The Importance of a Correct Confession

 

http://www.vimeo.com/4869660

 

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
(1 St. John 2:21-25)

 

 

 

          I won’t claim any proficiency in the natural sciences; while I enjoyed those subjects in school, I’ll admit they didn’t come easily to me. I was more of a language guy, but I always admired science-minded folk – and especially appreciated chemistry.

          Chemistry was exact, in that mixing certain quantities of certain substances produced certain results. Change the amounts and you’d change the result completely! Chemistry didn’t allow for wiggle room. You had to be exact.

          If only that mentality would take hold in the church!

 

          A Reformed scholar recently said he attended a professional gathering at which some 100 Christian-book publishers were present. When asked to define the gospel in one sentence, this Reformed scholar said scores of the Christian-book publishers got it wrong!

          That’s sad, but it’s a true commentary on the state of religion today in America and in what professes to be the church. You live in a time when you define what is true; when you define what is right; when you believe what you want about Jesus Christ.

          This morning’s lesson, however, sounds a severe warning from our Lord Jesus Christ about how you understand him. As we read of three reactions to Jesus – the crowds, his family and the scribes from Jerusalem – you and I see just how easily our minds misunderstand who Jesus is, how horribly wrong our misunderstandings about him can be, and how critical it is that you and I properly understand who Jesus is.

          Let us take a cue from the chemists and demand precision in our understanding of Jesus: for only as you, by the work of the Holy Spirit, confess the truth about Jesus will you be forgiven all your sins.

 

          We first learn in St. Mark 3:20-30 how frighteningly easily the human mind misunderstands, and even perverts, the facts about Jesus.

          Crowds had been swarming Jesus in Capernaum as he worked miracles of healing and cast out demons – yet as we have observed in recent weeks, not everyone who came to Jesus demonstrated saving faith in him. It’s clear the crowds had heard of Jesus’ fame; many of the people surely came so Jesus could “help them out of a bind.” Only a relative few, however, sat at his feet and learned from him, revealing their personal interest in him and his work. One can’t help but wonder what went through the minds of those throngs who sought Jesus as he worked miracles: did they not want to know more about him? Did they not care about their underlying need for salvation from their sins against the Lord?

          Then we encounter Jesus’ family, and their posture toward him in verse 21 is awfully unpleasant: they had said he was out of his mind. Even moreso than the crowds in Capernaum, Jesus’ family members should have known him and his business on earth. But instead of rejoicing that the Savior of the faithful was among them and even counted, humanly speaking, among their number, Christ’s own family insulted him by suggesting he had “lost it.” Concern for one’s loved ones is understandable, but here Jesus’ family demonstrates a sinful lack of faith and understanding in the mission of the Son of God.

          We reach the crescendo of opposition to Jesus in the scribes from Jerusalem, who said Jesus was possessed by a demon and worked for Satan himself. If the crowds were generally ignorant theologically, and if Jesus’ own family was of less-educated stock, the scribes from Jerusalem represented the theological upper-crust of their day. Not only did they study and copy the law as their occupation, they did so in the very City of God! Of all people, the scribes from Jerusalem should have been keenly aware of the contours of the biblical teaching about the Messiah of God and should have had no difficulty recognizing Jesus as the Savior. But in the “increasing degrees of wrong-ness” in today’s passage, the scribes said the most-impious thing of all about Jesus. They reached the height of error in asserting he was possessed by a demon.

          How was it possible for these groups to see Jesus work miracles, to live with him for some 30 years and to study the law of God so as to have a firm understanding of what God promised about Messiah – yet still to confess falsehoods about Jesus? It was possible, and still is today, because of the effects of the Fall on your mind and will.

          The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1 and 2 that although all mankind can behold the creation and see the hand of the Creator, and although the Jewish people could look in the Word of God and see their sin and need for a Savior, humans by and large reject the Lord. Our minds try to hold down the truth about Christ, while at the same time you and I fabricate idols to worship. On our own, we humans can land a man on the moon, perform heart transplants and built majestic skyscrapers. But unless the Holy Spirit brings you to a right knowledge and confession of who Jesus is, you will remain dead in your sins, trespasses and corrupt thinking about Christ.

Even if you, like the scribes from Jerusalem, are a “professional” in the Scriptures.

 

We learn secondly from our passage how horrendously incorrectly you and I can misunderstand the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Observe again the increasing levels of “wrong-ness” from one group to the next in today’s text: the crowds thought Jesus was a “buddy” who could help them out in a pinch; his family thought he was beside himself; and the religious professionals thought he was possessed by Satan. All three suggestions are seriously incorrect, but our Lord focuses his attention on the third – the idea that he worked for Satan (or “Beelzebub,” another name for the devil) – because it was the most heinous and consequential denial of his Lordship.

