It's You

We hear the word "confession," and most of us tighten up a little bit. It might bring a flash-back to a time when we were eleven and our parents caught us in a lie. "Tell me the truth now. Did you..?" And if we were beginning to understand the importance of telling the truth and the reality of the deep trouble that comes when we compound lies, we confessed. "Yes, Mom, I did that. Yes, Dad, I didn't tell you the truth." Or maybe there was a time when we were in trouble with the law; and we had to ‘face the music.' "Yes, judge, I'm guilty."

That kind of confession is indeed good for the soul. As painful as the moment might be, the alternative, making things worse by telling lie after lie or repeating disobedience or law-breaking, will be far more painful.

But today's eternally significant confession is something different from that. This idea that comes to mind first when we think about confessing, is really wrapped up in what Lee will talk about next week — repentance, the "I'm sorry and I'm going to change, with the Holy Spirit's help" turn-around.

Today Jay is going to help us see and think about the confession that is a part of living this life that we have on loan with a commitment that will make it the first stanza of a new life that hardly blinks when we have died. The loaned life will be over, and the life that is an incomparable gift will never stop. Our salvation requires that we take a stand with the Savior, that we confess him, that we make it clear that we are on his side. It starts with words like those that Peter and Martha used. "You are the Christ." And it continues as others hear words and see the evidence in our lives that will underline the sincerity of that first confession.

"I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God" (Luke 12:8-9).