Confess with Thy Mouth?

How about we start the new year with some controversial passages! Woo hoo!

Rom 10:5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

TO Gentiles ABOUT Israel

Not long ago, a saint shared with me that someone argued with him that in Romans 10 Paul was talking to the Jews and not the Body of Christ. What? Consider Rom 10:1, in which Paul writes, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” He is not talking to the Jews. This chapter is TO the Gentiles ABOUT the Jews. Just because Paul is talking ABOUT the Jews doesn’t mean he’s talking TO the Jews.

I very much oppose the argument people try to make about various passages by saying, “Oh, this section of Paul’s letters is to the Jews and not to us.” That is NEVER true.

Paul says, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office” (Rom. 11:13). Paul also says by inspiration in 2 Tim 1:11, “I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.” In Gal. 2:9, Paul agreed with Peter, James, and John, that he would confine his ministry to the heathen and they unto the circumcision. Nowhere in Paul’s epistles will you find him writing to the Little Flock and not to the Body of Christ. That idea is a betrayal of everything Paul ever said about his own ministry. Besides, he’d be a terrible apostle to the Gentiles if he was spending so much of his time writing to the Little Flock.

NOT about Justification?

I have also heard it suggested that Paul is not now in Romans 10 bringing up again how you are going to be saved. He already dealt with salvation. No-no-no-no. The entire context is justification today. What did we just read in Rom 10:1? He said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” He’s not talking about their justification in the past or in the future. He’s talking justification TODAY.

Consider also the last few verses of Romans 9:

Rom 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Rom 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Rom 9:32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; Rom 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Paul makes the point that the Gentiles have now attained perfect righteousness in the eyes of God without following the law. How is that possible? Because of the righteousness of faith. The Gentiles are getting righteousness imputed to them for believing the gospel.

The Jews who were following the law could not attain perfect righteousness in the eyes of God. Why? Because they didn’t have faith. And because they didn’t have faith, they stumbled at that stumblingblock, which was Christ Himself. If you had no faith in anything written in the OT, you’re going to struggle with the idea of having faith in Christ.

The point is – the context to what we read in Romans 10 is all about justification for Israel right here, right now, in this age of grace.

Confession is About Isreal?

A pastor recently made the point that Paul is “talking about unbelieving Israel here and how THEY shall be saved.” In other words, confession isn’t about you. It’s about Israel. Israel had to confess with their mouths to get saved. He said Israel had to “believe the Word of God in the law and confess the Lord who spoke those words.” He tried to back that up by going to Deut. 6:4-5 and what is called the Shema prayer.

The only thing Deut. 6 proves is that confession was part of Israel’s culture. Confession was never a requirement for a Jew to be saved.

It is completely futile to even try to argue that confession was required for a Jew to get saved. Paul already explained in Romans 4 how the Jews got saved in time past. Rom. 4:3 – “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Paul is quoting Moses in Gen. 15:6. Even James 2 quotes Moses in Gen. 15:6 when talking about Abraham’s justification. Nobody ever says, “Abraham believed God and he confessed with his mouth the Lord who spoke those words and THEN it was counted unto him for righteousness.” That verse doesn’t exist. Every Jew knew how to get saved individually because every Jew knew the story of Abraham. God elevated Abraham’s faith before the eyes of all and He essentially said, “This is how you get saved!”

Justification from the beginning of time to the end of time has always been, and will always be, by faith alone.

How were people saved in the Gospel period? By faith alone.

What did the Lord tell Nicodemus in Joh 3:18? “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” What did He mean? He meant people got saved by faith alone. Faith in what? In the name of the only begotten Son of God. In other words, you believed that Christ was all He said He was. You got saved by faith alone.

Even in the future, in the Tribulation, this same gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations because the Lord said so in Matt. 24:14. That means that in the Tribulation people will get saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

I know what some of the followers of that pastor would say to me. “Joel, he quoted Matt. 10:32-33. The Lord said, ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’ Doesn’t that mean they had to confess Christ to be saved?”

All that means is that more careful consideration should be given to the context. Peter denied the Lord three times before men. Did that mean he lost his salvation? No, of course not. He was saved because of faith. He was eternally secure. Only Judas was lost.

So how do you explain these passages?

Context.

Matt. 10 is the Lord’s First Commission. We just did two messages on this on Wednesday nights (Part One, Part Two). What’s the context of these passages? The Tribulation.

