What Romans 10 Says About Being Saved

Imagine you want to go on a mission trip to a foreign country, and there's only one church that could realistically pay for it. That church is divided over theological issues, and underneath those disputes there's racial tension bad enough that the church might split. So before you visit, you write them a letter. You show them how the gospel answers what's dividing them, and right at the high point of your argument, you tell them exactly how you preach that a person gets saved. In that situation, would you leave out even one important detail?

That's what Paul was doing in Romans. He hoped the church in Rome would help send him on to Spain (Romans 15:24), and in chapter 10 he tells them the message he preaches. He calls it "the word of faith that we proclaim." Then he tells them what that message is:

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.

Romans 10:9

That's the whole message. Paul tells you who to believe in, what to believe about Him, and what God promises you, and he doesn't give the slightest hint that he's leaving anything out.

Jesus has already come for us

A few sentences earlier, Paul says not to ask who'll ascend into heaven to bring Christ down, or who'll descend into the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead. Then he says the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. (Romans 10:6–8)

You don't have to go get Jesus. God has already sent Him. You don't have to bring Him back from the dead. God has already raised Him.

The message tells you what God's done and invites you to believe it. Jesus came for us. He died for our sins. He's risen. You can hear that good news right where you are and believe in Him.

That's a different starting point from trying to work out how to make God interested in you. He's already taken the initiative.

You're believing in the risen Lord

Paul gives faith something definite to believe. Jesus is Lord, and God raised Him from the dead.

So faith has to do with a real person and something that really happened. Jesus lived, died, and rose again. He's alive now. You can trust Him to save you because He's the risen Lord.

"Jesus is Lord" says who He is. When you confess it, you're saying what you believe about Him. Paul describes belief in the heart and confession with the mouth together. In the next verse, he says that with the heart a person believes and is justified, and with the mouth a person confesses and is saved.

Paul is saying the same thing two ways, the way the Psalms do all the time. When Paul talks about salvation, "justified" and "saved" mean practically the same thing. So you could read the verse like this: with the heart a person believes and is saved, and with the mouth a person confesses and is saved. Confessing isn't an extra step. It's the only way other people can know that you believe in Jesus.

You aren't earning salvation by making a speech, and you don't need a preacher to supply just the right sentence. You say you believe in Jesus because you do. The point of the words is the person you believe in.

"Everyone" includes people like you

Paul keeps going. He says that everyone who believes in Him won't be put to shame. Then he says there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous toward everyone who calls on Him. (Romans 10:11–12)

That was a big deal for people whose ancestry and religious background had kept them apart. They had the same Lord and could receive the same grace. Nobody had to belong to the right ethnic group to be included.

Then Paul quotes the promise: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13)

Everyone. That includes people who didn't grow up knowing the Bible. It includes people who grew up in church and misunderstood a lot of it. It includes people who need forgiveness for things they'd rather never have done.

You can read a promise like that and still find yourself thinking of a reason it might leave you out. Maybe you know too much about your past. Maybe someone taught you to expect an exception whenever the Bible said something good.

But Paul describes a Lord who's generous toward all who call on Him. He's giving you a reason to come, and you can call on Jesus believing that He means what He's promised.

Calling on Him is an expression of faith

Paul follows the promise with a question: how will people call on someone they haven't believed in? And how can they believe in someone they haven't heard about? Somebody needs to tell them. (Romans 10:14–15)

That's Paul making the case for missions, his own trip included. People hear about Jesus, believe in Him, and call on Him, and Paul wants that good news to reach them.

Calling on Jesus isn't complicated. You're turning to Him because you believe He's the one who can save you, and you can tell Him so in your own words.

Paul doesn't tell a person who believes in the risen Jesus to wait and see whether God might eventually decide to save him. He says, "You will be saved."

What God has said is enough to begin with

There's plenty to learn after that. You'll want to know Jesus better. You'll learn what He taught, what it means to belong to His people, and how to live the life He's given you. You'll learn it as somebody who's already received good news, not as somebody who has to settle every religious argument before he's allowed to believe God's promise.

Jesus is Lord. God raised Him from the dead. Everyone who calls on Him will be saved. That's the message Paul wanted people to hear, and it's good enough to trust.

— tobe