Golden Nuggets

Putting Words in His Mouth

Résumés! You cannot get a paper route today without one. Do not even think you are going to get in the front door for an interview without an attractive, high-tech résumé for the “head-hunters” to dissect while you attempt to dazzle them with your sparkling display of charm under pressure. To the best résumé writer goes the spoils! Or, so it seems.
Résumés! Where would we be without them? It is now the accepted method whereby you get to put a “happy face” on all your mistakes. Where else can you turn your life filled with lemons into the perception that you are the one who invented lemonade? Résumés are one of the last bastions of self-promotion tolerated outside of the realm of athletics or politics. Movers and shakers have learned to use them to their fullest value. They use personal references that have selective memories about things like lemons, lemonade stands, trespassing, selling without a business license, etc. A résumé is me telling you how great I am; a reference is someone else telling you how great I am!

It is unfortunate that Jesus did not grasp this concept of self-promotion when He was attempting to get His fledgling flock of followers to become world changers. He certainly had the track record, if only He had taken the idea a little more seriously. If only…?

Matthew 10:32 records that Jesus used a slightly different method than that of the world. He went beyond the usual self-promotion and the use of references to a higher dimension. I have coined it “reciprocal representation.”

Here is the way Jesus said it works. He states that for everyone who uses his relationship in Christ as a platform to tell the world about Him, Jesus will reciprocate and become that individual’s “personal representative.” Now that is the best offer you will ever receive. But it gets better. Let us look at the Greek.

Jesus uses an old Aramaic idiom to convey a timeless truth. It was brought over into the Greek and holds the same element of promise. Jesus states that if anyone will “confess” (homologeo, SC 3670, “to say the same as” or “to speak with one voice”) Him, be His personal representative and declare His abilities and qualifications before men, then He (Christ) will respond with reciprocity before His Father and tell Him all your abilities and qualifications.

The specifics of the declaration are provided by the use of the word “confess.” This compound word in Greek carries the meaning and application of “saying the same thing as someone who has already spoken.” The exciting promise for us by Jesus is paraphrased thus: “If you will tell everyone what My Father has declared Me to be, then I will remind My Father of everything that He has declared you to be.”

The Bible records more than 100 descriptions of Christ by the Holy Spirit and approximately 300 vignettes of what the believer has been made “in Him, in Whom, in Christ.” These 300 qualities are the confessions Christ will make about you to the Father.

You do not need a résumé with your heavenly Father. You have a personal representative who will gladly be your primary reference. Jesus will joyfully and accurately tell the Father all the wonderful things you want Him to say about you. You will actually put the words in Christ’s mouth!
Happy digging!

****A Personal Word to Our Readers from Dr. Frazier****
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