The Confession of Our Hope

The Confession of Our Hope

“But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”

As living stones we shall be built up to be a “spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” 1 Pet. 2:4-5. This depends on whether we have confidence to boast of our hope. If we cease doing this, our development in being built up as “His house” will also cease. That is how important our confession is.

“(That is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” Rom. 10:8-10. We know that it is of great importance for a new convert to confess this. However, many consider this to be a one-time undertaking. If he has done it once, and if he then considers everything in order, and that nothing more needs to be done, then he is wrong. We read about being built up—a work that is to be done with us. This work depends on whether we have the confidence to boast of the hope we have.

We can divide our confession into two parts. The one part is what Jesus Christ has done for us, and the other part is what He wants to do in us and through us. If you have experienced the forgiveness of your sins, you need to confess what you have experienced. However, to confess your faith in having had your sins forgiven without confessing your hope in an overcoming life—to be set free from the power of sin—is meaningless.

When you confess your hope concerning a life of victory over sin, and you fall into sin, you will probably hear these words: “Were you not the one who was supposed to have victory over sin?” Then you can feel the reproach, and you are tempted to stop boasting of your hope. Many have fallen into that ditch. They have heard of bold confessions coupled with living a bad life, and so they think it best to be silent. However, then it will not succeed for them, as we have seen from the Scripture reference quoted above.

Making too bold a confession means to testify of something that is not true; that is not confessing your faith and your hope. “Now faith is the full assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1. You can simply answer him who asked you when you fell into sin: “Yes, of course I believe in victory, but I have not come to it yet. I am a disciple; just wait, and you will see.”

The fact that someone like that is questioned concerning his confession helps him to watch and pray; he needs that help. In that way he can also be of help to others who hear of his boldness of faith; and as time goes by, they will experience that he has not been put to shame.

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” Heb. 4:14. He has been tried in all things like we are, and He can have compassion with our weaknesses. That is why we can come before the throne of grace with boldness. Our confession is not based on our own strength, but on the grace our High Priest gives to those who believe and who confess their hope. Heb. 4:14-16.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Heb. 10:23-25.

We read, “Without wavering.” This tells us that it is easy to give up confessing our hope because we cannot do it as we want to, or because it does not go as quickly as we could wish. We do not want to be humiliated by the fact that it goes so badly, and as a result we cease to confess our hope. Such a person’s spiritual development will come to a stop. He has come out of verse 22, and all his efforts to advance on the new and living way will be in vain.

Our confession is also of great significance for the fellowship in the church. One cannot have fellowship with someone who goes to the meetings and never prays or testifies. Neither does he have a part in edifying the others; either by what his hope is or by what God has done in him. That is how important it is to confess Jesus Christ and to boast of the hope we have in Him as our High Priest. Rom. 5:1-3.