You Must Confess
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)
In this section of Matthew, Jesus explained the challenges for those who choose to be His disciples. There will be a price to pay for following Jesus, and disciples of Jesus must be ready for persecution (Matthew 10:16-31).
Jesus wasn’t a salesman who hid the cost of commitment to a rejected and crucified Savior. Jesus didn’t want followers who failed to count the cost of discipleship.
At the same time, Jesus wanted everyone to know that there was also a cost for rejecting Him, and a great reward for allegiance to Christ. Jesus said it like this, first describing the reward: whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to confess Him publicly – before men. If we will not be public about our allegiance to Him, we cannot expect Him to be public about His allegiance to us.
Everyone Jesus called He called publicly. There is really no such thing as a “secret” Christian, at least not in a permanent sense. Each individual Christian life should supply enough evidence – evidence that can be seen by the world – proving that they are indeed Christians.
If many modern Christians were arrested for following Jesus and put on trial in a court of law, they would have the charges dismissed for a lack of evidence. Ask his neighbors: “Is he a Christian?” They would answer, “I have no idea.” Ask friends, co-workers, even family: “Is this person a true disciple of Jesus Christ?” The answer might be, “Not as far as I can tell.” This is a failure to confess Jesus before men.
Yet there is also a negative dimension to what Jesus said. If we deny Him before men, then surely, Jesus will deny us before His Father in heaven.
There is a sense in that however Jesus is to you now, He will be to you in the judgment of heaven. If Christ is precious and beloved to you now, He will regard you as precious and beloved on judgment day. If you deny Jesus now, He will deny you then. Spurgeon said it like this: “If you thought everything of him, he will think everything of you.”
Yet we dare not miss that Jesus here claimed that one’s eternal destiny depended upon their response to Him. This proves Jesus knew He was more than a messenger of God, more than a prophet. He was and is the God-man, God the Son and the Son of God.
Dear friend, don’t miss the urgency of this. You and I must confess Jesus, that He is truly all the Bible says He is and that He did all it says He did to rescue us. Eternity depends on this confession.
Wow. Incredible. He is precious.