Matthew 10:32-33 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
I remember when I was twelve years old I accepted Jesus as my own personal Savior. Well, that is a good Baptist term. Some will call it getting saved, I guess based on the idea that you are saved from going to hell. Others call it getting converted which most likely relates to the idea of leaving behind a life of sin for a pious life. For a twelve year old who grew up in the church and never drank, smoked, did drugs etc. there was not too much to convert from. Others say it is getting religion, but I had religion all my life, we went to church every night of the week and twice on Sundays. Still others call it making a decision for Jesus or to follow Jesus as if this were really a tough call. I am sure it is a tough decision for others but growing up in a Christian home, it would be a natural thing for me to follow Jesus and it was not a hard decision. For an impressionable little kid eager to please his parents and those around him who matter most to his family, getting saved is a no brainer.
In my case we had a traveling evangelist come to our church for, what we Baptist called, a revival meeting. This was a preacher who specialized in getting people saved so everyone was encouraged to bring their unsaved relatives and friends to the meetings. The meetings usually lasted about a week with a meeting every night and at the end of each night we would tally up how many people came forward to get saved after singing all four verses of Just As I Am. If the number of respondents were a bit low we might swing back to the first verse of Just As I Am for an encore or maybe move on to a few bars of Almost Persuaded. All this time the evangelist would be giving his heartfelt pleas for the lost to come forward. This was heady stuff especially if you had one of them fire and brim stone preachers who could describe hell in a way that you were certain he had made a personal visit. A lot of lost souls got themselves scared right out of hell. It was pretty dramatic, I saw many people coming forward in tears and there were many hugs and reassurances. I mean I really enjoyed these services, it never did any harm and people did get saved and turn their lives over to Jesus. Even today I love to attend a good revival service and see people getting saved. I am sure God takes great pleasure in this venue as everyone really gets excited about Him and He gets a lot of praise.
However, that is not the only way to get saved. God has multiple ways of drawing people to Him. Sometimes through a friend who is a Christian and gives a witness, sometimes through a tragedy, sometimes just hearing a Scripture verse recited or reading a Scripture verse on a billboard. I believe everyone, in every cultural setting, in every part of the world at one time or another reflects on the existence of God and makes a decision that will make a commitment to Him or just go through life ignoring Him.
Salvation is like marriage. Sometimes there is a period of dating and a long engagement where you get to know Him through reading His word and listening to sermons and teachings until one day God proposes marriage to you and you say, “Yes.” Some it is love at first sight and you are off to the Justice of the Peace the same day you meet. For some it is a common law marriage where you just live together so long, fall in love, that one day you wake up and say, “Gosh, we’re married.” God is a great romantic and has infinite and exciting ways to draw people to Him. I just read in Entertainment Weekly where one Romantic novelist wrote 904 romantic novels. Think of it, 904 ways a man and woman link up together. Just how many more ways would an infinite God have to link up with man.
In my case it was after the second night of a revival meeting and I was sitting in my seventh grade classroom thinking about what the evangelist said. I suddenly knew I really wanted God, I wanted to spend my life with Him. It felt like God was proposing to me and I said “Yes.” I remember I was filled with such joy and I walked home singing, thinking thoughts about God that I never considered and being just so in love with Him and feeling his close presence.
That lasted until that evening when the invitation, as we called it, was being given at the end of the evangelist’s message. Not many were coming forward to get saved which was making the evangelist look bad, I mean success was in numbers and future invitations to speaking gigs was really under threat if he did not get more response. So he sifted to the Christians and started calling for rededications. That got a few more coming forward, but certainly not enough to get a reference for a speaking gig with a larger church so he made another appeal and quoted Matthew 10:32-33. He announced that if we accepted Jesus as our Savior alone, with no one around we had to confess him before men, if you were ashamed to do that then Jesus would not confess us before the Father. I remember I was terrified. You mean I have to walk in front of all these people or I was not saved? He further said if we did not come forward that it was tantamount to denying Him and as a result he would deny us. I was miserable. I mean I was, like, super shy and it was not that I was ashamed of Jesus, I was just terrified of crowds and making a spectacle of myself. After two more nights of being told I was denying Jesus if I did not walk out in front of that crowd and shake the preacher’s hand lest I be doomed to hell, I finally walked forward. I discovered a new found celebrity. Suddenly everyone doted on me and I was a hero. Man I ought to go forward more often if you get that kind of attention. Of course you are allowed only one trip to the altar, so took full advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity and basked in all the glory. That little act started me down the road to a life of seeking praise and attention by acting spiritual and pious. Although my relationship with Jesus was well intact, this little display added a new and dark element to my new faith in Jesus. Jesus had become more of a trophy than a Savior and it is a dark side of my faith that I still struggle with.
So what about this confessing Jesus before men? You know it is one of the few times Jesus speaks in the first person. It is usually God and He as one but here He is confessing us to the Father. What does that mean? In English the word confess means to give verbal testimony, to declare or acknowledge. The word in the Greek that is used here is homologesi which means to acknowledge, speaking the same thing. I don’t see walking forward in a church as fitting this definition. Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic. The Aramaic word for confess is nawdy which means to give thanks. Many times when my study partner and I are seen in public people mistake her for my daughter. I deny that she is my daughter, just my partner in ministry. She is not offended. However, if she really were my daughter and I denied it that would cut deep. However if she were my daughter and I acknowledge it, that is ok, because that would be acknowledge a truth. God would be highly disappointed if we did not acknowledge the truth that we are His child. I mean look at Peter and what a mess he made through his twice denial. But let’s say she were my daughter and I put my arm around her and declare how grateful I was to have such a daughter, that would not only speak a truth but bring her delight and pleasure. When Jesus talks about confessing Him before men, it is more than just overcoming fear and saying under your breath, “Yeah, I am a Christian.” It is putting your arm around Jesus and proudly saying, “This is my God, my Savior, ain’t He something?” If we do that Jesus will put His arm around us, take us to the Father and say, “This is my son or daughter that I died for, I’m proud of this kid, ain’t this kid something?”
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