Twentieth Sunday after Trinity – Monday
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. – Matthew 10:32-33.
With the heart to believe in the Lord Jesus and with the mouth to confess Him before others, these two are as intimately linked together as a light and the brightness it sheds forth.
For because of our “flesh” (Romans 7:18), which still clings to us Christians, it often is a hard task indeed to confess our Lord Jesus before unbelievers, who mock or threaten or smile in derision. But “the new man” (Ephesians 4:24) within us ever again comes to the surface and freely confesses, motivated by the Gospel of grace in Christ, his allegiance to his beloved Savior, who has made this sure promise: “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.”
On the other hand, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17), the Apostle Paul teaches us Christians. This evil flesh may so overpower Christians that they fall into the sin of denying Christ. But when the look of Jesus, through His Word, brings tears of repentance to them and quickens their faith in the Gospel of Christ once again, a renewed confession will always follow. And those Christians who thus return to confessing Jesus before others, He, the Lord Jesus, will confess also before His heavenly Father; He will testify that these believers are His own through faith in Him, and will be His in all eternity (John 10:27-28).
Blessed are those whom the Savior thus confesses! But how does such faithful confession of the Savior come about? St. Paul gave the answer when he said: “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13); “We [the believers] are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). When the Apostles Peter and John were ordered by the civil government “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus,” they gave this confession: “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18,20).
Is this our Christian confession concerning the things which we have seen in the Holy Scriptures and have heard preached and taught to us, especially what the angels announced to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem centuries ago, the “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11)?
PRAYER – Grant to me, O my Lord Jesus, continued right and sincere faith in Thee, my only Savior, that I may steadfastly cling to Thee and to Thy vicarious atonement, and ever, by Thy grace and with Thy help, continue to confess Thee and Thy precious Word, regardless of the consequences of such confession. Amen.