Confessing Jesus Christ

Posted on by

A Charge to the Graduates

Graduate School of Theology Covenant Service

“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

Core Affirmation: Because God has raised Jesus from the dead, we believe and therefore confess Jesus is Lord!

 Plot Line: *Once I recall being asked to give expert testimony. *So, what is the role of a witness. *Yet sometimes expert testimony is not received or given. *Nevertheless, we are still called to the ministry of testimony. * Therefore, we are being sent with beautiful feet. Why? Because we behold Jesus raised from the dead. *And we profess our faith that Jesus is Lord.

Episode One: Once I recall being asked to give expert testimony for the case of the Sailor’s Mystery Signature. Walt’s Last Will & Testament was being contested. One of the key points of the dispute was his signature. Why me? Why was I asked to give expert testimony on a man’s signature? Because I had witnessed the signing of one of the only legal documents accessible, the Cape May Courthouse Church of Christ incorporation papers. Walt was a retired maritime sailor and a founding corporate member of our church plant. So, I took the stand, and I pledged my oath. I reported that the signature on the incorporation papers belonged to Walt. And within thirty seconds, I was dismissed. That was my one and only time to give expert testimony in a court of law.

Episode Two: So, what is the role of a witness? Mislov Volf in After Our Likeness, uses the language of confession to describe our Christian witness.[1] Confession as testimony is Declarative: Volf says, it announces what the community believes about Jesus. We confess the saving word of the gospel of Jesus, a word that is effective, convicting sinners of their sin, bringing them to repentance, and eliciting faith in Jesus as Lord because God raised Jesus from the dead.

Also, confession as testimony is Performative: Volf says, it transforms cognitive assent into active commitment. It commits the life of the confessor to the life and values of the community.

Therefore, confession as testimony is Public: Volf says, we confess together as a community, and we invite others into our community.  We behold, therefore, we declare to others.

We “Behold” — You’re standing on the street corner. A yellow F-150 runs the red light and hits the black sedan. You are the witness because you beheld the event in question. Therefore you “Declare.” Whether it is simply giving your statement to the police or going to court to testify, you are giving your voice to the events in question. While some will discount testimony as mere perception, our whole legal system is based on the fact that testimony is not perception but the report itself. And then the jury, once convinced by the testimony, is persuaded to act on the testimony as evidence. The event affects the witness; the testimony affects the jury.

What is the role of a witness: To behold and to declare.

Episode Three: Yet sometimes expert testimony is not received or given. Paul stands before the jury frustrated, lamenting, about the unbelief (11:20,23), lamenting about the disobedience (10:16, 21), and lamenting about the misguided zeal (10:2–4) of many of his fellow Jews. More precisely, Paul is frustrated that his fellow Jews have not taken the witness stand to proclaim that in Christ God has included the Gentiles. And so Paul makes arguments about Jews who have heard the gospel of inclusion preached through the words of the Law and Prophets, and do not participate in the confession. If Jesus is the telos of the Law, then confession that Jesus is Lord follows. And Paul aches for his people because the “story of glory,” with respect to the inclusion of the Gentiles, has come to a screeching halt with Israel’s failure to sit in the witness stand.[2] Sometimes expert testimony is not received or given.

Episode Four: Nevertheless, we are still called to the ministry of testimony. We were not witnesses of the actual events 2000 years ago. We rely on the faithful testimony of eyewitnesses. We deem them reliable and therefore we believe. We are not left alone with just the eyewitness accounts, but God’s Spirit testifies to our spirit the truth of these events. And from our belief in a resurrected Jesus, we have experiences with a living Christ. And from our experience of a living Christ, we then give testimony that “Jesus is Lord.” And the chain of witness continues.

Like a hinge—We Behold>therefore<We Declare. You cannot declare what you do not behold. And if you behold, you have the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to declare “Jesus is Lord”. This is the salvation we profess. And it will take you a lifetime to work out.

You are not graduating this day with a law degree, an accounting degree, a psychology degree, or any other degree you will see on that stage tonight, but you are graduating with a theology degree. Because God has raised Jesus from the dead, we believe and therefore confess Jesus is Lord! We give testimony and declare to the fact that Jesus makes a difference in me, makes a difference in my vocation, and makes a difference in my community of faith.

