The Faith that Saves

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Our Lord Jesus died and was raised from the dead, all who confess and believe will be saved.

Paul in a concise way illustrates for us the glorious nature of our salvation. Paul usually likes to use long sentences loaded with heavy points of Biblical theology; here, he uses two sentences packed with fundamental truths of our faith. These Truths show us the power of the resurrection to Save.

Most of us know many fine points of theology; many can argue and defend what we believe. This statement of Jesus being Lord and being raised from the dead is of most importance in our text because as John Calvin stated this shows the efficacy of the power of God to save. “And thus is resurrection alone often set before us as the assurance of our salvation, not to draw away our attention from his death, but because it bears witness to the efficacy and fruit of his death:” R. Lenskie agrees with Calvin and adds a little more flavor to it by stating: “His resurrection crowned the work of salvation and revealed and forever sealed the efficacy and the sufficiency of all that Christ had done, especially also the full atoning power of his death.”

How do we obtain the benefits of the finished work of Christ? Paul says confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and He was raised from the dead.

Paul is using his knowledge of Old testament scripture to frame this thought. Deuteronomy 30:14 “14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”

Mouth and heart, confession from mouth and belief in heart!

Believe in your heart- the truth of the Gospel.

This belief is not just a general belief, its not simply philosophical understanding of the work of Christ; it’s being fully aware and being fully convinced about all Christ accomplished. James tells us that demons believe and tremble: James 2:19 “19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” It’s not simply the knowledge of who Jesus is; there’s more.

The Greek used (believe) here Pee-stev-o, conveys the idea of of putting all of our trust, having complete confidence in. Paul is not only concerned about the emotions, rather the whole of our being to Trust and Believe!

We must be fully convinced in the work of Christ and hold fast to it. We must believe He is as the exalted Savior, the divine Mediator, whom we trust, worship, and obey.

Do you believe today? If you are here and have not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ will you believe today?

Paul doesn’t stop at belief. Paul knows how easy it can be to believe something and be quiet. We then must verbally express what we believe to the world.

We live in the most expressive time in human history. The things we like we show it, we talk about it. If we walked into the parking lot, we will see expressions of what we like or what we believe.

The stickers on our vehicles let you know what we believe. Cubs fans and Dodger. . . Florida Gators, Ole Miss, Tennessee, TCU….

During political seasons, the parties and people we support usually is visible on cars.

We express what we believe.

Confession is no different.

confession- Confession is the outward manifestation of this critical inner response of what Christ has done for us. He died in our place and for our sin and was raised on the 3rd day. He secures salvation for us.

When we believe this in our heart and understand the magnitude of this, we can’t help but to openly confess this to the world.

The woman at the well was told by Jesus not to say a word about her encounter with Him. I trust she wanted to follow His instructions, but she could not contain her emotions after having an encounter with Christ. She runs and tells everyone!

Why do we tell the world? Our belief and confession of Christ gives us the free gift of salvation. Verse 10 says: we are justified with the belief in our heart, and we are saved with our confession! The instant a sinner believes, righteousness results, i.e., the divine verdict that for Christ’s sake this believing sinner is accounted righteous. This is justification by faith alone

In response to His faithfulness to us, we respond with gratitude and thankfulness to share our life-changing experience with the world.

Eddie Rickenbacker knows about gratitude and thankfulness.

Many years ago, if you where ever near Key Bisquaine, FLorida you would be surprised by the sight of a man sitting on the sea shore throwing up shrimp to sea gulls. The man was Eddie Rickenbacker.

This decorated World War 1 veteran was excited about serving as a fighter pilot again for world war 2 but his superiors thought he was to old to use new flying technology to serve. They allowed his team to do some small missions but nothing major.

on one flying attempt the plane used suffered mechanical failures and he and his men were lost at sea in the Pacific for three weeks. They used all there supplies and were hopeless and knew death was near.

A sea gull would fly around the men, Eddie Rickenbacker grabs it share meat with the men and used the intestines of the sea gull to fish. This sea gull saved their lives until they were found and rescued.

If you got close to this man throwing up shrimp to the sea gulls, you would hear him say thank you! In gratitude and thankfulness for a sea gull saving his life.

A sea gull did not secure salvation for us, Christ did. As a way of gratitude and thankfulness to Him; the least we could do is believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths how his death and resurrection saved our lives!

Our faith in Jesus, Is a Faith that Saves!!!

Let’s pray.