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The Good Confession


In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (I Timothy 6:13) 

 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:35-37) 

          Jesus confessed? When we think of a confession, most often we think in terms of someone admitting they have done something wrong. Criminals confess. Sinners confess. What did Jesus confess? The scene, as recorded in John, reveals a compound statement. First, Jesus confessed that He was a king. His kingdom wasn’t an earthly kingdom, but it was a kingdom. Secondly, he confessed that His reason for coming into this world was to testify to the truth. 
          Wait. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world. Wasn’t the reason He came to love? How could claims about kingship and truth being the reason He came be a good confession? Where’s the love? Where’s the permission to do “what I want, when I want, with whom I want, where and how I want as long as I don’t harm anyone”?
          Love requires truth. Without truth, there is no love. Equally, without love, there is no truth.  The foundational truth is that Jesus is Lord, the Son of the Living God who is King of kings and Lord of lords. I believe there is another way in which Jesus made this good confession to Pilate: through a life that was consistent with the claim. 
          For Timothy to make the good confession, then, mean that he needed to maintain a confession of Jesus as Lord in both word and deed, and he needed to live a life consistent with that claim. And, as Jesus stated that anyone on the side of truth listens to Him, Timothy's good confession, and ours, must be one of obedience to Jesus's teachings.

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