Faith must be confessed

Unbelief is a barrier to receiving all that Christ has made available for us. By listening to God’s Word, however, we can get faith. After we’ve received faith, we are now going to see how our faith must be expressed. It is very important to understand that it is not enough just to believe in your heart. You must express with your mouth what you believe in your heart.

Paul states this so clearly in Romans chapter 10, verses 8 through 10 where he says this:

“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; [In this passage, Paul deals with two things: the mouth and the heart. And both of them have to cooperate before our faith becomes truly affective. He goes on to say in verse 9:] That is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, [or confess Jesus as Lord] and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Notice there are two requirements for being saved. One is to believe in the heart, but the second is to confess with the mouth - to say it out with your mouth. All through this passage there's the cooperation with the heart and mouth. And then in the next verse, verse 10, Paul goes on:

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Believing in the heart enables us to achieve righteousness, but it does not bring us into the fullness of salvation. That is only achieved as we confess with our mouth what we believe in our heart. There are two words that we need to understand - confession and salvation. Each of them has a specific and important meaning. To confess means to say the same as. Therefore confession, in this sense, means that we with our mouth say the same as God says in His Word. We make the words of our mouth agree with the Word of God. God's Word doesn't change. So if there are any changes needed, they're going to be in us - not in the Word. We've got to make the words of our mouth agree with the written Word of God. That's confession.