Now it is true in a broad sense that any person who rejects God will in turn be rejected by God. That is a timeless principle.

But the context to this section of Matt. 10 is the Tribulation. When the Lord gave this First Commission to the disciples He very much had a long view about how bad things will ultimately get in the Tribulation. This section in chapter 10 is one of them.

In the Gospels, after the Jews got saved, God demanded immediate fruit. Why? They needed to be producing fruit and good works if they’re going to help save souls when the judgments come. Because in the tribulation, God wants public professions. He doesn’t want to see believing Israel going silently in the night. He wants them doing their jobs as part of His kingdom of priests. He wants them taking a stand. If they fail to take a stand and publicly profess His name, God will deny them in the sense that He will not protect them. They will die. And they will lose rewards.

Just like Peter, this doesn’t mean they’ll lose their salvation. This means that they will die and there will be eternal consequences. It’s like those passages in Matt. 6:15 when the Lord told the disciples, “if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” What does it mean for the disciples if the Father doesn’t forgive their trespasses? Does that mean they’ll lose their salvation? No. It means there will be eternal consequences. There will be a great loss of rewards for all eternity. The same is true in Matt. 10. The Lord is speaking of eternal consequences. By refusing to take a stand for the Lord in the Tribulation, they are only hurting themselves. They will die and lose the rewards they should be getting at His Second Advent.

Exegesis on Romans 10

Look again at Rom 10:5, “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”

Paul is quoting Moses in Lev 18:5, which says, “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.” Moses says that if a man does the things contained in the law, he shall live by them. If a man accepts by faith God’s Word to him contained in the law and he does them, he shall live by them. In other words, he shall live again in the resurrection and that new life will forever exemplify the righteousness that already exists in the law. If they by faith accept the law as God’s instructions for their lives and do them, then their eternal life will mirror the righteousness they’re already modeling in their obedience to the law.

In other words, they’re getting a taste of the kingdom by obeying the law. The same is true for us and Paul’s epistles. We’re living the grace life, speaking truth in love, speech always with grace. Those principles we live by foreshadow the reality of our eternal life. We’re getting a taste of Heaven now by exemplifying all those principles of grace.

Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.).

Paul is again quoting Moses, but this time he’s quoting Deut. 30.

By the time you get to Deut. 30, you’re getting close to the end of Moses’ life. Moses has now brought all Israel together to remind them of God’s dealings with them thus far. Plus, he reminds them of the great covenant God made with them, and that they will face certain wrath if they give in to idolatry. Then in Deut. 30, Moses shifts gears. In 30:1-10, he tells the people about the exceedingly great promises God made to them. So if they get into trouble over idolatry and go through judgment, God will still honor His promises if they repent and return to Him.

In the next section of Deut. 30:11-15, Moses speaks of the righteousness set before them in the plain commandments of the law given to them. Let’s read it.

Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 30:12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 30:14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. 30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil…

What is Moses saying here? He’s saying God’s will for your life, God’s righteous ways contained in the law, is not hidden from you. It’s not far from you. You don’t have to go up to Heaven to get it. You don’t have to dive into the deep ocean to find it and bring it to us. God’s righteous will for your life is already here in His Word, which for Israel was the law.

Moses says in 30:14, “But the word is very nigh unto thee…” The Word was already in their presence so much so that the Word was already “in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” The law was in their presence. They knew the law. The law was in their mouths. They could quote the law.

So what was left for Israel to do? They had to acknowledge by faith that the law was God’s Word to them. Then they need only to go and obey the law.

Then he says, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil…” Because of their covenant with God, their choice to live by faith in obedience to the law was a choice between good and evil and life and death. So choose life by having faith in God’s Word! Choose righteousness by obeying God’s law!

That brings us back to Romans 10.

Why did Paul quote these passages in Deut. 30? Look again at Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.). Paul is taking the same approach as Moses in Deut. 30, except Paul is now talking about Christ.

He says in vs. 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise… This takes us back to the context of justification for the Gentiles. Remember what Paul said in Rom 9:30? He wrote, “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.” But now in Rom. 10:6, he’s saying the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise… In other words, he’s going to explain the righteousness which is of faith. He’s going to take what Moses said and give it a new form of application with Christ instead of the law.

