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. One believes with the heart, resulting in
righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
–Romans 10:9-10
This passage clearly
demonstrates a cause and effect. If you believe with your heart, which is
faith, then the result is that you will be justified, or put into a right
standing with God. If you confess with your mouth, then you will receive
salvation. One action clearly precedes the other. Believing in your heart and
confessing with your mouth are pre-requisites for receiving salvation.
To be saved comes from
the Greek word sozo. It means to make
whole or heal, to keep safe, to rescue from danger or destruction. It means to
be saved from injury or danger and restored to health.
In verse
13, Paul goes on to explain:
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
First, you have to
call on the name of the Lord, then you will be saved. To call upon the name of
the Lord, Epikaleomai Onoma Kurios, means
to cry out to God in sincerity and desperation, making an appeal to Him, asking
to be called by His name. This means that if you want to be saved, rescued,
forgiven and set free from the power of sin, you must humble yourself before
God and ask Him to save you. This is why I teach that praying some type of
sinner’s prayer is wise. Acts 3:19 teaches:
Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be
wiped out.
To repent means to
turn away from your sins and turn toward God. Repentance is often left out of
the equation in popular church culture, but it is required and absolutely
essential if we want to be forgiven of our sins and have the slate wiped clean.
Jesus said that repentance for the forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
–Luke 24:47
Repentance comes
first, then we are forgiven of our
sins.
Peter further
instructed:
Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. –Acts 2:38
If we desire to be
forgiven of our sins and be saved by the restoring, regenerating, renewing
power of the Holy Spirit, then we must first turn away from our sins. That does
not mean that we have to live in sinless perfection, but it does mean that we
must agree with God that our sins are wrong and seek his forgiveness and
strength to live as He wants us to. Baptism is a way of publicly demonstrating
our faith. This verse indicates to me that Baptism should be administered as
quickly as possible when a person repents of their sins and confesses belief in
Jesus. I will be suspicious of anyone who claims to be a Christian, but has not
been obedient to be baptized.
Following the
instructions of the passages mentioned above will lead to salvation. But in each case,
people are required to turn to God before they are saved.
No one is ever saved
before they repent of sin, confess belief or otherwise call out to God. Yet there
are still those who claim that people are saved and receive the Holy Spirit before
repenting of their sins and placing their faith, hope and trust in Jesus
Christ. That is the polar opposite of what Scripture teaches.
The confusion comes
because some people forget the CALL of God. Jesus said:
No one
can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them. –John 6:44
It is through the
Holy Spirit that God calls us, or draws us toward Himself to be saved. John
wrote:
He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness
and judgement. –John 16:7-8
Conviction is good
because it calls us to make a decision. When I was a child, I remember pastors
talking about hearing the still, small voice of God calling us on the inside.
Over and over the book of Hebrews quotes:
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
When we have heard the word of God preached and we hear His
voice calling us, we must make the choice to either answer the call and be saved or to ignore his voice, reject Him and be
hardened in our ways. He
calls first, but we must call back. We have to respond in faith by believing in
our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confessing with our mouth
that He is Lord, the one in charge of our life. We must repent of our sins and turn
toward God, calling back to the one who called out to us first, THEN we can be
saved.
Any teaching that claims a person can be saved without first
repenting of their sins and placing their faith in Jesus is an Inaccurate teaching and a misleading Gospel. It grieves me when men mock the idea of praying a sinner's prayer, speak derisively about deciding to follow Jesus or scorn the concept of asking Jesus into their heart. I understand how some people might be confused because they were in rebellion, running away from God and then suddenly felt God speaking to their heart. They think the moment they heard the Holy Spirit calling them to repentance that they were already saved. But no one is saved until they answer the call. No one will be filled with the Holy Spirit and experience regeneration and renewal without first repenting of sin and placing their faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. We need to be rescued
from judgement and the power of sin. Our souls need to be healed and restored. God
is ready to save you. Have you responded to His calling?
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