Romans Chapter 10 Vs. 9

 

The Message of Salvation to All

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. Rom 10:9

That if thou... A simple guarantee of salvation.

This verse does not mean a simple acknowledgment that He is God and the Lord of the universe, since even demons acknowledge that to be true.

This is the deep personal conviction, without reservation, that Jesus is that person’s own master or sovereign. This phrase includes repenting from sin, trusting in Jesus for salvation and submitting to Him as Lord.

This is the volitional element of faith.

We studied this in the first chapter which I’ll repeat again here:

and shalt believe... To trust, rely on, or have faith in. When used of salvation, this word usually occurs in the present tense “is believing” which stresses that faith is not simply a one-time event, but an ongoing condition. True saving faith is supernatural, a gracious gift of God that He produces in the heart and is the only means by which a person can appropriate true righteousness.

Saving faith consists of 3 elements.

1. Mental: the mind understands the gospel and the truth about Christ

2. Emotional: one embraces the truthfulness of those facts with sorrow over sin and joy over God’s mercy and grace

3. Volitional: the sinner submits his will to Christ and trust in Him alone as the only hope of salvation.

Genuine faith always produces authentic obedience.

God hath raised... Christ’s resurrection was the supreme validation of His ministry. Belief in it is necessary for salvation because it proved that Christ is who He claimed to be and that the Father had accepted His sacrifice in the place of sinners. Without the resurrection, there is no salvation.

This leaves absolutely no doubt at all what we must do to be saved.

In these verses Paul stated the content of that message concerning faith. Confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord is mentioned first to conform to the order of the quotation from Deut. 30:14 in Rom. 10:8. The confession is an acknowledgement that God has been incarnated in Jesus (cf. Rom. 10:6), that Jesus Christ is God. Also essential is heart-faith that God raised Him from the dead (cf. Rom. 10:7). The result is salvation.