He says, “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.).” What Moses said about the law in Deut. 30, Paul is now saying the same thing, except now it’s about Christ and redemption. Paul is taking that same concept Moses used, but he’s making a different application about Christ and redemption. He’s essentially saying, “Just as Moses said this about the law, so too, we can say the same thing about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall go into Heaven to bring Christ down so we can have redemption? Or who shall go down into Sheol to bring Christ up from the grave so we can have redemption? We don’t need to do any of that. Christ has already come. He has already done all these things for us. He has already atoned for all our sins.”

Rom 10:8, “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach…”

Paul is also saying we have the Word nigh thee. In other words, we have the gospel of grace in our presence. Just as Israel had the law in their presence, so too, we have the gospel. The gospel is in the presence of every soul on Earth. Paul reiterates this point in Rom 10:18, when he wrote, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Plus, in Rom. 1:8, he told the Romans that their “faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” The Word, the truth about Christ, the gospel about how you can be reconciled to God, all of that is nigh thee! It’s here! It’s in your presence! Even in your mouths! Everybody knows Christ died for their sins. It is nigh unto people now. They can hear it. They can speak it. Those words are in their mouths. What are those words? Those are the words of faith, which Paul preaches.

In Rom. 10:9, Paul is highlighting what he preaches, which is the word of faith, the gospel of your salvation. He says …the word of faith, which we preach, Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. He’s explaining in vs. 9 what it is he preaches. He is explaining the word of faith, which we preach. Make no mistake. The context to confession in Rom. 10:9 is the word of faith, which Paul preaches That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

I can’t ignore what these words say. He says, the word of faith, which we preach That… and then he explains what he preaches.

But people want to ignore the immediate context because Paul talks about confession. They say, “Paul talks about confession with thy mouth. This has to be talking about Israel and not about us.” Except for the fact that confession with the mouth was NEVER a requirement for Jews to get saved either! Remember what we just covered in Rom. 4:3? “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”.

Notice also WHAT has to be confessed. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus… When in the OT did the Jews ever have to confess Lord Jesus? Never. You will not find the word Jesus in the OT. Jesus is the name associated with His humiliation, the shame He endured in His condescension when He was clothed with flesh. To confess Lord Jesus is to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Notice also that Paul says nowhere here to confess before men like Matt. 10.

Now look at WHAT they had to believe. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart – what? – that God hath raised him from the dead… When was this ever the gospel for the Jews? When in the OT did Israel ever have to believe that God hath raised Jesus from the dead in order to be saved? When in the Gospel period did they have to believe that God hath raised Jesus from the dead in order to be saved? Never. No one, not even John the Baptist, could conceive of the fact that the Son of God was going to die. Even at Pentecost, none of the Jews were ever told that they had to believe in His resurrection to be saved.

But believing that Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father – is this not part of Paul’s gospel? Is this not what we preach today?

This goes back to the context in vs. 1. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Paul is not talking about their justification in the past or in the future. He is talking about their justification TODAY. What does Israel need to accept by faith to be saved TODAY? They need to accept by faith that Christ is the Son of God, that He died for their sins, was buried, and He was raised up from the dead by God the Father.

Paul isn’t talking about some other gospel that’s for Israel and not for us. Israel was NEVER told they needed to have faith in a resurrection to be justified. Only the gospel of grace can be found in Rom. 10:9, because faith in a resurrection was NEVER a means of justification for Israel or anyone else before Paul.

I would just suggest that Rom. 10:9 is an approach you can use to help an unbelieving Jew to get saved today, because this is the same message that saves everyone else today.

Why is Paul talking about confession?

Isn’t confession with your mouth a work? The word confess here is the Greek word homologia. It’s a word that means to assent, to concede, to acknowledge, to agree.

This same Greek word is translated as acknowledgeth in 1 John 2:23. It’s translated as giving thanks in Heb. 13:15. It’s translated as promise in Matt. 14:17. It’s also translated many times as profess and confess, which is amazing because there is a great difference between profess and confess. To profess is to proclaim. To confess is to admit, to acknowledge.

All of these different words used to translate the same Greek word – they are all part of the same family, the same essential thought – and that is to repent. To change your mind by accepting and acknowledging the truth.

