The scariest thing Jesus ever said

³² “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. ³³ But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 10:32-33 chronicles Jesus’ words about the seriousness of confessing Jesus as Lord.  To me, it’s also possibly the scariest thing Jesus ever said.  Why?  Because it’s not merely a call to be moral or do good things.  Confessing Christ before men puts us right in the line of fire from people who would reject and even persecute those who believe in Jesus.  Publically confessing our faith can be terrifying to us and I can think of no one who would have been terrified by those words more than the Apostle Peter.  Consider what Peter told Jesus in Matthew 26:33..

“Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”

In response, Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed Peter would deny Him three times.  Not only did that happen just as Jesus said, but after Jesus was raised from the dead Jesus questioned Peter’s love three times, reminding him of his denial.  Jesus had to get Peter to see the full price of following Him, even going so far as to say what kind of death Peter would die for confessing Jesus.

Even though Peter eventually made the decision to confess Christ in spite of all consequences he would face, you have to think Peter would recall that phrase Jesus uttered after denying Jesus three times.  “Whoever denies me before men,” Jesus had said. 

Two things to glean from this verse for our benefit…One is that though Peter denied Jesus before, that didn’t destroy His plan for Peter.  Two is that confession is hard but necessary, and God will help us through it when we are willing to confess Jesus to others.

Like Peter, we may very well have denied Jesus by not speaking up when we should, or because of fear fail to share our faith as often as we could.  Still, Jesus’ plan for us remains if we faithfully seek to confess Him each day.  Jesus will confess those in Heaven who confessed Him on earth.  I for one would like Jesus to confess my name before God.  Wouldn’t you?

In Christ,
Michael Orr