​Matthew 10:32-33, Romans 10:9-10, and ​2 Timothy 2:12

  • 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. (Matthew 10:32-33)
  • 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. (Romans 10:9-10)
  • If we suffer, we shall also reign with [him]: if we deny [him], he also will deny us: (2 Timothy 2:12)

These verses have an interpretation that I believe corrupts the gospel, because it's another teaching that causes us to look to ourselves for our assurance of salvation.  For Matthew 10:32-33 the interpretation says that one must never deny Jesus Christ with your words before men--never say you don't know Him or that He isn't real or that you don't believe in Him or something along those lines, or you're risking going to hell.  While it's understandably something we don't want to do, we are all weak in our flesh at times.  I'm going to use the example of Peter when looking at Matthew 10:32-33.  I'll get to the other false teaching, that you must confess Jesus with your words before men to be saved, later on in this article.

We know that Peter was previously in a state that you need to be before you get saved:
  • When Simon Peter saw [it], he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8)
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And Jesus had a promise for him after that:
  • ...And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. (Luke 5:10)

Later, Jesus was teaching a group of believers, which included the disciples, as we can see here:
  • And he turned him unto [his] disciples, and said privately, Blessed [are] the eyes which see the things that ye see: (Luke 10:23)

And look at what He said to them, he granted them power over the spirits:
  • Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:19-20)

Further confirmation that Peter received this instruction and capability of casting out devils is found in Matthew:
  • ¶ And when he had called unto [him] his twelve disciples, he gave them power [against] unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James [the son] of Zebedee, and John his brother; (Matthew 10:1-2)

Peter must have been saved, because we know that satan cannot cast out satan, only God can cast out satan:
  • And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast [them] out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. (Matthew 12:26-29)

So God was working within Peter and therefore Peter was saved.  Realizing that fact, we now look at his denial of Jesus before men later on:
  • Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. (Matthew 26:34)
  • And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. (Luke 22:34)
  • And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75)
  • And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:60-62)

Before continuing the chronology of Peter's salvific state, I'd like to address a question that may be on someone's mind.  Maybe this is the point at which he lost his salvation?  I would ask that person to read this article before finishing the reading below.

Carrying on, we look at Peter's eternal state after that ordeal and can see, from many confirmations, that he was saved:
  • ¶ The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: (1 Peter 5:1)
  • ¶ Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (2 Peter 1:1)
  • Knowing that shortly I must put off [this] my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. (2 Peter 1:14)

So we've established a timeline where Peter was saved, denied Jesus, and was still saved afterwards.  Since salvation cannot be lost, and Peter didn't receive different treatment than we would in this kind of matter (God not being a respecter of persons), we know therefore that Jesus' denial before the Father in heaven, in response to our denial of Jesus before men, cannot be regarding someone's salvation.  I think Matthew 10:32-33 may instead be referring to the struggles of discipleship, and as we'll see below, the rewards:
  • Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes [shall be] they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:34-38)

Addressing the confession before men and some saying that's a requirement to be saved, I would consider that same context.  Jesus empowered them to speak to Israel, and Matthew 10:32 being about confession before men dovetails with these verses, revealing it's about preaching the gospel and the rewards received from doing so:
  • ¶ These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into [any] city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 10:5-7)
  • It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more [shall they call] them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, [that] speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, [that] preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:25-28)
  • He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. (Matthew 10:40-42)

We're never going to be worthy of the gift of salvation that Jesus gave us, as God's standard is perfection, but He does want us to strive and to do what we can while we're still here, and he will reward us for that:
  • ...knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. (Hebrews 10:34-35)

To those who bring up Romans 10:9-10 to say that confession with your mouth is necessary for salvation, I'd mention that believing with your heart is included in those verses and there are many other verses (most if not all other salvation verses that I can think of) where that's obviously the only necessary condition, so the doctrine of faith alone has a far greater testimony.
  • 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. (Romans 10:9-10)
The subsequent verse, I would say, repeats the necessary condition, almost as if God knew people would be confused and He wanted to make it clear:
  • For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 10:11) 
So Romans 10:9-10 could have said believing in your heart plus almost anything and, if we looked at other verses on how to be saved, we'd see believing alone would be sufficient.  There have been times where people only had one book or less of the Bible to learn from, and God could still have saved them without these verses we see in Romans.  They wouldn't have been damned because they weren't aware of this stipulation.  In case that all didn't make sense I'll give a silly example.  Imagine you're in a race with a few competitors.  I tell you if you cross the finish line first and throw your hands in the air, you will win the race.  The standard for winning the race is crossing the finish line.  But because it's an "if" statement, and something else fulfilled the requirements in the statement (crossing the finish line first), it negates the necessity of throwing your hands in the air.  Any other action(s) could have been included in there.  In short, believing is sufficient.

Finishing up with 2 Timothy 2:12, one can immediately discern the similarity to Matthew 10:32-33.  And if you read 2 Timothy 2, the whole context (so much that I could just paste the whole chapter) is about discipleship and working to be better servants of God.  I believe this not only confirms it has the same interpretation as Matthew 10:32-33, but affirms the rewards interpretation of Matthew 10:32-33, having an even stronger discipleship and reward context.