No Matter What Pressures Come

When the Bible says to hold fast your confession (see Hebrews 4:14), it is really issuing a warning that we will be subjected to pressures that might cause us to back off what we have said. But we should not back off. We should hold fast our confession, what we profess.

First, we make the right confession, making the words of our mouths agree with the words of Scripture. We articulate what Jesus has done for us, exactly as the Word of God says. For instance, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). “He became poor, that [we] …might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). “He tasted death that we might have life” (see Hebrews 2:9). “He took the curse that we might receive the blessing” (see Galatians 3:13–14). Those are the right confessions. We make them, and then, no matter what pressures come against us, no matter how much things may seem to go the wrong way, we hold fast our confession. That is what makes our faith effective, and that is what releases the high priestly ministry of Jesus in heaven on our behalf.

Faith relates us to that which our senses cannot perceive. As long as we are slaves of our senses, we really cannot move in faith. Paul said this clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” In other words, what we do, and the way in which we live as Christians, is based on faith—on what we believe, not on what we see or know from our senses. Our senses may tell us one thing, and our faith another—that is when conflict comes. That is why the writer of Hebrews says to make your confession and then to hold it fast. Even if our senses tell us it is not so, if God’s Word says it is so, it is so.