Convictions, intentions, directions, and involvement all require a public stand to those within one’s circle. If I am a fan of a certain sports team, I am likely to verbalize that. If I have doubts or animosity toward a situation or purpose, it is likely I will share my opinion. Should we have a disagreement over certain details whether minor or major, that disagreement requires a verbal response. If I have a plan to accomplish a goal, it is likely that I will say something.
In regard to a person’s spiritual state, this is likewise true. Some people are raised in church with the environment of a Christian home. It was almost as if they evolve into becoming Christians. They incorporate the beliefs and standards surrounding them. There are other people who do not have such a privilege. In that case, they might be influenced by others who are actively displaying the Christian lifestyle. That person may accept what seems logical or likely as part of how they think and live. God has no grandchildren. Spiritual birth is not gained by rubbing shoulders with another person who has already had spiritual birth.
In all cases, there comes a time in which a person must witness to others their own convictions about being a Christian. This is explained in detail by referring to Romans 10: 8-11. Paul tells us that we may have a conviction about our own spiritual state, but we must not keep it silent. He says there is a connection between what we hold true in our heart that must be verbalized. The condition of spiritual rebirth is that we must be willing to confess Jesus is Lord, that he died, and rose from the dead. Without this conviction, it is not possible for person to legitimately call themselves a Christian. Even if a person grows toward the likelihood of becoming a Christian, that person must come to a place in which he eventually says so.
An individual may intellectually acknowledge the historicity as recorded in the life of Christ and the celebration of his resurrection. However, that acknowledgment is not sufficient for a person to own the promise of eternal life. Yes, there must be an inward change in a person, but evidence of that change must be manifested in what the person does and says thereafter. It is not sufficient to go to church or to voice “Jesus talk.”
Voicing a person’s spiritual conversion is beneficial to himself as a means of being grounded in the biblical perspective of what it is to become a Christian. Also, voicing a person’s spiritual conversion is beneficial to other people as a means to encourage them in their life walk, hopefully toward becoming a Christian. Openly sharing one’s faith within the family makes that person an additive to the spiritual life of the family. In verse seventeen, Paul says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Once a person accepts Christ as personal Savior, the sincerity of that move is revealed by telling other people about that step toward God.
This is not to say a person has to become a preacher or an evangelist. This is to say that a person must anchor their convictions and the steps they take spiritually for rebirth by saying it out loud. We say so many other things out loud whether it is our political position, our opinion about the color the room should be painted, or the ideas of a certain philosopher. If it is real, that a person genuinely wants to serve God, that person will anchor it by telling others and sharing his experience about what God means to him and who Jesus is as the Lord and Savior. If it is worth having, it is worth saying.
Christian Writer 