Consider a few facts about words:
- There are about 700,000 words in the English language, 111 more than any other language.
- The average lead pencil will write 50,000 English words.
- The Bible (KJV) contains 773,746 words.
- Normally, a person speaks 26,800 words per day, enough to fill up a 500- page book each week.
- The average person uses 860,341,500 words in a lifetime.1
Words are important. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). God in heaven is listening carefully to our words on earth (Matthew 12:36–37). Words have the potential to set “on fire the course of nature” (James 3:6).
What are the most important words? The ten most important words in the English language—or in any language— are found in Acts 8:37:
“I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD.”
These ten words are the most important words a person will ever speak. The word “confess” is found 47 times in Scripture (including “confessed,” seven; “confession,” six; “confessing,” three; and “confesseth,” three [KJV]). “Confession” (which sometimes translates the same word in the original language as ‘confess’) is used 12 times (in various forms).
Confession may be grouped under two headings: confession of faith and confession of sin. Confession is used in the sense of affirming the truth that Jesus is God’s Son, but it is also used in the sense of admitting one’s sins and shortcomings.
CONFESSION OF CHRIST
When Jesus said, “By your words you will be justified” (Matthew 12:37), His statement anticipated these ten words of confession, for Paul said “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Upon the grand proposition that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, rests the salvation of the world, and in it are centered all the hopes which mortals can have that reach beyond the grave. It underlies the whole plan of man’s redemption. For if He is not the Son of God, Jesus was the biggest imposter known to the world, the Bible is a fable, and no man was, is, or ever will be under obligation to believe in and obey Him.
On the other hand, if this statement is true, His claims are just, and every man who professes to believe it puts himself under obligation to accept the terms that He requires.
WHAT IS CONFESSION?
The New Testament word translated “confess” is from the compound Greek term homologia. The roots are: homo, “same,” and legeo, “to speak”; thus, it means to “say the same thing as another.”
IT IS A UNIFYING STATEMENT
It unifies us with every Christian who has ever lived since Peter preached on Pentecost (cf. Amos 3:3). All accountable people who go to heaven during the Christian age begin at the same point. Each makes the same confession that the Ethiopian treasurer made before he climbed down from his chariot to be baptized: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37). There is 100 percent agreement about who Jesus is and what Jesus did. Such unity is both good and pleasant (cf. Psalm 133:1).
It also unifies us with God. Our confession says that we are in “agreement with what God holds and declares to be true.” We acknowledge fully that Jesus is God’s Son.
IT IS A PUBLIC STATEMENT
“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” is a public subscription to the divine creed. We must require a confession with the mouth, provided the subject has the use of the tongue with which to make it. Paul twice said that the confession is to be made with the mouth (Romans 10:9–10). Nodding the head, raising a hand, signing a pledge card, or writing a note would not meet this requirement. (God does not require of one what he is incapable of doing, so one who cannot speak with the mouth can make the confession in the way that he “speaks”—e.g., sign language or other).
We are to “profess” Christ (1 Timothy 6:12 KJV). In English, “profession” (which sometimes translates homologia, e.g., 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 3:1; 4:14 KJV) emphasizes the act’s publicity. “Profess” means “to declare openly.” For instance, Jesus will one day publicly “profess” to the wicked, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). So to confess Christ is to declare agreement with all that He says, and to profess Christ is to declare Him publicly as our Lord.
IT IS A TURNING POINT STATEMENT
The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Why? They had come to believe in His Son Jesus “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1:10). The practical meaning of confess is “avowal,” which implies a change of conviction or of course of conduct on the part of the subject. A sinner is traveling the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). At the point he turns around, he makes a statement. That statement is, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” That is the reason that he is turning around. He has a new Lord, a new code of conduct, and a new hope and goal.
Confession is not limited to the lips; it includes the life. Our actions verify the veracity of our vocalizations. In fact, unless our lives reflect our confession, we forfeit our salvation. Jesus said,
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21–23).
It is appropriate that God should be honored with the mouth, for He made man’s mouth (Exodus 4:11). He promised to give His faithful people a “mouth and wisdom” (Luke 21:15).
Endnote
1 Gyles Brandreth. “The Joy of Lex: How to Have Fun with 860,341,500 Words.”
