Jesus - confess with your mouth and believe in your heart

Romans 9-10 contain some of the most famous verses of evangelism we have in the whole Bible.

“If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9)

We preach the death & resurrection of Jesus as the answer to humanity’s greatest need; a solution to the problem of being separated from God & therefore being what the Bible calls ‘lost’. 

So we have read in Romans that all you have to do to be 'saved' (the opposite of 'lost') is acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord & believe that he was raised from the dead.

That sounds easy. The Bible confirms that it is easy. It’s not meant to be an IQ test. You either do or you don’t. In fact, it is so easy, we have a tendency to go along with it, without letting it change our hearts. 

The best evidence for this is Satan himself. The last time I checked, he was not a Christian, but the Bible says he knows Jesus is Lord & knows very well that Jesus was raised from the dead.

In Luke's account of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum we read;

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" (Luke 4:34)

Shortly after, Jesus goes to Peter’s mother in law’s house where we read;

Demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. (Luke 4:41)

No doubt you will recall the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

So Jesus qualifies for us what this ‘confession’ that he is 'Lord' means. It means a change in within you, not just what you know. Who you are changes when you know Jesus.

A good question to ask yourself is; Is my understanding of Jesus based on mere facts about him; details of his life & death, or is it based on faith?

The two go together.

Without faith you cannot please God (Hebrews 11:16), but our faith is based on historical evidence so that must underpin our belief system as well. It’s no good pretending Jesus rose from the dead if someone can produce his body. That would be a fraud. So the correct balance of faith & facts isneeded. 

But what I’ve been asking is if our relationship to God is based solely on our belief in some stuff about Jesus & not a relationship with him. You know about him, but do you know him. What we’re talking about is not putting facts in your head, but faith in your heart. 

Now, let's go back to what Paul says about this in Romans. 

Romans 9

30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Romans 10

1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. 5Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom 9:30-10:10)

Behind Paul’s words are 2000 years of problems. God chose Abraham as long before Jesus as Jesus is behind us. God promised to be his God, to give him descendents & a land for the people.All the people of the world would be blessed through this promise, known as a covenant.

All Abraham & his people had to do was trust & obey. They had to know about God, but that was not enough: they had to change with that belief. That is, to show by their life that he was their God.

It became obvious as time went on that God had decided to achieve all this through one special servant, known as the messiah. So far so good, the prophets of the Old Testament understood that, but by the time Jesus arrived the people neither trusted in God nor obeyed his word. And so the ministry of Jesus on earth was largely one of judgement on the sin of Israel.

There were just a few isolated people who woke up to who he was. His parents, an old couple in the Temple at the time of his birth & a band of 12 hand picked followers, known as disciples.

Apart from these few, there was neither trust in the promises of θ, nor obedience to him. What this led to was the rejection of Jesus as messiah. Israel had turned her back on her deliverer.

Here’s the problem Paul is agonizing over; the Jews had rejected the Jesus as messiah, but the gentiles were recognizing him as the Saviour & coming to saving faith in him. Israel had missed what was right in front of her eyes.

It reminds me of a joke I heard recently. A couple who loved the great outdoors thought they would take their five year old son off the beaten track and let him experience nature. As they drove towards their destination they saw a billboard which said, "Naturalist campsite. Next turn right". Figuring they would find just what they were looking for they turned in, but to their horror they saw coming towards them two men & two women riding bicycles, completely naked. It was a 'naturalist' camp, not a 'naturist' camp. As they hurriedly turned their car around their five year old's eyes became bigger & bigger at the approaching group. Within a minute the foursome had ridden right past them waving & offering their friendly greetings. The couple sat stunned in the front of the vehicle for a moment until their son said, "Look Mummy & Daddy, they're naughty. They're not wearing their safety helmets"

The Jews of Paul’s day had missed what was right in front of them; the messiah; the chosen one. What’s worse, they handed him over & convinced the Romans he must be put to death. They had brought a curse on themselves & they were doing it while they thought they were being obedient to the promises of θ. They misunderstood the lot.

In Romans 9-10, Paul answers the question of why Israel had rejected her messiah. It was not because Jesus had opposed the law, as many had said. The two were not opposed to each other.

They did not reject Jesus because they were being faithful to the law either. Paul says they misunderstood & misapplied the law. The problem was they obeyed the law as though it were based on works, ie how many things you do to please God.

When God gave the law to Moses at Mt Sinai he warned the people put their trust in him and to carefully follow his instruction. It was important for them to know that their rescue came about not because of their own deeds, not even what they knew about him, but because of his great love & mercy. Only when they understood this, could their obedience flow out of a grateful heart.

But to this day, they & we, have trouble getting all that in the right order.

Ask someone what makes them think they will go to heaven & they will often say, “Because I lived a good life”. What have they just done? They have placed their own deeds before the work of the messiah who died a criminal’s death so we might have life. And have it through God’s mercy, not through anything we have done. Come to faith in Jesus & enjoy obedience out of love, not as a burden.

The tragic story for Israel is that because they did not have faith in God through the law, they could not have faith in Jesus, who is the goal of the law.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. "I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?  "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" (John 5:39-47)

What Paul goes on to explain in Romans is that even the resurrection of Jesus was the goal of the law. The righteousness demanded by the law is the righteousness which comes by faith. Faith in what? In God’s promises & the promises are that there is a coming one who will end the stranglehold of death & free the people for eternity. It’s all about Jesus.

And that brings us back to our key verse;

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

What does it mean? It can’t mean simply agreeing with the facts for as we have seen that would make the devil a Christian. Nor do we accept the concept that the answer is beyond our reach, or as Paul says, in the abyss or up in heaven, where it could be considered unattainable.

Romans is written to a Church suffering horrendous persecution & longing for God to end the suffering & deliver his people as he did long ago under Moses, whom Paul quotes in ch 10. God’s answer to the prayers of his people is quite simply to trust & obey.

But because the entire law was heading towards faith in Christ, that trust in God & obedience to him expresses itself as faith in Christ, God’s anointed one sent as the answer to all the problems. So calling Jesus Lord & believing in the resurrection is to believe in everything God stands for.

The Easter story, with all its terrible death & bloodshed, reminds us that God has done everything which is required of us to be rightly related to him. The perfect sacrifice, doing everything in one hit which all of those years of Old Testament sacrifice could not attain.

But just as important, the resurrection of Jesus on that Sunday 2000 years ago should be the final blow to the idea that we can work our way in to heaven. Look what had to be achieved!

The resurrection of Jesus is proof that he has done everything required by the law & by God’s eternal standard of judgement to pay the enormous price of sin.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of θ is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 3:23)

Once death is defeated, eternal life is yours.

Believing in the work of Jesus on the cross is much more than agreeing with some facts & figures. It means you 'get it' & that you will let that belief create a change in you.

Believing in the resurrection means trusting in all the promises of life and hope and righteousness for which it stands. It means being so confident of God's power and love that no fear of worldly loss nor greed for worldly gain will lure us to disobey his will. (John Piper)