Confess and Believe in your Heart
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Romans 10:8-13
Romans 10:8-13
The Gospel is universal in its application and demands a universal proclamation.
The Gospel is universal in its application and demands a universal proclamation.
Clearly, every believer is assigned a personal “pulpit”—in the home, the community, or in school—from which to show and tell others the Good News.
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Paul declares, “I am a debtor,” pointedly noting his sense of obligation. Why? Man is dead, needing life.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Man is walking a course of destruction, needing deliverance.
remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Man is hopeless, needing God.
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Man is separated from God, needing Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
Jesus concludes the evidence of man’s need: he is lost, needing to be found.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Someone must be sent to preach so people hear and believe. There is no other way.
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,
“But what saith it?” now proclaims God’s beautiful plan of salvation.
“What saith it?” is without a doubt, the single most important question ever asked by anyone.
To be saved, one does not have to know all about what Jesus has done for him, but actually only a part of what was done, namely that He died for sinners and then rose from the dead.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
The sinner simply has to believe that Jesus did this thing for him, and if he believes it in his heart, he is saved.
“The Word is near you,” presents a simple word, that Jesus died for sinners and rose from the dead.
Paul asserts that the righteousness of faith does not demand human merit or effort. Christ has already achieved all that is necessary for our salvation.
Christ has provided our salvation through His incarnation (God taking on human form) and resurrection. God’s salvation is right in front of us. He will come to us wherever we are. All we need to do is to respond sincerely and accept His gift of salvation.
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;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
CONFESS . . BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART
Faith must be in the heart.
CONFESS . . . ‘JESUS IS LORD’
The earliest creed or confession of the NT Church was not “Jesus is Savior,” but “Jesus is Lord.” Jesus Christ is specifically called Savior 16 times in the NT and Lord more than 450 times. The current teaching in some evangelical circles that Jesus can be one’s Savior without necessarily being one’s Lord is found nowhere in the NT. No one can receive Jesus as Savior without receiving Him as Lord.
To confess “Jesus is Lord” is to declare Him to be equal with God.
saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,
When NT Christians called Jesus “Lord,” this was not just an outward profession but an inward sincere attitude of the heart.
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
Jesus must be Lord of spiritual mattes at home and in the church.
GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,” means to be in agreement with all that Scripture says about Him.
To confess Jesus as Lord includes a heart belief in His Deity (Jesus is God).
One must believe that Jesus Christ is God.
One must believe as well, that God raised Jesus from the dead, giving their hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” portrays the word “believing” in a mode of “thinking.”
A heart believing unto righteousness and a mouth making confession unto salvation, are not really two things, but two sides of the same thing.
“Jesus” is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name “Jehoshua.” It means “Savior” or “Jehovah saves.”
WHAT IS SALVATION?
The words “salvation” or “saved” denotes simply deliverance.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
The death of Jesus was a sacrifice.
SALVATION IN THE PRESENT AND IN THE FUTURE
Salvation is both a present and a future matter for believers.
That human effort is an essential in salvation is not to be denied in the face of all the New Testament evidence. No one with the faintest conception of what salvation means would think of coming before God to claim merit. Salvation is first and foremost a “gift.”
“Believe” means to trust in, have faith in, be fully convinced of, acknowledge, rely on. It is more than credence in church doctrines or articles of faith. It expresses reliance upon and a personal trust that produces obedience. It includes submission and a positive confession of the lordship of Jesus.
Romans 10:9-10 is the most foundational lesson in the importance and power of faith’s confession found anywhere in the Bible. The principle is established at the very beginning of our life in Christ. Just as salvation is appropriated by heart belief and spoken confession, so His continuing working in our lives is advanced by the same means.
The word “confess” has the connotation of “ a binding public declaration by which a legal relation is contractually established.” Thus, as our words “contract” from our side the salvation God has fully provided from His by Christ’s saving work and power, so we have a principle for all of life. Beginning in this spirit of saving faith, let us grow in active faith—believing in God’s mighty power for all our needs, speaking with our lips what our hearts receive and believe of the many promises in His Word. Let us accept God’s “contracts” for all our need by endowing them with our confessed belief—just as when we were saved.
Oral confession declares, confirms, and seals the belief in the heart.
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
The emphasis on the pronoun “Him” proclaims Jesus as the sole figure in the realm of salvation. It is Jesus who satisfied sin’s penalties at Calvary’s cross, and it is Jesus who rose from the dead. Jesus must without fail be the object of one’s faith.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The sinner who places his faith in the Lord Jesus will not be defeated.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,” actually should read, “between the Jew and the Gentile.”
“Difference” in the Greek is “diastole,” and means to “draw asunder, divide.”
Have you ever asked, “How do I become a Christian?” Romans 10:8-12 give you the beautiful answer. Salvation is as close as your own lips and heart. People think it must be a complicated process, but is not. If we sincerely believe in our hearts and profess that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord, we will be saved.
There is one Savior and Redeemer for the entirety of the world, who is, “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus is God!
for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
“For whosoever,” made it evident to the Hebrew people that life and righteousness were offered to faith and not to merit or privilege, for it was manifest that the word “whosoever” embraced the entire world without distinction.
“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Whereas the “Name of the Lord” referred to many things in the Old Testament, in the New Testament it refers to “the Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s the reason that one must call upon the “Name of the Lord,” that Name being Jesus.