It is a faithful and precious word you have set before us, and we do rejoice to hear it proclaimed, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The scripture you have quoted is the very order of grace. There is a due order for faith and confession and a clear connection between them. Faith comes first in the heart, wrought there by the Spirit of God, and confession follows with the mouth. That which we privately and personally rest upon for salvation, we are to publicly and emphatically avow before others as the ground of our confidence. The result of the two put together is salvation, not by our confession alone, nor by a mere assent of the mind, but by a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead.
And with that faith there must be repentance, for the two are inseparable. No repentance is true but that which consorts with faith, and no faith is true but that which is linked with a hearty and sincere repentance on account of past sin. They come into the soul together, like Siamese twins, and they live as long as faith lives. Repentance is not a thing to be gotten through at the beginning and then forgotten, nor is it a preparation we offer to make ourselves worthy. We are to preach repentance in the name of Jesus, as the gift of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the renewed heart. We rest not upon our faith, nor upon our repentance, nor upon our prayers, but upon Jesus Christ crucified, who is all our salvation, the Author and Finisher of faith.
Take heed that it be a true repentance which gives God glory. There is a carnal repentance that is of the flesh, a regret that fears judgment but does not forsake sin. True repentance, the repentance unto life, turns from sin because it sees sin as an evil thing for which Christ was nailed to the cross, and it turns unto Christ with hope in His great finished work. You need not expect a perfect measure before you may come. There are degrees of faith, and yet the least faith saves if it is sincere and lays hold of Christ. So there are degrees of repentance, and the least repentance will save the soul if it is sincere. It is not a condition of salvation in the sense of a price we pay, for there are no conditions of salvation in that sense. It is a grace which God gives, and the germ which contains all the essentials of salvation.
Therefore let every soul that is seeking the Lord this day come just as you are, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. Let your confession be personal. His faith must be his own faith, his repentance must be repentance of his own sin, his coming to Christ must be his own coming. Do say and say it unmistakably, I am the Lord's. And do not dissociate the word of confession from the action, for a life that follows and obeys Jesus is the best confession of your faith.
We will pray for all who are looking unto Jesus now, that the Spirit of God will work this faith and this repentance in you, and that you will continue to look to Christ alone. Your counsel to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and to begin in the book of John, is wise. There you will see the Lord Jesus set forth, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through His name. Sincere faith will treat all His Word alike, and will learn to roll every burden upon the Lord in prayer day by day.
May the Lord grant you to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth, and to walk in that repentance which needs not to be repented of, till faith turns to sight.
