The classic Romans 10 verse 9 says:
…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.
Romans 10:9
This is a core verse that gives a simple guide to salvation.
It’s simple, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
To fully understand what Paul is saying, first we must recognize that people are triune beings, made in the image of God. We are mind, body and spirit.
When someone becomes saved, their spirit is transformed and renewed by the Spirit of God. But how does this work based on the verse above?
In this verse Paul instructs us what two things must be done to be saved… speaking and believing.
The speaking is an audible confession done with your mouth. When you confess Jesus as Lord, you are submitting your body to your spirit. You are reversing the priority in your being, correcting the corruption that began in the Garden of Eden with the first sin, stating that your spirit is fallen and needs regenerated by God. This is one step.
The believing in your heart is actually believing with your mind. It’s believing that God raised Jesus from the dead after he was crucified, died and buried. Here you are putting the needs of your spirit above that of your mind, setting within your thoughts and mind that God can regenerate your spirit in a similar way that He did when He brought Jesus back to life. This is the second step.
When you submit your mind and body to the lordship of Jesus, your spirit is regenerated. You’ve reorganized your triune being, allowing yourself to be put back into proper order as God established and designed in the first place with the first human beings, Adam and Eve.
Paul draws this out for us a bit further in verse 10 where he says:
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:10
When we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead we are justified… just as if we hadn’t sinned. And when we confess that Jesus is the Lord of our lives we are saved. It’s two parts that make one spiritually whole in Christ.
Jesus spoke the world into existence, and Jesus believed His Father would raise Him from the dead. We do well to follow in His footsteps when we make an expression of faith by speaking of His Lordship and believing that He is alive today. The book of Romans goes on to promise that everyone who does this will receive His riches and be assured of salvation! Thank you God for this promise!