Jesu Juva

“The Good Confession”

Text: 1 Timothy 6:12-14

In the (+) Name of Jesus. Amen.

Faith is a fight. Fight the good fight of the faith, Paul told Timothy. The Christian life is not lived in a plush palace, but on a battlefield. And on that battlefield, we have three very fierce enemies.

The first is, I suppose, the most obvious: the devil. Peter likened him to a prowling lion, looking for someone to devour. The devil isn’t just a prankster, trying to trip you up, trying to make you sin, just so he can laugh at you. As Peter said, he wants to devour you! End your life! Your life in Christ. And he is consistent and persistent. If you think he isn’t, or isn’t attacking you, then either you’re not paying attention, or he is being very subtle and sneaky. He is always plotting and planning your downfall.

The second fierce enemy we have is the world. And by world is meant all the people and institutions and religions and beliefs that are not of Christ. These are teachings that undermine your faith in Jesus and His Word. For example, the teaching that God did not create the world; that this all happened by chance. That babies in the womb are not little boys and little girls from the moment they are conceived. That your sexuality is fluid, your gender is fluid, and it is good for you to live that way. That all religions are really the same. All these teachings - and more! - are not harmless. They are attacking your faith, to end your life in Christ.

And then the third fierce enemy we have is our own sinful nature. That old, sinful, rebellious Adam in us that doesn’t want to follow Jesus and His ways, but wants to go our own way and do our own thing. That old sinner in us that thinks we know better than God what we need and how we should live.

Each one of those enemies alone engage us in fierce battle. But all three together is the fight we face! What’s a Christian to do?

Well, as Paul told Timothy in the Scripture we heard today: make the good confession. That is how we fight! With words. But what words? What does that mean?

The word confess here means, literally, to say the same thing. So we confess our sins. God has said that I am a sinner, and I say the same thing: yes, I am a sinner. We confess the Creed. God has said who He is and what He has done for us, and I say the same thing: yes, this is who You are and what You have done for me.

But the thing about confession is not just that you confess, but what you confess. The devil and the world want us to say the same thing as them - that would be a bad confession! Paul told Timothy, to make the good confession, just as Jesus made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. And that confession is to confess the truth of God’s Word.

Jesus did that, for when He was baptized and when He was transfigured, His Father said from heaven, This is my beloved Son! And Jesus said the same thing - that He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the King of the Jews. And He did so even before the one who had the power to crucify Him: Pontius Pilate.

And that is the good confession that we make today. The devil wants us to confess his lies by what we say and how we live. The world wants us to confess their lies by what we say and how we live. And even our own sinful nature wants to confess those lies by what we say and how we live because it would make my life so much easier! Well maybe easier, but not better.

So we make the good confession today, that God’s Word is the truth. And no other. That there is only one God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the best confession of all, that the Father sent His Son into the world, born as Jesus, to save us from our sins. To make that confession will always be a fight against those who disagree with it. But that is a fight worth waging. For that is the only confession that can give life.

So we confess this Holy Week who our God is: the God of the cross. And there’s no other God. He is the God who fought for us, bled for us, died for us, and won. And we say the same thing. And with Christ and His forgiveness, we win.

In the (+) Name of Jesus. Amen.