Many people these days are using Romans 10:9-10 as “the gospel” message in its entirety. And they are translating this passage of Scripture to teach that all we have to do is to make a verbal confession of Jesus as Lord, and to profess belief in Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead, and thus we are saved, done deal, and on our way to heaven, regardless of anything we do from that moment forward. But that is taken out of context.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 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; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:8-10 NASB1995)

So, what is the context here? It is concern for the salvation of the Jews. For just because they were physical descendants of Abraham, it did not make them children of God. And it was the salvation of the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ. For, in Jesus’ death and resurrection he did away with the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, circumcision, dietary, and Sabbath laws. And he made Jew and Gentile one people by faith in Jesus Christ, one people of God, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; Matthew 21:43; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:4-8; Romans 11:17-25; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 3:12-15; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:1-4 NASB1995)

So, what is the point here? The Old Covenant law was now done away with. But God’s moral laws were never done away with. For you cannot have righteousness and salvation without obedience to God and to his New Covenant commands, many of which are carry overs from the Old Covenant, but which are God’s moral laws, not the liturgical and ceremonial laws. So we don’t become lawless by faith in Jesus. For if sin is what we obey and not God’s commands, we do not have eternal life with God (see Romans 6).

And what does it mean to believe? The Greek word for belief is pistis, which means to be persuaded, in this case to be persuaded of God. For the faith to believe in Jesus is not of our own doing. It comes from God, it is gifted to us of God, and it is persuaded of God as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to deny self, die to sin daily, and to follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. For we cannot even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God first draws us to Christ.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Hebrews 12:1-2; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:24]

And this belief must result in righteousness. So, what is righteousness? It is the approval of God, i.e. what is deemed right by the Lord, i.e. what is approved in His eyes. And the Scriptures make it clear that what is approved by God is what is holy, just, faithful, morally pure, upright, honest, decent, and obedient to God and to his commands. And he disapproves of all that is sinful, wicked, evil, immoral, and disobedient to his commands. So faith must result in a life being purified by God, committed to obedience to God.

And our confessions of Christ as Lord must result in genuine biblical salvation. And Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross to save us, to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we will now serve our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. Therefore, if we have not denied self, died with Christ to sin, and been raised with him to now live holy lives, pleasing to God, in obedience to his commands, then we are not of genuine biblical faith resulting in genuine biblical salvation.

Who Believes?

Based off Isaiah 53
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Gospel message, who believes?
Jesus Christ died on a tree,
Saving us from all our sin,
So we might be cleansed within.

Had no beauty found in Him,
That we should desire Him.
Man of sorrows, suffering;
Crushed for our iniquities.

Surely He has borne our griefs;
From our sadness, brings relief.
Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might be.

We, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us turned his own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent today;
My commandments, now obey.”

Jesus said, to come to him,
We must die to all our sin.
Crucified with Him, we live,
Walking in His righteousness.

Suff’ring servants, we will be,
Taking His identity on us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord and King.

What Does It Say?
An Original Work / April 15, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love