Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Apr. 26, 2026
Update	: Apr. 26, 2026
Parts	: 01

Synopsis:



Asking the question "Must we confess Jesus in order to be saved?" will elicit a number of different responses from Christian believers. How each individual responds to this question depends a lot on their personal upbringing, their denominational affiliation -- if any -- and other factors. In fact, this issue came up just the other day when I was engaged in an online texting chat with one of my longtime friends and brother in the Lord. It was at that point that I realized that I needed to address this issue in a new Bill's Bible Basics article, because it is that important.

Personally, as a lifelong Christian, for many decades now, I have embraced the view that one must believe in Jesus -- and by so doing, accept Jesus -- as I amply explain in a number of BBB articles such as "Message to the World", "Salvation is Free Through Jesus Christ" and "To Believe in Jesus Is to Accept Jesus", which you will find listed at the end of this same article with clickable/tappable links.

But the important question is this: Is that enough? Is simply believing in Jesus sufficient for us to merit Forgiveness, Redemption, Salvation and Eternal Life? Of course, I already realize that by merely asking this question, I am probably opening a big can of worms. Some Christians will undoubtedly immediately respond to my question by sharing Bible verses such as Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5, which as many of my readers will already know, state the following:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."


"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"


In fact, if you are at all familiar with the Bill's Bible Basics writing ministry, and with my online evangelical work on the social networks, then you will probably already know that I have used the aforementioned Bible verses many times over the years to point out that our Salvation is a gift of God's grace through our faith in the atoning Sacrifice of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. Our Salvation is a work of God alone. It is the Father who draws us to Christ by His Spirit, who we then believe in by faith. Following are some example Bible verses which verify this important point:

"ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVETH ME shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out . . . No man can come to me, EXCEPT THE FATHER WHICH HATH SENT ME DRAW HIM: and I will raise him up at the last day . . . And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."


"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. MY FATHER, WHICH GAVE THEM ME, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."


"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for THEM WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME; for they are thine . . . And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name THOSE WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME, that they may be one, as we are . . . Father, I will that they also, WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."


"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."


So to reiterate that key point, our Forgiveness, Salvation and Redemption is NOT something that we can acquire on our own through our own good merit, or by doing certain things. We simply have no righteousness of our own. Many Christians will obviously agree with this point, right? Following are some more Bible verses which clearly reveal our sinful and unrighteous state before we are symbolically washed in the Blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."


"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."


"If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"


"But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:"


"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."


"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."


"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one . . . For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"


So as I already said, the ONLY thing that saves us, and the ONLY thing that can make us righteous in the sight of our Heavenly Father, is our faith in Jesus Christ, and being symbolically washed in His Blood. In fact, as you may know, using the example of Abraham's faith, the Apostle Paul in fact informs his readers that Jesus Christ's righteousness is imputed to us -- or credited to our account, from the Koine Greek word "logizomai" -- when we demonstrate faith and believe, as we can clearly see by the following group of Bible verses. The last group is a bit long, but the verses are very important for our proper understanding:

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WHICH IS BY FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:"


"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and IT WAS IMPUTED UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS: and he was called the Friend of God."


"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."


"What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Saras womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."


Having now explained the concept of imputation to you, and the fact that we have no righteousness of our own outside of faith in Jesus Christ, now we return to our former tough question. That is to say, "Must we confess Jesus in order to be saved?" I think some of you may possibly be surprised by my answer. However, as has long been my method of teaching God's holy Word, all I can do is point you to the Scriptures in order to discover the truth. You must then decide what it is you want to believe. So exactly what does the Bible tell us regarding this issue? Well, I believe that Jesus and the Apostle Paul provide us with a very clear answer without any degree of ambiguity whatsoever. There is no need to try to interpret the following Bible verses. See for yourself:

"WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL CONFESS ME BEFORE MEN, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, HIM WILL I ALSO DENY BEFORE MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN."


"Also I say unto you, WHOSOEVER SHALL CONFESS ME BEFORE MEN, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men SHALL BE DENIED BEFORE THE ANGELS OF GOD."


"That if thou shalt CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH the Lord Jesus, and shalt BELIEVE IN THINE HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and WITH THE MOUTH CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO SALVATION."


Can it be any clearer than that? So what can we deduce from the previous set of verses? My understanding is that belief is simply NOT enough. It is only HALF of the equation. There must ALSO be VERBAL CONFESSION. Jesus says it right there! He even tells us what will happen if we DON'T confess Him. He will DENY us before both the Angels of Heaven, and before His very Father. Is that not what the verses say? Have I in any way twisted there meaning? Most certainly not! In fact, as the Apostle James writes, even the devils believe, and yet they are not saved. Why not? Because while they know exactly who Jesus is, they won't confess Him as the Christ, or submit themselves to His authority:

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble."


Think about this, my friends. How many times have so many of us quoted Romans 10:9-10, and yet not fully realized exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying in those two verses? To be clear, Paul is NOT saying that belief is enough, is he? No he is not! He is clearly saying that we must BELIEVE in our hearts, but we must also CONFESS with our mouth our faith in Jesus Christ. It is NOT an either/or situation is it? It is for that reason that Paul includes the little three-letter adjoining word "and" in Romans 10:9. That word was NOT simply added by the translators for the sake of convenience. It is actually included in the original Koine Greek text. In fact, the actual word used is "kai". Do you know what that word means? It means and, also, both and likewise. That is what Thayer's Greek English Lexicon states.

