Confess and Believe

Reading: Romans 10; Proverbs 15

9 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. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NLT)

Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. The thing about this two-verse scripture is that I memorized it when I was a new Christian, in the King James Version of the Bible as a soul winning, witnessing tool. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth…” It’s part of the old “Roman Road” witnessing plan.

Then at some point I realized (and I have to re-realize each time I read it) that it’s more than a witnessing tool. This is a foundational truth about how we come into relationship with God. Not because of our race or our religion, not by doing God-pleasing works, not through any self-effort of any kind – simply by believing the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Simply simple faith. Confess and Believe.

Then my western-thinking mind looks at the verses and looks for linearity – “Do I confess first, then believe?” Then I want to break it out into a cause-effect sequence – “Believing makes me right with God and confessing saves me?”

It’s not that complicated, Jim! Stop trying to dissect it and figure it out! It’s simply simple faith! Hear it, believe it, tell somebody else! Confess and Believe!

Prayer:

Father, Thank you for loving the world (and me and my friends who read this today) so much that you sent your only son, Immanuel, who was Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that Jesus Christ took my sin and my sins upon himself and died the only death that could pay sin’s penalty for me and everyone. I confess it and I believe it. Thank you. Amen.