Question: "Is confession something that we do once and then sit down or is it something that we do throughout our daily life to many people?"

Answer: In Matthew 10.32-33 Jesus said, "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." This passage makes it abundantly clear that to go to heaven we must confess Jesus before men. The question asks if this is a one-time thing or a continual thing.

There is a confession which is to be made by the penitent believer before he or she can be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. it is to be made with the mouth, or orally, if at all possible. We have the example of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.36-37, where we read, "Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?' Then Philip said, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may.' And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'" Note that the Ethiopian did NOT confess that he was a sinner, or that God had already forgiven him for Christ's sake, but he confessed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

This confession is made "unto salvation," which means that it is a term or condition of pardon for the one who is outside of Christ and wants to be saved. Paul wrote in Romans 10.9-10, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." So there is a sense in which this particular confession is a one-time act. Once a person has repented of his past sins, he does not need to keep repenting of those same sins. Once he has been scripturally baptized, he does not need to be baptized again. And if he has been saved, he does not need to make a "confession to salvation."

However, there is also a sense in which we should continue our confession as a part of our lives as Christians. While believing in Christ is a condition of forgiveness, we need to continue believing and even growing in our belief after we hve been saved. And while we do not need to keep on repenting of the sins that were forgiven in our baptism, we still need to repent of any sins committed after we have become Christians. And so it is with our confession. Hebrews 10.23 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." So, yes, there is a confession that we make once unto salvation. However, we do not just make it, then sit down, and do nothing else. We must hold fast that confession which we have made by continuing to make it throughout our daily lives to many people.

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate" (1 Timothy 6.11-12).

Brotherly, Wayne S. Walker

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