We finish this week with another important feature of scriptural faith. We have already considered the words of Paul in the first half of Romans 10:10. “With the heart one believes to righteousness.” In the second half of this verse, Paul adds: “And with the mouth confession is made to salvation.”
Paul here brings out the direct connection between faith in the heart and confession with the mouth. This connection between the heart and the mouth is one of the great basic principles of Scripture. Christ Himself says:
“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt. 12:34)
We might express this in modern phraseology by saying: “When the heart is full, it overflows through the mouth.” It follows, therefore, that when our hearts are full of faith in Christ, this faith will find its proper expression as we confess Christ openly with our mouths. A faith that is held back in silence, without any open confession, is an incomplete faith which will not bring the results and the blessings that we desire.
Paul refers to this connection between believing and speaking when he says:
“But since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” (2 Cor. 4:13)
Note the logical connection indicated by the word therefore: “we also believe and therefore speak.” Paul here speaks about the “spirit of faith.” Mere intellectual faith in the mind may perhaps keep silent; but faith that is spiritual – faith that is in the spirit and the heart of man – must speak. It must be expressed in confession with the mouth.
Actually this truth follows logically from the very meaning of the word confession. The English word confession – just like the Greek word homologia of which it is a translation – means literally “saying the same as.” Thus, confession, for Christians, means that we say the same thing with our mouths as God Himself has already said in His Word. Or, more briefly, the words of our mouths agree with the Word of God.
Thus, confession, in this sense, is the natural expression of heart faith. We believe in our hearts what God has said in His Word – this is faith. Thereafter we naturally say the same with our mouths as we believe in our hearts – this is confession. Faith and confession centre in one and the same thing – the truth of God’s Word.
There is a revelation of Christ in Hebrews which further emphasises the importance of confession in relation to faith. Christ is called “the High Priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1).
This means that Christ in heaven serves as our Advocate and Representative in respect of every truth of God’s Word to which we on earth confess with our mouth. But whenever we fail to confess our faith on earth, we give Christ no opportunity to act on our behalf in heaven. By closing our lips on earth, we also close the lips of our Advocate in heaven. The extent of Christ’s high-priestly ministry on our behalf in heaven is determined by the extent of our confession on earth.
What, then, are the main features of faith as defined and described in the Bible?
- Scriptural faith is a condition of the heart, not the mind.
- It is in the present, not the future.
- It produces a positive change in our behaviour and experience.
- It is based solely on God’s Word and accepts the testimony of the senses only when this agrees with the testimony of God’s Word.
- It is expressed by confession with the mouth.
Heavenly Father, fill My heart with faith; if faith indeed, as I have read and learned before, is a "substance," then you will overflow my heart with the substance of faith, so that my whole heart will love You, serve You, and that my whole heart is devoted to the building of Your Kingdom and the worship of You. Amen.
