How Does It All Come Together? Part Two: Hearts and Mouths

Background Passage: Romans 4:1-25; 10:1-13; Hebrews 11:1-12:2
Today’s Focal Passage: Romans 10:9-13

9 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. 10 With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 Now the Scripture says, No one who believes on Him will be put to shame, 12 for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Anyone can repeat words. Kids do it playing Simon Says or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Actors do it for a living. Christians do it as part of liturgical worship practices. Anyone can say the right things with their lips, but our hearts are a different story. They are a little harder to control. In fact, the words we speak about Christ and life in Him are either evidenced or negated by the attitude of our hearts. It is the heart that influences our behavior, not the head. Salvation is speaking and believing. The kind of belief that provides transformative salvation is the kind of belief only wrought in the heart. Heart-belief changes you from the inside out.

Romans 10:13 says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But calling on Jesus is more than just “repeat after me?” Paul said that not only do we confess Him as Lord, we believe the truth about His resurrection. With the heart one must believes, and the result is righteousness. Righteousness is two things: justification because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and sanctification because of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

Many people doubt their salvation today because of sin in their lives. But since our sin didn’t keep us from being offered it in the first place, our sin won’t be the reason the offer is rescinded. However, if there is persistent and unrepentant lifestyle of sin in the life of one who claims to be a believer, that person should search his heart as to whether he truly believed in the first place.

Has righteousness become the proof of your heart belief? If there is no evidence of transformation, then perhaps you never fully trusted Christ. Remember, it’s not just the words we utter and the confession of Jesus we make that brings us salvation. It’s heart-belief. And when our hearts believe, we’ll know it and others around us will too.