“You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1: 31-33)
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to let her in on what God was about to do through her, he made a confession about who this baby was to be that is the same confession that we still make today. Jesus is King.
This is still the good confession in which we live and abide. In 1 Timothy 6:12-16, Paul encourages Timothy (and us) to fight the good fight of the faith. But how do we fight the fight of faith? He tells us in the very next phrase … take hold of the eternal life to which we were called. Sounds straight forward, right? But watch the next phrase of the sentence continuing to speak about this “eternal life” … “about which you made the good confession.” Paul makes it clear that the eternal life we are to “take hold of” is not primarily about life after this life … it is about taking hold of Jesus, about whom we make the good confession. In taking hold of Him by making and living under this good confession, we take hold of eternal life.
Paul goes on to comment about how Jesus made the good confession before Pilate, and it was before Pilate that Jesus confirmed that He is King (John 18:36-37). Paul then makes the good confession for us to imitate, this is the confession in which we are to abide, and if we do, we will find life and immortality.
“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign,
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
Who alone has immortality,
Who dwells in unapproachable light,
Whom no one has ever seen or can see.
To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”
(1 Timothy 6:15-16)
Fighting the good fight of faith is to maintain our confession of this truth about Jesus, and to live our lives for the honor of this King. Taking hold of and abiding in Him in this way will give us life both now and forever. Merry Christmas!
