My son does this hilarious thing. Standing with both his mom and I, he will ask one of us a question.
"Mom, can we go to the park?"
When he receives the affirmative answer "Yes, we can," he immediately turns to the other parent (the one not speaking) and repeats the joyful news. "Daddy, we are going to the park." (As though I wasn't there for the whole thing.)
At first, this seemed a little silly to me. But then I realized that this is the purest and simplest way of communicating. He knows I had heard the news. But he wanted to speak it. He wanted to tell me. He wanted to share in this goodness with me - put it in the air himself - say the same thing that the authority had said.
This is what is means to be confessional. To say the same thing. To confess the good news. To know that one believes in the heart and confesses with the mouth. To hear God speak His Word and immediately speak it back to Him. Christians know that God knows His own Word. But we want to speak it. We want to tell Him. We want to share in His good Word with Him. Put it in the air from our lips - say the same thing as our gracious heavenly Father. No, its not the park we get to go to - its His heavenly kingdom. But we cannot hold back from sharing this good news.
There is another part to this idea.
Those who are confessional gather and speak/believe the same thing as others in their confession. They do not worship with those who speak differently than them - that would be like my son getting excited about going to the park with someone who kept saying "We are not going to the park." It would never happen. He would quickly find someone else who could excitedly repeat with him "Yeah! We are going to the park."
What does this mean?
There is a pure and simple way to faith in God's Word - confessing it. Uniting with those who confess it with you, and sharing it with those around you (whether they confess with you or not). We are going to the park - the eternal kingdom of our heavenly Father.
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