1 Chronicles 2: 18-55, 1 Chronicles 3: 1 Chronicles 4: 1-9, Romans 10: 5-21, Romans 11: 1-10, Psalm 111
Romans 10: 8-10 (ESV)
“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); 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.”
Verses 8 through 10 from Romans 10 shows Paul emphasizing
again that we are not saved by works. We are saved when we say that Jesus is
the Lord and believe in our heart that Christ was resurrected from the dead.
Many bible commentaries say that to confess means to agree with, so if we
confess we are also agreeing what God said about Jesus that he is the son of
God. But we must alos believe it in our heart that Christ was raised from the
dead and resurrected for our sins, because to believe in our heart is to trust
God. But you cannot just confess and not believe in your heart, or believe in your
heart and not confess with your mouth. You must do both because to confess is
the action of what in your heart you believe.
These verses remind me of a friend I had at a church a long
time ago. She confessed to me in secret that she did not know if she believed
in the resurrection. I was shocked and asked why she came to church. She told me
it was because she liked being in a community of faith. I believe this what
Paul meant by these verses. My friend was confessing belief but she did not
believe in her heart the truth of the resurrection. God asks us to do both, to
tconfess and to believe. This is our responsibility to God as believers in
Jesus Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment