‘With the mouth confession is made unto salvation’

[shortlady]

‘With the mouth confession is made unto salvation’

Read Romans 10:1-17

Our Lord said, ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh’ (Matt. 12:34). That which a man knows, he can explain. That which a man believes, he can tell. That which a man has experienced, he can put into words. If you cannot tell anyone what you believe and why you believe it, it is very likely that you do not really believe. There are multitudes who say, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ.’ Almost everyone does. The devils believe in hell, but they do not know him. They are not saved. And those people who say they believe in Jesus Christ are like the devils they are not saved. There are very few people in the church or out of it who can tell you anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot answer the most simple, basic, elementary questions about the person and work of Christ: ‘Who is he? What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he now? What is he doing there? There is a reason for man’s ignorance in these matters. He simply does not know Christ. You cannot tell what you do not know any more than you can come back from where you have not been. If you know Christ, you can come and will confess Christ. That which a man has experienced in his heart, he can and will confess with his mouth.

A faith that I cannot explain is no faith at all. Peter says, ‘sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear’ (1 Peter 3:15). A hope that I cannot explain is it false hope. A salvation that I cannot confess with my mouth, according to the Word of God, is no salvation at all. I do not say that a man must have great learning and knowledge in order to be saved. I do not say that a person must be a good speaker to be a child of God. But I do say that a person who has a good hope of salvation in Christ must be able to tell what his hope is. Where in the New Testament do you ever find that men were called Christians who knew nothing about Christianity? It is written, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. (1 Peter 3:15)

 

[Coconut]

Amen shortlady! As spirit1st stated so well in another thread, we MUST be BORN AGAIN!

"Many people go to church and appear to live a bible type life,But are NEVER BORN OF GOD .We MUST have a new birth .Without this ?We have no right to call GOD FATHER ,as HE is the FATHER of spirits .Many people know the bible very well ,But do not know the LORD well .They can not hear HIm speak .There whole life is ,by there understanding ,And not by the leading of the HOLY SPIRIT .They quote ,other mens thoughts and not the teaching from the HOLY SPIRIT .They search other books for truth and by pass the real TEACHER .The purpose of the HOLY SPIRIT is to TEACH US .If we go to another man ,for understanding?We never know much truth ."

 

[tiago benjamin]

:messenger Exactly our sucesses depends oo us , not of God.
we have to stop to transfer all insucess, all pain, all suffer, to devil or even to God.
we are blessed when we are practing the Gospel and doing the wish of our Lord, and that is fine, that is all, there is nothing better.
That is our better choice be Jesus's server.
I am very happy, God has given me this conscient.:messenger

 

[Dreamer]

Oh...Amen! Yes, Amen

 

[isaac]

you are correct but confession is the first stage in xtian living but holiness is absolutely important to advertise what you confessed.

 

[Coconut]

Isaac please note, that tho I understand X is a historical abbreviation for Christ, and perhaps for you the usage is not an attempt to "blot out" Christs name, however for some, even with this understanding of the term xtian, it is offensive, and as such I ask you use the full word "christian" without "X"`ing out Christ. Thank you.

 

[Coconut]

JESUS MUST BE LORD!

This is the foundational facet of the facets of a saving faith. If we do not receive Jesus as our Lord, nothing else we do in the Christian faith will have value for us. We will be building on the false foundation very popular in the Christian church today.

Over and over again we hear pastors (and others) exhort people to accept Jesus as their Savior so they can have eternal life. But such an exhortation is unbiblical, as we will see. There are NO scriptures that tell us to accept or receive or believe in Jesus as our Savior, but many that tell us we must receive Jesus as our Lord if we would be saved.

Salvation Issue
Jesus made this a salvation issue when he said, “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins”[1](John 8:24). Who did Jesus claim to be? Jesus told his disciples, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). Can you have salvation if you die in your sins? Of course not! Jesus died on a cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be reconciled to God. If we could be saved and die in our sins, the Lord Jesus died for nothing.


At Pentecost, Peter told the crowd what to do to be saved: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21). Who is the “Lord”? Is it the one God of the Old Testament? Paul explained that for New Testament believers, “for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). Only Jesus Christ is Lord.


Paul also told us how to be saved: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10).

VITAL!: When Paul says to confess “Jesus is Lord,” he is not saying to merely state a fact, but to confess him as Lord, your Lord. The verb is present tense. He must be, now and forever, our Lord if we are to be saved.