To illustrate the utter foolishness of the claim that Jesus was casting out demons in the power of Satan, our Lord spoke in parables. Parables, Jesus tells us in St. Matthew’s Gospel, were designed to illumine the elect – and to further obscure the truth from unbelievers. The parables Jesus tells in today’s passage well unfold his meaning, but those who opposed (and still oppose) him could not understand his point.

Jesus underscored how ridiculous it was to think he in the name of Satan was destroying Satan’s work by illustrating the destructiveness of division. A house, as well as a kingdom, cannot stand and function if they are divided; neither can Satan’s host. Smith Construction Company wouldn’t be around very long if Mr. Smith told his own workers to spend their time and energy tearing down what they already had built; neither can Satan stand if he is divided.

Jesus’ expulsion of demons, then, must be attributable to some other source – and Christ tells us that Source by means of another parable. It’s not possible, Jesus said, to rob a strong man in his own house unless one first binds the strong man. So Christ’s powerful defeat of Satan’s host is the result of his crushing the serpent underfoot, as foretold in Genesis 3:15. In fact, even in the Old Testament we witness scenes of triumph for the Lord over His enemy as He gave Israel great victories over idolatrous nations. In Jesus’ earthly ministry, victory on the Cross (Colossians 2:15) and reign at the right hand of the Father in Glory (Revelation 20:2), our Lord bound Satan and stripped him of his power over men as he brought them into the Kingdom of God. Even today, as you and I tell coworkers and dear relatives about Christ’s redeeming work and see the Lord convert them, and as we battle sin all around and within us, we can witness the Lord at work, conquering evil.

Again, left to our own imaginations, you and I would call good evil and evil good. So does everyone around you. Conversions, and growth in grace and in holiness, come only by the triumphant power of our risen Lord, who has bound his – and our – old adversary.

 

Third, our Lord manifests supreme seriousness in emphasizing your critical need of confessing him as he truly is: your only Savior.

For Jesus, confessing the truth about him isn’t a light matter. It isn’t something with which you and I can be imprecise. If it is important for chemists to mix the exact quantities of the exact substances to produce their desired result, it is eternally more important that you confess the precise truth about Christ. That is the significance of his use of the introductory phrase in verse 28, “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

Jesus responds further to the scribes’ damnable claim about him by offering a word of consolation and a word of warning. For those who repent of their idolatry and confess Christ as the One who suffered for their sins and lived the perfect life, in accord with God’s law, that they never could live, Jesus promises total forgiveness of sins. How sweet those words – “all sins ... and whatever blasphemies ... shall be forgiven men” – are for believers! Do you sometimes doubt you indeed are forgiven of your sins, especially those you try to keep buried in your life’s closet? The find genuine relief from the only One who can offer it: “all sins will be forgiven” you as you look to Jesus for salvation, even if you have spoken against him in your pre-conversion days.

But Christ also issues a word of warning for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit (which we popularly have come to call the “unpardonable sin”). Now, if you are a believer in Jesus and are worried you might have committed this sin, rest assured you have not. To grasp what it is to slander the Holy Spirit, remember the work of the Holy Spirit as Jesus described His ministry: the Spirit awakens you to your sin and to the truth of Jesus as Savior; He gives you a new heart to believe on Christ; He applies the work of Christ to you; and He sanctifies you through your Christian life. If you reject the truth of Christ forever from a settled position, and if you attribute the work of God to the work of His adversary, then you have blasphemed the Spirit of God. And there is no hope for you.

Christian, do not soft-pedal the power of Jesus’ blood and righteousness. He obeyed his Father to the fullest extent so that you could be forgiven all your sins. Not some, but all! Live in the God-given peace that our Redeemer has won for you.

Likewise, do not soft-pedal the horrible reality of Hell for those who reject the Savior. Hell never was a popular doctrine, even less so in our postmodern age. But Jesus did not deem the scribes’ statement about him as some trivial matter. With eternity in the balance, nothing is more important than what you – and those around you – believe about Jesus Christ.

 

Learning more about Jesus is a blessing, and the Lord calls you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him. You always must be striving to learn more of Jesus from His Word, to dig deeper in His limitlessly profound truth.

As you and I dig, we might have some disagreements about less-vital matters. We have blessed communion in the Body of Christ with our Baptist brethren, for instance, even though we differ profoundly with them about the subject of baptism.

But when Jesus asks you, “Who do you say that I am?” there is only one correct answer. You, and any who would dwell with the Lord forever in Heaven and avoid His holy fury in eternity, must confess that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who has conquered death, Hell, sin and Satan for you.

Know the Truth about Jesus – precisely. Believe it. And carry that Truth into a blaspheming world that stands – frighteningly – in the way of God’s righteous judgment of their sin.