Romans 10.10-A Person Believes With His Heart Resulting In Righteousness, That Is, With His Mouth He Acknowledges Resulting In Salvation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday May 21, 2009
Romans: Romans 10:10-A Person Believes With His Heart Resulting In Righteousness While With His Mouth He Acknowledges Resulting in Salvation
Lesson # 339
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 10:1.
This evening we will note Romans 10:10, which continues Paul’s thought from verse 9 by teaching that a person believes with his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead resulting in righteousness while on the other hand with his mouth he acknowledges to the Father Jesus is Lord resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”
Romans 10:2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
Romans 10:3, “For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”
Romans 10:6, “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: ‘DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down).”
Romans 10:7, “Or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
Romans 10:8, “But what does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart’ -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Paul’s statement in Romans 10:10 provides additional information regarding his statement in Romans 10:9.
Paul teaches in Romans 10:9 that to acknowledge with one’s mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord is the same as believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation.
When Paul teaches in Romans 10:9 that in order to be saved the sinner must acknowledge with his mouth that Jesus is God and believe in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead, he is saying that to acknowledge in one’s heart that Jesus is Lord is to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead.
In other words, to exercise faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is, in and of itself, an acknowledgment that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God since the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is God and one is saved only by faith alone in Christ alone!
Paul is not presenting two conditions for salvation or teaching that there must be a public affirmation of Christ’s deity as well as faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
Rather, he is speaking of salvation from two different perspectives: (1) The sinner must acknowledge that Jesus is God. (2) The sinner must believe that the Father raised Him from the dead.
The two are inextricably tied to each other.
Without the resurrection, Jesus is not God and His spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross did not resolve the problem of personal sins and the sin nature.
Now, in Romans 10:10, Paul teaches that with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with his mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Notice that both confessing with one’s mouth and believing with one’s heart have the same results since both righteousness and salvation speak of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God from different perspectives.
This also indicates that to acknowledge is to believe and vice versa.
So in Romans 10:10 Paul presents additional information regarding his statement in Romans 10:9.
If the sinner acknowledges with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, in other words, he exercises absolute confidence that the Father raised Him from the dead, then he will delivered from eternal condemnation.
“For you see” with the heart a person believes (that the Father raised Jesus from the dead), resulting in righteousness and with his mouth he acknowledges (Jesus is Lord), resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
“With the heart” denotes that the heart is the means by which the unsaved Jew must believe that the Father raised Jesus from the dead in order to be saved.
“A person believes” is the third person singular present passive indicative form of the verb pisteuo (pisteuvw) (pist-yoo-o), which refers to exercising one’s absolute confidence in” the fact that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
That the object of faith is the Father raising Jesus from the dead is indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 10:9, which presents this as the object of the sinner’s faith.
“Resulting in righteousness” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “for” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun dikaiosune (dikaiosuvnh), “righteousness.”
The noun dikaiosune refers to the righteousness of God that is offered in the gospel as a gift from the Father and is received by the sinner and is imputed to the sinner the moment the sinner exercises faith in His Son Jesus Christ, which in turn results in justification.
The fact that dikaiosune refers to God’s righteousness that is received through faith alone in Christ alone in contrast to obedience to the Law is clearly implied by the context.
In Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul is teaching of Israel’s rejection of the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone and in contrast embracing the false doctrine that justification is by obedience to the Law.
The noun serves as the object of the preposition eis, which functions as a marker of result indicating that the sinner who exercises absolute confidence that the Father raised Jesus from the dead “results in” the imputation of divine righteousness to the sinner as a gift of God’s grace.
Romans 10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
“And” is the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s previous statement in Romans 10:10.
Therefore, the contrast that the conjunction is indicating is between these two difference perspectives of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God.
“With the mouth” indicates that the mouth of the sinner is the “means by which” he or she must acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord in order to be saved.
“He confesses” is the third person singular present passive indicative form of the verb homologeo (o(mologevw), which means, “to acknowledge” that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord as indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 10:9.
“Resulting in salvation” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$), “resulting in” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun soteria (swtheriva), “salvation.”
The noun soteria refers to “deliverance” from sin, Satan, his cosmic system and eternal condemnation, the moment one exercises faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 3:17; 5:34; Acts 2:21; 16:30-31).
The noun serves as the object of the preposition eis, which functions as a marker of result indicating that the sinner who acknowledges that Jesus is Lord (i.e. God) “results in” receiving eternal salvation.
Paul is writing rhetorically in Romans 10:9-10 indicating that when he speaks of righteousness and salvation, he is speaking of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God and not two different ideas that are not connected.
That Paul is writing rhetorically is indicated in that in Romans 10:10 he is following the same word order of Romans 10:9 in that in both verses he speaks of believing with one’s heart and acknowledging with one’s mouth.
However, in verse 10 believing with one’s heart precedes acknowledging with one’s mouth whereas in verse nine acknowledging with one’s mouth precedes believing with one’s heart.
That Paul is writing rhetorically not only suggests that righteousness and salvation are both speaking of the justified sinner’s new relationship with God and not different ideas that are not related but also it indicates that acknowledging with one’s mouth and believing with one’s heart are one in the same.
Believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is the same as acknowledging that Jesus is God since the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is God and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation.