Jean 9:22

If any man did confess that he was Christ

Confession of Christ

1.

Confession, ὁμολογε͂ιν, is

(1) To say the same thing with others. To agree with.

(2) To promise.

(3) To acknowledge, to declare a person or thing to be what he or it really is.

2. To confess Christ is therefore to acknowledge Him to be what He really is and declares Himself to be.

(1) The Son of God;

(2) God manifest in the flesh;

(3) The Saviour of the world;

(4) The Lord.

I. The NATURE of this confession.

1. It is not enough that we cherish the conviction in our hearts, or confess it to ourselves, to God, or to friends who agree with us.

2. It must be done publicly, or before men, friends and foes: amid good and evil report; when it brings reproach and danger as well as when it incurs no risk.

3. It must be with the mouth. It is not enough that men may infer from our conduct that we are Christians. We must audibly declare it.

4. This must be done

(1) In our ordinary intercourse.

(2) In the way of God’s appointment, i.e., by Baptism and the

Lord’s Supper.

5. It must be sincere. “Not everyone that saith Lord, Lord,” etc. It is only when the outward act is a revelation of the heart that it has any value.

II. ITS ADVANTAGES.

1. It strengthens faith.

2. It is a proof of regeneration, because it supposes the apprehension of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

3. It is an indispensable condition of salvation. Because

(1) God requires it.

(2) Not to confess is to deny.

(3) Denial implies want of faith or devotion.

4. Christ will acknowledge them who acknowledge Him--publicly, before the angels, and to our eternal salvation.

III. ITS DUTY.

1. It is not merely a commandment.

2. It is the highest moral duty to acknowledge the truth, and especially to acknowledge God to be God.

3. It is the most direct means we can take to honour Christ, and to bring others to acknowledge Him (see Matthieu 10:32; Luc 12:8; Marc 8:38; Romains 10:9; 2 Timothée 2:12; 1 Jean 4:2; 1 Jean 4:15). (C. Hodge, D. D.)

He should be put out of the synagogue

Excommunication

(cf. Jean 16:2; Luc 6:22)

1. The lightest kind of excommunication continued for thirty days and prescribed four cubits as a distance within which the person may not approach anyone, not even wife and children; with this limitation it did not make exclusion from the synagogue necessary.

2. The severer included absolute banishment from all religious meetings, and absolute giving up of intercourse with all persons, and was formally pronounced with curses.

3. The severest was a perpetual banishment from all meetings and a practical exclusion from the fellowship of God’s people. It has been sometimes supposed that the words of Luc 6:22

(1) “Separate you;”

(2) “reproach you;”

(3) “cast out your name” refer to these gradations, but probably the only practice known in the time of our Lord was that which was later regarded as the intermediate form, falling short of perpetual banishment, but being, while the ban lasted, exclusion from all the cherished privileges of an Israelite.

(Archdeacon Watkins.)