"Christ said: Whoever denies me before people I also will deny before my heavenly Father-even if it were not so, it would still follow solely of itself, follow from the inner urge in the Christian that he would do this. On the other hand, although the confession is commanded and enjoined with the full emphasis of eternity, if the confession is not the consequence of that inner urge, then a confession of that kind is not what is required. Therefore, if someone could presumptuously want to delude himself into thinking that the most sagacious thing, because after all it is required, the most sagacious thing, in view of eternity’s judgment, would be to confess Christ: then such a person does not only not confess Christ but blasphemously distorts him, as if Christ were a vain power seeker who craved a great name in the world. No, that was not why Christ required the confession, and that is not the way he required it. On the contrary, he actually required that his followers have such inwardness that confession follows of itself-when it is required. The same inwardness can also be silent and just as pleasing to God, but this same true inwardness surely cannot be silent-when confession is required. Indeed, how could a person’s faith be strong enough to believe unto salvation, strong and disregardful enough in this way (alas, this may be just about the most difficult kind of disregard, to pay no attention to one’s own fantasies about merit or to the mitigating inventions of one’s passions or to the horrifying images of terrified imagination in the consciousness of guilt, but without this disregard one cannot have faith unto salvation) if a person does not have a faith strong and disregardful enough to dare to confess-if it is required."