READING TIME: 3-5 MINUTES
April 8, 2020
In Romans 10:9-10, does the Bible teach a two-step way to salvation (believe and confess)?
Part 1
Romans 10:9-10: 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (NASB).
If confession of Jesus as Lord means to acknowledge Christ’s Lordship publicly as a condition for escaping final separation from God, as some maintain, then it is the only place in the New Testament where any condition in addition to faith is added for personal salvation (escape from the lake of fire) (Dillow).
I don’t think the pastors and Bible teachers who quote this verse as a condition for salvation are thinking about the ramifications of what they’re saying. Here are eight questions for them to think through regarding this problematic viewpoint: (1) How is confession possible for a person who can’t speak due to a disability or a person who became a believer on his/her deathbed but can’t speak because of his/her physical condition? (2) What if you live in a Muslim country and if you openly confess Christ, the Muslim authorities may torture and then slaughter you and your entire family? (3) If open confession is necessary for salvation, but what about the rulers in John 12:42 who weren’t confessing but John said they were believers (see my post on March 21, 2019; p. 9 in my Ask Pastor David e-blasts document)? (4) If you’re using Matt 10:32-33 to support your opinion that confession is necessary for salvation, have you looked at whom Jesus was speaking when He said those words in Matt 10:32-33? The answer is Jesus speaking with the disciples who were already believers and those two verses have nothing to do with 1st-tense salvation (justification), but they related to 2nd-tense salvation (progressive/practical sanctification). See my post from April 10, 2019, on pp. 33-34 of the same Word document). (5) If public confession is necessary for salvation, why didn’t Paul add confession as a condition for salvation when the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:30-31 asked him and Silas what he must do to be saved? (6) When Jesus told one of the thieves on the cross that he would be with Him in Paradise, why didn’t He ask him to openly confess Himself as Savior? (7) Why is it in the book of Acts, when the apostles shared the gospel, they never added confession as a condition for salvation? (8) In almost 100 times the Gospel of John listed faith as the only condition for salvation. Why didn’t John add confession as an additional confession?
I want to thank Robbie Dean for his excellent article on Romans 10:9-10. Much of the answer below is from that article.
Following Rom 10:9-10, Paul quotes from Joel 2:32 in Rom 10:13, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” As will be confirmed in the study of the words for salvation, this quote from Joel 2:32 is not about being saved from the eternal penalty of sin. Yhwh speaks to Israel in Joel 2:32 about end-time events during the day of the Lord. God promises “that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The Hebrew word translated “saved” is not the expected yashah, but malt, which means to save or rescue from a disaster. The LXX translates the Hebrew with the Greek verb anasozo, which also has this same connotation. Paul’s use of sozo in this verse means a physical deliverance not salvation from the eternal penalty of sin.
In verse 9, believing with the heart is not talking about a different kind of faith or one that is more committed to the authority of Christ, but is simply indicating that belief is a function of the mind.
Romans 10:14 foreshadows what Paul states after Roman 11 that Israel will be
saved, i.e, rescued at the end of the Tribulation by the return of Christ as the Deliverer. Here he refers to Jesus not as Yeshua who will save His people from their sins, but as the Rescuer, using
the verb rhuomai, again emphasizing a deliverance or rescue from a national calamity, not
personal justification before God.
In the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, the writers foretell of a day when God’s eternal covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled. At that time, the promises of the Land Covenant, Davidic Covenant, and New Covenant will also be fulfilled. This occurs when the nation repents, receives forgiveness for their national sin of rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and calls on the name of the Lord. At that time God will rescue them (save them) from impending annihilation, destroy their enemies, and restore them from international exile. Israel will finally possess all of the land God promised to Abraham, the David theocracy will be reestablished, and the Messianic Kingdom will be established. This national deliverance and restoration are frequently referred to in the Old Testament as being “saved.” In light of Paul’s use of various Old Testament quotations and terms, it is most likely that “salvation” in Rom 9-11 does not describe personal justification, but a future, national Messianic rescue, and deliverance of corporate Israel.
Tomorrow will be the second and final post of this key passage.