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This is a short chain to reach from earth to heaven. And God meant it to be easy. But its ease is its difficulty. Can this be really all?

I. AS TO FAITH — "If thou shalt believe," etc.

1. All real faith lies in the heart, not in the understanding; it is not the result of reasoning; no education will give it. I have to feel — in the closest personality — that Jesus died for me. If your faith has been inoperative, may not the reason be that it has not yet been heart work?

2. But why does God say, "Believe that God raised Him from the dead" instead of "that He died for you"?

(1) The resurrection is the seal of all. By "raising Him from the dead" the Father showed that He accepted the ransom Christ had paid.

(2) That resurrection is our resurrection. We rise in Him; now, to a newness of life; presently, to a life in glory.

II. AS TO CONFESSION. What is "the confession of the mouth"?

1. It may be that general acknowledgment of Christ, and the great doctrines of His religion, which ought to characterise our daily conversation. And here most of us must plead guilty to the charge that we do not show "whose we are, and whom we serve," by speaking of Christ and the great truths of the Christian religion. And yet if all we profess to believe of Christ be really true — if we owe to Him every comfort and every hope — if He is really my Brother, my Friend, my Saviour, my King, "out of the abundance of the heart" would not "the month speak"? We read, "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another." To talk in generalities about religion requires no effort, and brings no shame. The world likes it. But to talk of Christ requires an effort, and offends people. And yet it is a very solemn thought that Christ has said, "Whosoever shall confess Me," etc. Therefore it is no mean test of a believer, and we cannot wonder that it is made one of the conditions of salvation.

2. There can be no doubt that, from the first, all Christians were required to make, at some time, a public declaration of their faith. It is of this that St. Paul says to Timothy — "Thou hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."(1) This was evidently a part of adult baptism, which would, of course, be the most frequent in the early church.

(2) Now that infant baptism has become, and rightly, the almost universal custom of the Church, the public confession has been transferred to Confirmation, which is an act by which a person who has come to years of discretion accepts and ratifies the covenant of his baptism renews the dedication of himself to God, and declares his faith in the promises and privileges into which his baptism has admitted him.

(J. Vaughan, M.A.)

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KJV: For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

WEB: For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, "The one who does them will live by them."