Paul told the Philippian jailor, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Paul taught, “Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21) and “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). To the Thessalonians Paul wrote, “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).


The title Christ refers to the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who is the object of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. Paul connected the dots for us when he said Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:4). The angel who announced the birth of Christ said, “A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, Savior, Christ, and Lord.

Peter wrote, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:15). That simple statement says it all. How are you to think of Jesus? It is as Lord!

It is at this very point that much of the church deceives and is deceived. Rather than preaching Jesus Christ as Lord, they preach Jesus as Savior. In doing so, they offer a false salvation, a non-biblical man-made version that will not save. When we obey Peter's injunction, "Set Apart Christ as Lord," our thoughts are toward him as our Master and us as his servants.

When I came upon Romans 14:9 I was very surprised. Suddenly I saw Jesus’ death and resurrection from his point of view. Paul told us:

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:9).

We know that Jesus died and rose from the dead to redeem us from our sins, to atone for our sins, and to reconcile us to God, providing by God’s grace the only way by which we can receive eternal life.

But Romans 14:9 says Jesus died and returned to life so he might be our Lord. At first that seems contradictory, doesn’t it? As usual we must reconcile the scriptures as all scripture is correct. This is easily reconciled when we understand that Jesus will be the Lord of all who are redeemed from their sins, who have their sins atoned for, who are reconciled to God and who receive eternal life through Jesus Christ their Lord (see e.g. Acts 16:31, Romans 5:31, 6:23, 1 Thessalonians 5:9). Romans 14:9 is proof that Jesus must be our Lord if we would have salvation.

Jesus is more powerful and has more authority than all the most powerful people on earth. If we declare him to be our Lord, our obvious appropriate response to him is to obey him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. The evidence of having received Jesus as our Lord is our obedience to him. Perhaps that is why the author of Hebrews said, “He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus implied as much when he said, “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching” (John 14:24). How does love for the Lord Jesus relate to obeying him?

As we have seen from the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus is God. The first and most important command is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our strength and our mind. The evidence of our love for God is to obey his commands (1 John 5:3). Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15). Notice how emphatic that statement is: we will obey his commands.

The Lord Jesus expects to be obeyed. But even when he was on earth he found people following him who did not obey. He asked, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do [obey] what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus also warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does [obeys] the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Everything Jesus said and did while on this earth in human form was exactly what God his Father told him to do and say (John 8:28, 12:49-50, 14:10, 14:24, 14:31). Thus, everything Jesus commanded and taught is the will of God that we are to obey.

It is essential that we believe in the Lord Jesus and trust in the Lord Jesus. It will simply not do to claim you believe in Jesus as your Savior. Jesus is Savior only of those for whom he is Lord. You don’t make Jesus your Savior. You are saved because Jesus is your Lord. Those who do not follow Jesus as their Lord are not saved.

The evidence that Jesus is our Lord is our obedience to the teachings and commands of Jesus. Those teachings and commands are the will of God the Father. Those who obey the teachings and commands of Jesus do the will of God.

All of a saving faith begins with the object of our faith – the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus is our Lord and we pledge obedience to him, we receive the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit and one or more of the gifts of the Spirit. God gives us evidence that we are truly followers of our Lord Jesus.


There is a trustworthy saying that if Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all. If you are still trying to reserve portions of your life for yourself, not subjecting them to the direction of the Lord Jesus, it is time to repent of that and ask Jesus to be your Lord in every aspect of your life.

If you know you have never received Jesus as Lord, you should carefully consider what following Jesus as your Lord will mean. You should decide in advance if you are willing to pay the price (Luke 14:28-30). This is not a price to earn salvation, but rather a price you must pay if you would qualify for God’s gift of salvation. Jesus said, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). Are you willing to be a bond-slave and disciple of the Lord Jesus? Some falsely claim you can be saved without being a disciple of the Lord Jesus. Scripture does not support that contention. All true followers of the Lord Jesus – those with a saving faith – are his disciples.

You cannot qualify for salvation on your own. You cannot be perfectly obedient on your own. Your first step, if you would receive the Lord Jesus as your Lord is to simply bow the knee and offer to submit to his authority, guidance, and leadership the remainder of your life. Tell the Lord you will obey him as best you can the rest of your life, but only if you mean it. If you do that, the Lord Jesus will ask the Father to give you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will empower you to follow the Lord Jesus as an obedient disciple.

Amen.

-excerpt from notes by Bernie Koerselman