Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
—
Christ, the Son of the Blessed." When our Lord said to His
disciples, at Caesarea Philippi, "Who say ye that I am?" Simon
Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"
(Matt. 16: 15, 16). The early converts made this confession: "If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt
believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"
(Rom. 10:9, 10).
So that "the good confession" is a confession, not of belief
in a creed or dogma, but a person. The confessor, feeling his
absolute need of Christ, confesses faith in Him as "the Christ,
the Son of the living God." By so doing he exalts the Saviour.
He calls attention, not to himself, but to his Lord and Redeemer.
Never does the soul attain to loftier heights than when he bends
at the feet of Jesus and vows allegiance to Him.
This confession is "unto salvation." It follows, therefore,
that those who cannot believe and confess (infants) and those
who will not (unbelievers) are ineligible for church membership.
Confessing Christ, the penitent believer is baptised into
the name of Him whom he has confessed, to be introduced into
the Kingdom of our Lord, and "walk in newness of life"
(Rom. 6:4).
178. The only apostolic and divine confession of faith which
God, the Father of all, has laid for the church, and that on
which Jesus Himself said He would build it, is the sublime and
supreme proposition: That Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah,
the Son of the living God. This is the peculiarity of the Christian
system; its specific attribute. . . . There is no other confession
of faith on which the church can be built, on which it can
possibly stand one and undivided, but on this one. With the
heart man believes this proposition in order to justification: and
with the mouth he maketh this confession of it in order to his
salvation. So Paul explains it (Rom. 10:10).
Alex. Campbell.
179. There are too many professors and too few confessors
in the world. A mere professor is an apostle in embryo; a true
confessor is the germ of a martyr. To Immanuel's ensign I all
ye of faith and daring.
5 65