Am I being sure to never be ashamed of acknowledging Jesus or his words before men?

32 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.  33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

INSIGHT:   Many Christians will boldly stand up for their favorite sports teams, even in the face of opposition, yet cower at the thought of defending their faith in Christ.   We must be courageous to speak up for our Lord.  Think about this: He made the person we are afraid to talk to about Him.  Can we agree that this is ridiculous? Courage is not the absence of fear; it is action despite the fear.  Courage says, “This is uncomfortable to me and could be risky, but I have faith that God is in control, and He will help and protect me.”  If you lack courage, ask the Lord to help you.  Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.

Under the intense persecution of the Roman Empire, the early church suffered more than is imaginable.  There were countless opportunities to really lose your life for your faith in Christ.  There were those who held on and acknowledged their faith in Christ and those who disowned Him.

In Foxes Book of Martyrs, there is a story from around A.D. 250, about a weak Christian named Nichomachus, who was brought before the governor of Asia, Optimus, and ordered to sacrifice to their pagan idols.  Nichomachus replied, “I cannot pay the respect to devils that is due only to the Almighty.”  He was immediately placed on the stretching rack, and after enduring his torments for only a short time, recanted his faith in Christ.  As soon as he was freed from the rack, he was seized with great agony and fell to the ground and died (Mat 16:25).  Seeing his terrible decision, Denisa, a teenage girl exclaimed, “O unhappy wretch, why would you buy a moment’s ease at the expense of a miserable eternity!”  When Optimus heard this, he called her to himself, and when Denisa confessed she too was a Christian, he had her beheaded.  Contrast Nichomachus with Ignatius A.D. 110, who was a disciple of John and the overseer of the church in Antioch.  He was sent to Rome to be tried for his faith.  He asked the church in Rome not to try to save him from being martyred.  He wrote, “Now I begin to be a disciple.  I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ.  Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limb, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Christ Jesus.”  Even when he was sentenced to be fed to the lions and could hear their roaring, he was filled with such desire to suffer for Christ (Acts 5:41, Heb 11:35) that he said, “I am the wheat of Christ; I am going to be ground with the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread.”

Perhaps Nichomachus depended on his own strength to sustain the testing of his faith. To me it is more likely that he possessed one of the two dozen kinds of counterfeit faith, which the New Testament lists.  He spoke boldly and courageously with his lips saying, “I cannot pay the respect to devils that is due only to the Almighty.”  Ah, but when the severe test came, he was weighed in the balances and found wanting.  If His faith were the true saving faith, He would have received sustaining grace from the Lord to get through that suffering, but He did not. 

Many, including the Apostle Paul, have concluded that living for Christ can be even tougher than dying for Him (Phi 1:21-23). The greatest evidence I have that I am in possession of the true saving faith is that no matter how much I have lost in this life for Christ, two spouses, four children, parents, best friends, homes, public reputation, a 20-year career, two businesses, finances, justice, dignity, my own life will and choices, etc., I still keep growing in my love for, and my faith in, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is my everything and I look forward to dying so I can finally be with Him!  Suffering and severe trials prove whether we are in possession of the true saving faith, or if we are just hypocrites, pretending to the faith.    

I have loved reading about the deathbed moments and last words of the spiritual giants!  If we are true Christians, who remain humbly dependent on the Lord, we will receive dying grace to stand firm in our confession of faith in Christ, to our very last breath.