Paul’s taking the concept Moses used in Deut. 30 and he’s using that concept about Christ and the gospel today and he’s bringing that concept to its logical conclusion for Israel. This is a persuasive argument to help an unbelieving Jew accept the gospel. “Hey, remember when Moses said the Word was nigh thee, the law was in our mouths and in our hearts? What did we have to do? Acknowledge what we already knew. Believe that which was already accessible to us. Now do the same thing with Christ. The gospel, the Word, is nigh thee. You know the gospel. You can articulate the gospel. You know Christ is the Son of God. So now it’s a matter of acknowledging what is already in your mouth, believe the truth spoken to your heart, and you can be saved by grace through faith like everyone else. Just acknowledge what you already know is true. Believe the gospel that is already accessible to everyone.”

I remember C.R Stam saying, “Can mutes then not be saved?” (Romans, pg. 214) That’s a great question. Even if you’re going to argue that this verse is only about Israel, well, you have a problem, because Israel had people who were mute. In Mark 7:31-37, the Lord healed a man who was deaf and mute. How could that man get saved if he couldn’t hear and confess?

The point was never about verbalizing a specific truth with your mouth. The heart was never meant to be taken literally. The heart represents the center of your thinking, emotional self.

If the heart shouldn’t be taken literally in this verse, then neither should the mouth, because Paul is comparing these two parts of man.

Scripturally, the mouth is simply the voice of the heart. The Lord said, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mat 12:34). The mouth and the heart work together. The mouth may be moving, but it’s the heart that’s doing all the talking.

When David says in Psa 4:4, “…commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still,” what does it mean to commune with your heart? To commune is to talk. You are speaking. Your mind is having a conversation with your heart.

You remember what Paul said the last time he referenced talking in Romans 10? In vs. 6, he said, “Say not in thine heart…” The context is also about speaking in your heart.

Communing with your heart, speaking in your heart, is what true meditation is about. This is you having a conversation within yourself about God. You are vocalizing internally what you are thinking and feeling. When you have a conversation with your heart, you might have noticed that in your mind, you will hear the voice that comes out of your mouth.

When people hear a gospel presentation, they are thinking thoughts. They’re saying to themselves, “No, I’m not gonna believe that.” Or “Yes, I will believe.” The voice of the heart is speaking and acknowledging the heart’s assent to the truth of the gospel.

The point is NOT that God has mandated some arbitrary requirement that people must vocalize a specific truth to get saved. The point is the inevitable acknowledging of an inward change of heart. I think heart believing/mouth confessing are two things that happen simultaneously when you believe. They’re practically synonymous. If the heart believes, then you will inevitably vocalize within or without the fact that “Yes, I believe Christ died for me.”

The point is that there has been a mental vocalized assent to the truth in response to the heart’s acceptance of the gospel by faith, and I think these two things always happen naturally, automatically, and simultaneously when a heart believes the gospel. When you accept the gospel by faith, the heart believes and there is always a verbal assent within yourself.

Again, I would argue that Paul is also articulating for all of us a persuasive argument to help an unbelieving Jew accept the Gospel. Just as Moses said this about the law, so too, you can say the same thing about Christ. Who shall go into Heaven to bring Christ down? Or who shall go down into Sheol to bring Christ up from the grave so we can have redemption? We don’t need to do any of that. Christ has already come down from Heaven. Christ has already risen from the deep and He has already atoned for all our sins. Just acknowledge what you know is true and believe with your heart.

Pastor Jordan once made the point at Grace School of the Bible that this section also illustrates that this has always been Israel’s failure. He wrote, “Hey, if you guys would just believe what you are reading, you would get it. The problem is that you don’t want it by faith. You are trying to get it by the works of the law, and you are not learning what the law is trying to teach you, and that is that you need the Savior. The law would have told you to have trusted Christ. It would have led you to the place, if you got the real lesson out of the law, Israel, you would have been ready when Christ came, and you would have received Him, but you didn’t.” (Romans, Part 5, pg. 173)

Conclusion

I also loved what Ricky Kurth once wrote about these passages in a Sep. 2014 issue of the Searchlight. He said, “So it was in Moses’ day, so it was in Paul’s day, and so it is today. When Paul says that man ‘believeth unto righteousness,’ it means that he believes in order to obtain righteousness. So when he adds that ‘confession is made unto salvation,’ it must mean that confession is made to obtain salvation, not to testify to it, as many misconstrue it. This confession needn’t be made aloud, of course, for then mutes could not be saved. The Greek word for ‘confess’ is translated ‘acknowledgeth‘ (I John 2:23). To be saved and obtain God’s righteousness, you need only acknowledge that ‘Christ died for our sins‘ and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4)…”