So as you can see, there is simply no way to get around that little word "and" in that verse. The Apostle Paul included it for a reason. He obviously wanted his readers to know and to fully understand that there are TWO PARTS to the Salvation equation, and NOT just one. We must believe in Christ, and we must also confess Christ. BOTH conditions must be met in order to obtain Salvation. That is what Paul is saying. As we have already seen, Jesus said the very same thing. If we do not verbally and publicly confess Him, He will deny us before His Father. But if we DO confess Him before men, then He will also confess us before the Father. Exactly as Paul writes in the following verse, Jesus will say to His Father, "Yes, Father. I know this person. They believe in me, and they have confessed me before men. They are one of mine. They are my sheep.":

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."


In contrast, if we believe in Christ, but don't confess Him publicly, then He won't know us, we won't belong to Him as Paul wrote and He will deny us before the Father. Well, if the Lord denies us before His Father because we failed to confess Him publicly, what precisely does that mean? Do I have to spell it out for you? It means that WE ARE NOT SAVED! In fact, totally contrary to 2 Timothy 2:19 above, Jesus will say to such people "I never knew you! Depart from me!", as we see by the following Bible verse:

"And then will I profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, ye that work iniquity."


So there you have it, my friends. the plain and unambiguous Scriptural truth. I have shown you straight from the Bible. You must now decide whether you want to accept it or else to reject it, however you see fit, according to your faith, my friends.

Now, before I conclude this article, there is one final and important point which I feel that I really ought to address, and that is the following. Undoubtedly, there will be some legalists who will probably accuse me of adding to Christ's finished work on the Cross. Such folks may even accuse me of adding works to faith. But is there really any truth to this false accusation? No there is not, and I will now explain to you why this is so. First of all, I have realized that a lot of Christians don't really understand what the Apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote about works. For example, as we saw a minute ago, in Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul writes "Not of works, lest any man should boast." And in Titus 3:5 He also writes "Not by works of righteousness which we have done".

These misguided Christians automatically assume and believe that anything we do or try to do besides believing in Jesus qualifies as works. And then come the accusations, "Oh, you believe that Salvation is obtained through faith and works! You're adding to what Jesus already accomplished on a Roman Cross with His death! Paul said that we are not saved by our own works! You are wrong! You are deceived! You are just on a self-righteous works trip!" Have you come across people like that?

As I said a minute ago, the problem is that they misunderstand what the Apostle Paul meant. So let me explain this to you in as clearly a manner as possible. When Paul wrote about works in Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5, he was speaking about a very specific kind of works. Furthermore he was speaking about the kinds of works that the unbelieving Jews were doing in order to try to establish their OWN righteousness outside of having faith in Christ. To state it more clearly, Paul was referring to the mandates of the Mosaic Law. He was referring to the mandates of the Old Covenant. In other words, my friends, the 613 laws/commandments -- or mitzvoth -- of the Torah.

THAT is what those Jews were trying to observe, and THAT is exactly what Paul was preaching against doing. He was simply saying "You CANNOT save yourselves by doing those things no matter how hard you try. You cannot become righteous enough on your own. Your works of trying to keep the Laws of Moses will not save you. You simply must believe in Jesus, because He is our only righteousness." That is why Paul would also write the following verses in which he exposed the vanity of their futile endeavors at trying to establish their own righteousness:

"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."


"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."


Now, if you still have any doubts regarding the fact that those were the specific works that the Apostle Paul was referring to when he wrote verses such as Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5, then please consider the following verses where Paul doesn't just say "works", rather, he spells it out completely and writes "works of the law" so that it is very clear what he is talking about:

"But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."


"Knowing that a man is not justified BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW: for BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW shall no flesh be justified."


"This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, or by the hearing of faith? . . . He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, or by the hearing of faith? . . . For as many as are OF THE WORKS OF THE LAW are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."


So, when other Christians accuse you of adding works to the finished work of Christ on the Cross, unless you are actually trying to establish your own righteousness by adhering to the 613 mitzvoth of the Torah, or Mosaic Law, then those other Christians are in error, and they do not know what they are talking about. To clarify, my friends, when you believe in Jesus, and then confess Him publicly and openly, that public confession is NOT works. It is NOT the works of the law. It is NOT you trying to establish your own righteousness. But what it definitely IS, is you obeying Jesus Christ and Paul by doing EXACTLY what they both told you that you must do in order to be saved, and so that Jesus will not deny you before the Father. You are BOTH believing AND confessing, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the Laws of Moses, or works, or the works of the law. To reiterate, your public confession is an ACT OF OBEDIENCE to Jesus and NOT works. Do you understand now? Good!

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you've found it informative and enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

A Discussion Regarding Philippians 2:12

All Are Given a Chance, But

Are You Saved and Sealed and Healed and Filled?

Controversy: Salvation Prayers

Dead to the Law: God's Laws Written on Our Hearts

Free From the Fear of Death: Law and Works vs Grace

Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?

Message to the World

Not Everyone is a Child of God

OSAS: Are We Once Saved, Always Saved?.

Salvation is Free Through Jesus Christ

The Marriage of the Lamb

To Believe in Jesus Is Also to Accept Jesus

To Pray or Not to Pray? That is the Question

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Please avail yourself of other areas of the Bill's Bible Basics website. There are many treasures for you to discover.