Matthew 10:32-33

Matthew 10:32-33

32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Counterfeit faith is one of the greatest dangers facing the world today.  It is far more dangerous to think that you are saved and be unsaved than it is to know that you or lost or at least it is obvious to others.  Those who think that they are saved and act enough like believes when they are around believes that people don’t question them are in a very dangerous place and will be in for a terrible shock when they enter eternity.  Judas fit into that category.  The scary thing is that Jesus said in other places that there will be many people in that position.  I urge all who read this to examine themselves and even ask others to examine them to see if they are in the faith.  This passage gives a very simple way to determine the authenticity of our discipleship. 

BELIEVERS CONFESS CHRIST: We are not saved by confessing Christ before men.  But if we are saved we will confess Christ before men.  We are saved solely by placing our faith exclusively in the death of Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead as the only hope we have of being saved.  We are saved when we call on the name of the Lord to rescue us from sin.  Salvation is to be rescued from the penalty, power and presence of sin.  When we are saved the righteousness of Christ is credited to our account and all our sin is paid in full by the blood of Jesus.  This is salvation from the penalty of sin.  When we are saved, God begins a process called sanctification.  We are no longer slaves to sin.  Satan, society and self (our sinful hearts) had us enslaved to sin before salvation, but He has set us free.  We can now live in obedience to God and for the glory of God.  This is salvation from the power of sin.  When we are saved we have an eternal hope that we will one day be glorified and enjoy perfect fellowship with God forever.  We will never sin again.  This is salvation from the presence of sin.  I share all of this because it is vital for us to understand what God does when He saves us.  Salvation is not so much about what we do but is about what He does.  This is a package deal.  We can’t imagine that we can pick salvation from the penalty and presence of sin and reject being free from the power of sin.  Those who love their sin and have no desire to be free from its power demonstrate that they have not been saved from the penalty of sin and have no true hope of being saved from the presence of sin.  Jesus assures us that when we demonstrate the genuineness of our faith by confessing Him before men; He will confess us before the Father.  To confess is to acknowledge on the outside the true faith that is on the inside of our hearts.  There are no magic words that can be said, but when are hearts are truly transformed the words the come from our mouths will be transformed too.

UNBELIEVERS DENY CHRIST: To deny Christ is not something that is done in a single act.  Peter denied Christ three times in one night and I am rather certain we will see Peter in heaven.  It is also not true that we lose our salvation when we deny Christ.  I believe that what Jesus is saying is that when we consistently deny Christ, we demonstrate that we were never truly saved.  When we are ashamed to admit that we are Christians, when we fail to tell others about Jesus and what He has done in our lives, when we use the Lord’s name in vain or when we simply refuse to obey His Word; we deny Christ before men.  If a couple of these things are an accurate description of your life; I urge you to evaluate your faith and to truly trust Christ to rescue you from sin.

APPLICATION: Seek to fully understand the Gospel.  Tell others about what Jesus has done and is doing in your life.  Don’t be ashamed of Christ or enslaved to sin.  Rejoice in the freedom from sin God gives us in Christ Jesus.