Essays in Romans 10:10-13 Our Confession Part Deaux

10:10 Confess and Believe 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Before we get to verse 10, remember what Paul said in verse 9? 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. In verse 10, Paul then explains why this is true. When you see the word “For” in verse 10, think “Because”. So verse 10 tells us why verse 9 is correct. With the Heart… With the Mouth Let’s start with the phrase “…with the heart you believe and are justified…” Biblically, the “heart” is much more than emotion. It is the inner person—the center of belief, thought, will, and commitment. So Paul is not describing merely intellectual agreement. He is saying: Faith begins in the person’s innermost being, i.e., “your heart” This is an important point. Mere intellectual agreement is not belief as Paul presents it here. Satan knows who Jesus is, but there is no faith there. This belief is so profound that you cannot help but express it, i.e., “confess.” What is this confession you cannot hold back? “Jesus is Lord”. Think of it this way: Your internal confession (belief) is you telling yourself that Jesus is Lord. Your external confession, “Jesus is Lord!” is that heartfelt belief exploding into the world around you. Faith begins in the person’s innermost being. When Paul says if we “believe in our heart,” he is saying that everything is settled. There is no debate. Jesus is Lord. Now let’s look at a little word… “and” as in: 10 For it is with your heart that you believe AND are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith…” This little word can be viewed two ways: You believe with your heart, then in addition (and) you confess with your mouth. It’s like math… A (believe) + B (confess) = C (you are saved). “A” and “B” exist apart from each other. You will need both to get to “C”. In this way of thinking, you can believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and NOT confess with your mouth. Or conversely, you can “confess” WITHOUT “believing” in your heart that Jesus is Lord. When you follow that logic out it is easy to see that this cannot be true. There is an alternative (and in my opinion, the more believable conclusion). “And” joins the two words “believe” and “confess” into one organic thing. So instead of the formula A+B=C, we have faith and confession as two parts of one thing. As stated previously, one does not exist apart from the other. Your internal confession to yourself (belief) and your external confession by your own mouth to the world are in reality two expressions of the same thing. It’s one confession with two expressions. One to yourself and the other to the world around you. It’s not “believe” and then “confess" before you can be saved. It’s more like if you “confessbelieve”… one word… ONE PROCESS…you are saved. The sum of “confessbelieve” is that you “…are saved…” You could think of it this way: if you are indeed saved, your internal belief will show up in your day-to-day life. Paul isn't teaching “believe something in your head and say the magic words.” The Greek presents a much deeper relationship between belief and confession. The heart believes because faith is an inward trust in Christ. The mouth confesses because genuine faith expresses itself openly. So you could summarize Romans 10:10 this way: What we truly believe in our hearts eventually finds expression in how we speak and live. or “I believe” is the heart; “I confess” is the mouth; they are inseparable. Neither can truly exist without the other because they are, in fact, one confession of the same truth, i.e., “Jesus is Lord”. One internal confession and one external confession. One declaration, two expressions.