can’t live without a husband, and you can’t live without children.” that is.
In Proverbs 18:20, 21, “A man is satisfied with the fruit of his mouth, but with what proceeds from his lips he is satisfied. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and whoever loves it will eat its fruit.” God said to the resentful Israelites in the wilderness, “I swear by my life. As your words have reached my ears, I will do to them” (Numbers 14:28).
People confess with their lips according to their beliefs, and that confession plays a very important role in life along with faith. How do you express your faith to God? You have it in your heart, but are you unable to confess? Then, we must remember the words of verse 10 in the main text. “With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made, resulting in salvation.”
Do you love Jesus? If you love, confess your love often.
An old man from a rural area in England took a tour of London for the first time in his life. The old man liked to draw, but he had eyes to see. I stopped by the famous Japanese room during the tour. While looking at these paintings, I stopped in front of them when I saw a statue of Jesus painted by a great, devout artist as a masterpiece of his life.
Hot tears flowed from the eyes of the old man who had been looking at the painting for a long time with a moving heart. The old man bowed his head, unable to move, and said, “Oh! Lord, I love you.” I confessed my love in a low voice. One of the visitors, who was also viewing the painting, grabbed the old man's wrist and said, "I love the Lord. confessed. Then another student saw this scene and said, “Grandpa, I love you too.” confessed.
In the name of the Lord they communicated and confessed their love. It is said that in an instant, seven or eight people gathered in front of it to create an atmosphere as if they were worshiping.
In a few days, ‘Valentine’s Day’ is a day when young people officially express their love to their loved ones through chocolate. I remember when I was a evangelist back in the day, the children I was teaching gave me chocolates or bunches of roses. It was just a worldly symbolic act, but it felt good. If you get a confession of love from someone, it won't feel bad.
The Lord is pleased with the confession of faith and the confession of love of the saints. In addition, this confession is a must for the life of the spirit. Then, what kind of confession must God's people have?
The first is the confession of faith in the Triune God.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples. “Who do people say I am?” The disciples preached various words, such as ‘John the Baptist’, ‘Elijah’, ‘Jeremiah’, ‘one of the prophets’, and so on, as each of them had heard. Then Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord praised and blessed Peter, saying that this confession came from God.
The second is a confession of one's own life.
In this confession, we confess that we live in sin and always sin, and that we are in need of God's help. And it includes a confession of faith that the Lord hears, forgives and helps us.
If we look at the works of Jesus in the New Testament, especially in the Bible, what those who have received God's grace have in common is 'the confession of faith in the Lord'. They put their hope into a vessel of faith in the Lord, and they surrender that vessel to the Lord. This is faith and confession.
Let's look at Psalm 91:14-16. “He loves me, says God, and I will deliver him. If he knows my name, I will exalt him. He will plead with me, and I will answer. I will be with him in their troubles, and I will deliver him and glorify him. I will satisfy him with long life, and I will show him my salvation. When you are having a difficult time, believe in the Lord and confess your hope. God's mercy extends to those who trust.
What did you say is the threefold leading to salvation, and the continuous pulse in the process of “sanctification” in which the saints become sanctified? Hearing, believing, and confessing. Along with this, I pray that you will enjoy the satisfaction and peace that God is with you by practicing the thoughts of your heart, which are rooted in the will of the Lord, through actions of faith, according to the words of the morning.