Mark 1: Personal Commitment to Jesus Christ

The following is the first installment in a 10-part season on the 10 Marks of a Mature Anglican Christian.

The First Mark: A mature adult Anglican Christian has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (baptized and confirmed).

There is a very particular reason that this mark is listed first, because it is clearly the most important.  If there is a breakdown in this mark, then all else falls apart, which is why I love a particular passage that St. Paul wrote to the Romans.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ” Romans 10:9-10

Paul makes it very clear that there are two things that are most important to a Christian seeking the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ – confession with our mouth, and belief with all of our heart.  He makes it clear that this is a both/and, not an either/or scenario.  Let’s look at each of these two important things in Scripture that makes the first mark so important, and I’m going to reverse the order that Paul has it.

Believe in Your Heart

Paul is very clear here about what exactly we should believe in.  We should believe that “God raised (Jesus) from the dead.”  If we can’t believe this very important, central tenet of the Christian faith, then we will not be justified, and justification is the initial action that leads to salvation.  In other words, no belief in the Resurrection means no salvation.  We live in a day and age in which the resurrection is considered by many Christians to be impossible to explain by science, and therefore unessential to the faith.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Paul wanted it to be very clear that belief in the Resurrection is not only absolutely essential to the faith, but that without it, the entire Christian faith falls apart.  We should absolutely believe it without question and when we do, we are justified, or made righteous.

Confess With Your Mouth

The next part of Paul’s exhortation in Romans 10:9-10 is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.  I choose to address this in this order because, if we do not believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, then we can never really be effective in in confessing the same with our mouth.  We would be hypocrites, inviting people to “do as I say, not as I do” and there’s no integrity in that.  This also sends a direct slap in the face to an oft-quoted saying attributable to St. Francis: “Proclaim the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.”  If one looks at this statement in light of Romans 10:9-10, words are absolutely necessary for salvation.  It is justification, or belief, or faith, that is the initial action that kick-starts the process by which we are saved, but we are also judged on our lives and our entire body of work – works that emanate out of our faith in Jesus Christ.  By believing, we are justified, but by confessing that Jesus is Lord, we are saved.

Baptism and Confirmation

For the mature Anglican Christian, the sacramental sign of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ is baptism (as an adult) and Confirmation.  Remember that a Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.  At the center of both Baptism and confirmation is that really important part where the Christian disciple makes the ultimate confession of faith in Jesus Christ.  It is something that the baptismal or confirmation candidate believes in their heart, and then confesses with their mouth – that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he died for our sins.  After renouncing Satan and all the sinful desires of the world, the new disciple is asked “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?  Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?  Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?”  The answer to all of these questions is “I do”.

My beloved brothers and sisters, all mature Christians are called to confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that Jesus rose from the dead.  If we are not willing to do this, everything else that we do with the 10 marks are irrelevant and will not bring about salvation.  If on the other hand we do believe in Jesus and are willing to proclaim His Holy Gospel, then by God’s grace, we are saved.  Alleluia!