Day 23: Faith Must Be Confessed

As a hospital attendant with the British forces in North Africa, I worked closely with a Scottish doctor who was in charge of a small field hospital. As we made our rounds, the doctor invariably addressed each patient with the same opening sentence: “How are you? Show me your tongue!” I observed that the doctor was much more interested in the state of the patient’s tongue than in the answer that he received to the question, “How are you?” The same is probably true of our relationship with God. We may offer God our own assessment of our spiritual condition, but in the final analysis, God, like the doctor, judges mainly from our tongues.

Speaking is the natural way for faith to express itself. Faith that does not speak is stillborn. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus told us, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” In other words, the mouth is the overflow valve of the heart. If our hearts are filled with faith, then that will be expressed in what we say with our mouths. But if words of doubt or unbelief come out of our mouths, they inevitably indicate that there is doubt or unbelief somewhere within our hearts.

As Paul defined the basic requirements for salvation, he laid equal stress on faith in the heart and confession with the mouth:

“But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:8–10 KJV)

We begin with God’s Word in our mouths. By confessing it with our mouths, we receive it into our hearts. The more persistently we confess it with our mouths, the more firmly it becomes established in our hearts. Once faith is thus established in our hearts, faith naturally flows out in what we say with our mouths. Thereafter, as we continue to express our faith with our mouths, we confess our way progressively into the full benefits of salvation.