“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
I grew up in a Baptist denomination and was having many questions about hard verses in the bible. Some which had gone unanswered and others I was given answers. I thought that some of the answers I was getting were so complicated and deep that, I would never be able to understand the bible on my own. Surely I’m going to have to be taken by the hand and be walked through so many difficult passages in the new testament. Over the years I have slowly come to understand the most definite differences between Paul’s ministry and everyone else. I’m very thankful for finding your videos on you tube! They have simply made clearer all that I was trying to get my brother and parents to understand. Your Paul vs. James series was simple and excellently put together! I enjoy sharing them with others. Now I do have one question or agonizing itch that must be scratched… “Confess with your mouth”. We find several instructions from Paul to simply believe the gospel but however, when we read Romans chapter 10. We do see Paul switching the instructions up a notch… confession is made unto salvation? I have listened to your, “must we confess” sermon and I’m a little confused by it??? I have found this explanation a while back and it made some sense to me…
Please… This is Not an argument… I am nervous slash scared and unhappy until I understand this issue completely! My thinking is that IF we must confess or acknowledge somehow someway with our mouth? Then It would not only be believing that determines my salvation but though I believe… My salvation still hinges upon whether or not I say this or not? What is your most respected solution to my malfunction?… Sir.
It sounds like you are searching for an answer concerning Romans 10:9, and are not satisfied with the answers you have gotten. You may not be with this one either but you ought to give it some thought.
Sometimes we don’t like how a verse in the Bible is written, because if we would have written it we would have said it differently. Most likely it is because we want to defend a truth and wish a verse did not give an opening for those opposed to the truth to use as a verse to attack the truth. But God wrote the Bible his way. And I do believe He deliberately wrote some things a certain way to give those who oppose the truth the excuse they are looking for not to believe the truth. He did that to Pharaoh and his magicians.
Such is the case of Romans 10:9. It really is not a difficult verse to understand. It certainly cannot contradict what was previously written in Romans 3:24-28 or Romans 4:4,5 and 23-25; or Romans 5:1 and 15-18 or what will follow in Romans 11:6. No, Paul did not add a work to salvation in Romans 10:9 after teaching justification by faith or redemption freely by God’s grace through faith in the propitiation of Christ’s blood.
We are afraid to let the scripture use a poetic idiom to express a spiritual truth. You probably heard this before and maybe rejected it and if so you may be fighting against the truth. “Confession” does simply mean to agree. The “mouth” here is used as an idiom (not a physical work for salvation,) just as “heart” is not the physical organ that pumps blood through your veins. It is used as the decision maker of the soul. Before rejecting this look at Romans 10:6 & 8 “…Say not in thine heart … The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart…”. How can you say something in your heart? We easily understand that this is the thinking process that goes on in our soul. That is what these words convey. The conclusion of Romans 10:9,10 is verse 11&13 “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed…For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart is calling on God in faith to do what he promised – that is, to save you. That is not a work. That is a decision of faith.
Give this some thought. I believe it is the truth.
