Or, Our Confession of Faith
Scripture: Romans 10:5-13
Date: March 19, 2023
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Salvation is the most impossible thing and also completely available. We do not have any ability to make it happen, and yet it is fully accessible. It is not hard to see, and yet generations of men have missed it, including generations of those who had God’s Word pointing to it. It was right there in front of them, and it is the good news for us today.
In Romans 10:5-13 Paul has written what is perhaps the word on how to be saved. How many gospel presentations have ended with Romans 10:9? It is a great call to faith. But it is in the middle of a paragraph, which itself is near the middle of Paul’s argument about why so many Jews did not confess that Jesus is Lord.
“Jesus is Lord” is the Christian confession. “In God We Trust” as the motto of the USA is a step up from “E Pluribus Unum” in a way, but it’s not specific (which God?) or binding (trust for what?). To some it’s merely “ceremonial deism,” it’s “No longer religious in nature, the phrase has become, rather, a historical artifact, a public recognition of the role of religion in national life, and an expression of patriotism” (source). But “Jesus is Lord” is no artifact, it is the fact.
It’s what we make public with our words, and there are no limits on how it affects what we do. It acknowledges the nature of Jesus, it acknowledges our relationship to Jesus. It proclaims who He is, what He’s done, and it is why we can be saved. As this section of Romans 10 reveals, Moses pointed to Jesus, Isaiah pointed to Jesus, Joel pointed to Jesus, and yet a bunch of religious people kept looking at themselves.
Verses 5-13 could be divided into two paragraphs (per Tyndale and Calvin), as verses 5-10 are what “Moses writes” in the law, and verses 11-13 are what “Scripture says” from a major and a minor prophet; the law and the prophets are concerned not only with righteousness, but with faith. That’s what connects both paragraphs together. Paul is concerned with “righteousness based on faith” (verse 6), with the “word of faith” (verse 8), with “believe in your heart” (verse 9), “believes” (verse 10), “believes” (verse 11), and a version of that with “call on” the Lord (verses 12-13). We look to another, or salvation is impossible.
The first proofs Paul provides are a contrast between law-based righteousness and faith-based righteousness, but even the first part of the faith-based righteousness is what it won’t presume.
Law-based righteousness has a big problem, and the Jews knew it:
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. (Romans 10:5 ESV)
This is a reference from Leviticus 18:5, a passage Paul also used in Galatians 3:12. In its original context it summarizes how the LORD called the Israelites to live differently than the Egyptians where they came from and the Canaanites where they were going to. The simple rule was: obey and live.
The based on is a good way to translate it. But the awkwardness (to us) of the original word order sounds provocative: “the righteousness, (which is) the from the law (one).”
The implication is that perfect obedience was necessary, and that’s certainly how Paul understood it in Romans 10 (the apostle James makes the same point in James 2:10). And Paul had already said that none are righteous, no one does good, the law stops every mouth from making an excuse, and all have sinned (Romans 3). When righteousness is a human product, it needs to be a perfect product. And unlike so many churches advertise, no imperfect people are allowed.
As impossible as perfect obedience is, salvation is actually more impossible. Paul uses a similar line of argument as found in Deuteronomy 30:12-14. It’s the alternative kind of righteousness, righteousness based on faith, and what that faith won’t say and what it does say.
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). (Romans 10:6–7 ESV)
This is “the (from faith) righteousness” with the prepositional phrase between the article and the noun. And this faith-based righteousness speaks, it is the subject. Putting it this way sets up the attitude of faith.
The two comments in verses 6 and 7 are striking. In Deuteronomy 30 Moses is exhorting the people to obey the commandment because it is clear. It is perspicuous, able to be expressed and understood. It is the word that Moses is referring to in 30:12, that word of revelation is not something in highest heaven, and it is still the word in 30:13, it is not something in the deepest sea. Both the heaven and the sea are impossible-to-reach places, far off places, unattainable places. Even if they wanted to, men couldn’t get there to get the word.
Paul sees the end of the word that Moses had in mind. The end of the word is Christ Himself, and Paul applies the words of Deuteronomy to some Christological categories. Faith-based righteousness accepts but certainly doesn’t make the incarnation happen. Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down). No one can obey the law completely, and no one can ascend to heaven to get the Messiah and make Him come down.