Matthew Love has a recent take on the preaching of John Henry Newman’s preaching motto: Heart speaks to heart — God’s modus operandi for reaching humans with the gospel is to summon from one heart to another. “How are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” (Rom 10:14) Paul asks. But preaching, as the Apostle declares elsewhere, involves more than declarations preached before others; it involves contemplation, study, and prayer. So, Paul’s preaching and praying is coterminous. His aim for these Christians is this: “the eyes of your heart enlightened” (Eph 1:18). Such preaching assumes an anthropology wherein listeners are not simply couched as “thinking things” who require filled heads; they are understood as requiring moved hearts. Such an anthropology displays an understanding of Phillips Brook’s famous dictum concerning preaching as “truth through personality,” or even Paul’s self-disclosing vulnerability: “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us” (1 Thess 2:8). Preaching is communion between persons— Heart speaks to heart.[3]

So, you are here ready to receive your diploma with beautiful regalia. Some of you didn’t think twice about the clothes you are covering up with your gown. Others took special care to select your wardrobe, maybe even something new. But did any of you check your feet. Yes, some of you even bought new shoes. Consider your shoes, they protect and support beautiful feet.

The line in the hymn we sang is about you. “Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord to Thee; … Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee.” It is with this word “beautiful” that Dr. Lee has recently written that our affections are formed. He describes it as a “conversion” into a way of life for those of us vocationally called into theological practices.[4]

All the saints of God are baptized. From the baptized, some are called vocationally in service to God’s people. And those called have beautiful feet. You know you have beautiful feet if you are one who beholds the living word of God who is Christ and swivels in the chair of the study or rise from your knees of prayer to your field of service to proclaim what is seen and heard. The person who receives your ministry and beholds the transforming power of God in their hearts likewise turns to life, family, work, and community to live out their faith.

Episode Five: Therefore, we are being sent with beautiful feet. Near us and even in us is the transforming word of salvation. We are changed, forgiven, renewed, and enriched. That in a nutshell is a theology of proclamation as testimony — the witness or preaching, the witness of serving, the witness of ministry. We are called to the ministry of beautiful feet. Because we behold Jesus raised from the dead … (Refrain)

    • We behold Jesus … Who met a woman at a well treating her as a person of dignity.
    • We behold Jesus … Who met a blind beggar and gave him relief.
    • We behold Jesus … Who met 5000 hungry folk and gave them bread and fish.
    • We behold Jesus … Who ministered to a rich guy in a sycamore tree of all places and brought salvation to his house.
    • We behold Jesus … Who restored life to the brother of two grieving sisters.
    • And we behold the countless stories, one right after another, of Jesus encountering people in their darkest hour, encountering people in their pain, facing people in their suffering, confronting people in their sin.
    • We behold Jesus … raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God, reigning today with all powers and authorities under his footstool.
    • And we behold that salvation is good news. And all these stories still testify today.

Therefore, we are being sent with beautiful feet.

Denouement or Episode Six: We behold that Jesus is raised from the dead; therefore, we profess our faith that Jesus is Lord. What we believe about Jesus as Lord defines our reality, our story, and our futures. Therefore, we profess our faith in community (songs, creeds, scriptures, baptisms, Lord’s Supper, hospital rooms, prison cells, and wherever your calling takes you) and we express our faith when we leave these halls of the academy as far as our beautiful feet will take us, even to the uttermost parts of the world.

 I believe Jesus is raised from the dead.

Therefore, I confess that Jesus is Lord.

In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, Amen.

[1] Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 148.

[2] A synthetic read of a more traditional reading of Romans and a reread represented by Michael Gorman, Becoming the Gospel, 286 and Stanley Stowers, A Rereading of Romans, 293–312.

[3] Matthew Love, “Preaching with Newman: Sermonic Vernacular for the Moral Formation of the Church.” (The International Journal of Homiletics, 7:1, 2024): 18. https://doi.org/10.21827/ijh.7.1.18-28

[4] Mason Lee, “Delighting to Preach: Teaching Towards Affective Formation.” (Homiletic 49:1, 2024): 9.