“Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 1:6-9

Having spent the earlier years of my education in a Catholic-founded primary school, I received the sacrament of ‘chrismation’ when I was a boy.

However shortly after, my parents, who were both Anglicans, also insisted that I had to be ‘confirmed’ in the Church of Uganda.

Much later, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I became a Born-Again Christian.

So I may proudly say that I am one of the few people who are ‘totally Christian.’

In traditional Christendom, the rite of confirmation is the public profession of the testimony of faith into which one has been baptized and the eventual sign of acceptance into the Communion of faith.

It derives from the Biblical narratives where the apostles laid hands on the new believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

In our meditation today, the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian believers that the “testimony of Christ was confirmed in them.”

Secondly, he tells them that Christ shall confirm them to the end as blameless and beyond reproof at His second coming.

In this context, the word ‘confirm’ has two different Greek words.

‘Kuroo’ means to “make valid, ratify, impart authority or influence.”

The second verb means to make firm, establish, make secure; to strengthen and to make sure.

You’re His and you permanently belong to the household of faith.

It is a divine guarantee, and it has been sealed; no one can change it.

The word ‘confirm’ is a legal term, which literally means to cause to stand as valid, lawful and legally binding.              

In the original languages, the Hebrew word for truth comes from the root that also means amen (‘truly’ or ‘it is so’).  

Additionally, the Hebrew word translated ‘believe’ is from a root meaning ‘establish’ or ‘confirm.’

The role of a witness was to affirm the truth of a transaction by affixing his signature.

To a believer, that’s the Holy Spirit’s role; He’s the One who bears witness that we are the children of God.

That means that a believer is someone who has been confirmed by the Holy Spirit as a true and legitimate child of God.

Deuteronomy 29:13 says God “confirms you this day as His people, that He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

If you are a child of God, then the Spirit of God has confirmed Christ’s testimony upon you. 

You’re His and you permanently belong to the household of faith.

That is a divine guarantee, and it has been sealed; no one can change it. No one can snatch us from His mighty Hand.

Secondly, God commits to affirm the validity of our witness to the world with His supernatural power until Christ returns.

Mark 16:20 says; “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.” See also Isaiah 44:26.

The mighty miracles, signs, wonders and gifts of the Holy Spirit confirmor verify that we represent God and that the Gospel we preach iss from heaven (Hebrews 2:3-4).

You are His and the message you carry is His. It is confirmed.

Prayer:

Almighty God, thank you because You have confirmed that I belong to You and that You are my God. May You continue to confirm Thy Word with signs and wonders, for the glory of Your Name, Amen!