So also faith-based righteousness accepts but certainly doesn’t make the resurrection happen. The abyss is the deep sea, which often had the idea of the place of the dead, but Paul’s parenthesis clarifies that it is the place of the dead. Do not say ”Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). No one can bring the incarnated and crucified Messiah back up from the dead. It’s impossible.
We’re still talking about faith-based righteousness.
This is still from the Deuteronomy 30 passage, but verse 14.
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); (Romans 10:8 ESV)
Again, this is saying that it is clear, it is near , so near that it’s already in mouth and heart. And this is the word of faith ; Paul says he’s making the same point as Moses.
There is enough here that I plan to pick up with it again at this point next Lord’s Day. But note that mouth and heart are repeated, and in the same order as verse 8, which are the order in Deuteronomy 30:14. Also note that the identity of the Christ as Jesus refers to His personal coming down in flesh, the incarnation, and God raising Him refers to His bodily coming up in the resurrection.
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. (Romans 10:9–10 ESV)
Confession is the great Greek word homologeo (ὁμολογέω). To break down this compound word is more “same wording” but it’s often described as “say the same thing.” It carries the idea of acknowledging something in public, in particular professing allegiance.
William Tyndale avoided using the word “confession” as much as possible in his English translation of the New Testament because of the baggage the Papists stuffed into the word. So Tyndale has: “For yf thou shalt knowledge with thy mouth that Jesus is yͤ Lorde.” We don’t use “knowledge” as a verb, but I like it.
Jesus is Lord . That should be more than what we think, it should be what we declare. It’s formal in so far as it is an exclusive affirmation; the nature of Jesus is that He is Lord, and when we think of Lord we think of Jesus. Jesus is not someone other than Lord, and there is no other Lord than Jesus.
This confession challenges those who think Jesus was merely a good teacher. As Lewis pointed out in his Lord, Liar, or Lunatic argument, a good teacher wouldn’t claim to be God in flesh. That man is either crazy, a cult-leading manipulator, or He is who He says He is. This confession also challenges those professing Christians who claim that Jesus is Savior but not necessarily Lord. A cottage industry of teachers claim that grace makes obedience to Christ as Lord optional, that acknowledging Jesus’ Lordship requires a second stage of the Spirit’s work.
We know the believing part. What is the confession part? Why is it first? It seems to be first in following the order from Deuteronomy 30:14. In Paul’s summary in verse 10, heart then mouth is the order we expect. We speak from the abundance of the heart. But it’s a public commitment, not just internal and private.
Jesus is Lord is an accessible statement, a necessary statement, and a world-transforming statement. This confession directly challenged the authority of the Roman Emperor, who was regarded as the supreme ruler and deity of the Roman Empire. By proclaiming that Jesus is Lord , the early Christians were essentially declaring that there was a higher authority than the emperor, which was a direct threat to the social and political order of the empire. It threatened the traditional polytheistic religious beliefs of the Roman Empire, which held that there were many gods and goddesses who deserved worship and sacrifice.
No man is an ultimate authority, over his household, his state, his nation, or his flock. Every husband, governor, president/king, pastor, boss/master is under the Lord Jesus Christ. They either use their position to serve the Lord, or they will be judged by the Lord.
For as much as this confession brings persecution, it is the inevitable truth. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus is Lord .
Christ did obey perfectly, Christ did accomplish supernatural feats. Salvation is in Him. We did not come up with the incarnation or the resurrection, as concepts or in power. Salvation that was impossible for us is accessible in Christ.
Our confession of faith that Jesus is Lord is the evidence of salvation—we’re saved in Christ alone, it is our recognition of authority—He is the Lord of lords, it is the driving incentive of our worship and mission—He is worthy of praise/devotion and hope, it is the confidence for our ethics and enjoyment of all His creation and spending of energy in His name.
“Knowledge with thy mouth that Jesus is yͤ Lorde.” You know it, let others know it. It is the truth, it is your confession, it is your salvation, it is an entire way of life and worldview.
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1 Corinthians 16:22–24, ESV)