Romans 10:8-13 – “But what does it say?“ The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This passage is quoted often as a simple explanation of what it means to be saved as a Christian, namely believing in the gospel of Jesus. The good news, that God, desiring to reconcile sinners to Himself, in love took on flesh and came down as a man, to die, to pay the penalty of man’s sin on the cross, and rise triumphantly 3 days later giving evidence of His victory over sin, death, and the separation between God and sinful man. Salvation is truly that simple, but it isn’t easy. Salvation isn’t a matter of the head alone – that is, it isn’t simply knowing the gospel of Jesus and saying you trust and love Him. Believing is a matter of the heart. Read again slowly the passage above, it says “with the heart one believes and is justified” (declared righteous before God). Then is says “with the mouth on confesses and is saved”. The words are an overflow of the heart, for someone who truly is saved.
What does your heart say about God? Your actions will give evidence to what your heart believes. Many Christians, myself included will talk about how we struggle with sin, and that we are resting in the grace of God through the blood of Jesus. Simply meaning, we trust that our righteousness is in Jesus. That is 100% true – if your heart truly believes on Jesus. Believing is not a matter of head knowledge, “knowing God”, or even being able to recite scripture or the gospel, saving belief is a declaration from your heart. In my own life, I can mark periods of time when my heart was closest to God – and it was marked by two overarching emotions of my heart, love for God and a hatred of sin in my own life.
My love for God overflowed in my heart to desiring to know more about him from the Bible, to love others in a way that I would see Jesus love others in scripture, to pray for my own heart and those around me, and to seek to push back darkness in the world around me in whatever small way I could by serving the poor, helping those where I could, and fighting for justice.
My hatred of sin overflowed in my heart to a declaration of war on sin in my life. Being careful to recognize the difference between mere behavior modification and real heart change, I would put up boundaries in my life. Instead of waiting to see how close I could get to sinning without sinning, I would put up boundaries to make sure I couldn’t get close. I would talk to my own soul, ask myself questions about why I was desiring the things I was desiring, what was it that I really wanted, and why was I pursuing those things outside of God? I would then fight lies with Truth, whatever I was searching for – love, affection, affirmation, purpose, etc. through sin, I would surround myself with God and His Word to remind myself of how those things are met fully with God, and how things will go better for me following God and trusting Him vs. my own desires apart from God. Thankfully or unfortunately, I have many examples to draw from to see how life goes bad when I pursue my desires apart from God.
I love the end of this passage, because God wants us to hear this clearly from Him. There is no difference between a seemingly righteous person (Jew) or a seemingly unrighteous person (Greek) – every one of us has the same God and every one of us is in need of the same salvation. The Lord is Lord of all, and loves all who come to Him. Every one who believes on God from the heart will be saved.
I’ve enclosed a link below to a 7 minute message from John Piper on Declaring War on Sin. I commend it to you. Stay encouraged, God is with you, for you, loves you, and desires to grow a closer relationship with you today. Let yesterday be yesterday, and don’t worry about tomorrow, press into God today.
Grace and Peace,
Adam
Following the Way 