The good confession

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.…  –1Timothy 6:12-13 (ESV)
 
What is “the good confession” and what does it mean? In one of the most personal and practical of all Paul’s writings, the old professor reminds his young protégé of the fundamental fact that will serve as “True North” for everything Timothy does in his ministry. It’s a truth he took up at a young age; Paul now calls him back to it. He goes so far as to say that Jesus Himself attested to it.
 
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  –John 18:33, 36-37a (NIV)
 
Yes, a king, but not in the way Pilate thought. Paul would explain it to the Colossian church in this way…
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.  –Colossians 1:17-19 (NIV)
 
It’s pivotal…
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  –Romans 10:9 (NIV)
 
It’s personal…
Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.  –Matthew 10:32-33 (NIV)
 
It’s profound…
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”  –Matthew 16:15-17 (NIV)
 
The good confession is a declaration of the identity of Jesus Christ: Son of God. Creator. Sustainer. Teacher. Master. Soul-lover. Death-crusher. Life-giver. Savior. Friend. Lord. If we grasp it, it becomes an identity statement for us as well. For if we believe it in our inmost being, this singular truth is transformative, defining life, demanding nothing less than all we have and all we are as we lay it down before the God-man who gave His all for us.
 
Remember your good confession. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Go on now!