I Pledge Allegiance to Jesus Christ

By Rev. Richard Sharpe

Scripture: Various, especially Matthew 10:32: Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

Introduction: When I was in seminary, one of the students was from Russia. The one thing that surprised her the most was that we had the American flag in our churches. She said that they would never have the Russian flag in their churches. We are so used to having our flag in our churches we don’t even think about what it means. We say our pledge to the American flag in our churches because we believe that we are “one nation under God.” That has changed over the years. It seems that America is trying to deny its Christian heritage. Can we still confess that we are “one nation under God,” or should we take the American flag out of our churches? Where is our allegiance? The word “confess” means praise, acknowledge, agree, say the same thing, promise, or admit. When we study confession, we will realize that our allegiance needs to be to Jesus Christ. We need to give Him our full attention. Let’s look at some verses that will help us realize these facts.

1. I Pledge Allegiance to Jesus Christ as My Savior (Romans 10:9, 10; 1 John 4:15). The first step in our personal life with Christ is to agree that we are sinners in need of a Savior. There are many who claim to be saviors in the world, but there is only one that is presented in the Word of God. That Savior is Jesus Christ. He died on the Cross for our sins. He was buried and then raised from the dead. No other religion can claim a risen Savior; their leaders are all still dead. We need to confess or agree with God that Jesus is the only way to heaven. We have to not only say it with our mouths, but we also have to believe it in our hearts for salvation to take place. If we believe it in our hearts, then we will pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ to everyone we meet. We will tell them that Jesus is the only Son of God who died on the cross for their sins and that they need to accept Him as their personal Savior. Our allegiance belongs to Jesus as our Savior.

2. I Pledge Allegiance to Jesus Christ My Shepherd (John 10:9, 11; Ps. 23:1). Once we have Christ in our hearts, we can realize that He is the Shepherd of our lives. He leads us in the direction we need to go. He gives us a guidebook called the Bible. In His Word we find all we need to live the Christian life. However, we have to go to Him in prayer to understand His guidebook. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, was given to us at the point of salvation to help us understand His guidebook. The Holy Spirit indwells us, baptizes us, fills us, and seals us at the point of salvation. The passage in the Gospel of John informs us that Christ’s sheep hear His voice and listen. We need to be listening to our Savior’s voice on a regular basis. That can only be done through a regular, daily meditation on the Word of God. As our Shepherd, Christ is by our side in every circumstance we face. Some of the problems we have are because of our own sins, but some are trials that are sent our way to make us more Christ-like in the way we live. We need to enjoy our Shepherd on a daily basis and remember that He is always with us.

3. I Pledge Allegiance to Jesus Christ My High Priest (Heb. 2:17, 18; 3:1, 2; 4:14–16; 1 John 1:9). Finally, once we have accepted God’s gift of salvation, once we realize that we need daily instructions on how to live the Christian life, then we will also realize that we sin even after we have Christ in our lives. What are we to do with this sin? If all our sins are forgiven when we accept Christ as our Savior, why do we have to do anything about them? At the point of salvation all our sins, including all our future sins, were covered by the blood of the Lamb. That is justification. The Father looks at us through the blood of Jesus and sees only Jesus and none of our sins. That gives us access to heaven—only because of what Christ has done for us. First John 1:9 addresses the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctification is an ongoing process that ends when we die. During this process we are growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. During this time we sin on a daily basis because we still have a tendency to sin that is not fully removed until after we die. We have to do something with our sins after salvation, so we can have daily fellowship with Christ. Our eternal life is settled. Our daily fellowship is in need of confession. John the apostle teaches us to confess our sins and that God is faithful to forgive us when we do. Jesus has been given the responsibility of being our High Priest. The responsibility of a High Priest was to go before the Father with a sacrifice to confess the sins of the people. Christ died on the cross and brings His blood to the Father so that we can have a continual relationship with Him. The blood only needs to be brought once. Our allegiance belongs to our High Priest!

Conclusion: Who has our allegiance on a daily basis? Is it Christ? Is it our money? Is it our possessions? Is it our jobs? Is it our family? We love our nation and we’re thankful for our freedom. But the Bible says that our allegiance or confession needs to start with Jesus Christ. He is the author of our salvation. He is our Shepherd. He is our High Priest. If we start each day in a right relationship with Christ, then all the other things will fall into line. If we put other things in front of Christ, then everything will fall apart. The choice is ours.