“...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”
(Romans 10:9-10 NKJV)

salvation requires more than faith alone

The context of Romans 10:9-10 affirms that salvation is within the reach of lost sinners. The sinner does not have to ascend into heaven (Romans 10:6) or descend into the abyss (Romans 10:7) to receive the great blessing of salvation. In Romans 10:8 Paul concludes his quotations from Deuteronomy 30 by assuring us that “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Jews spoke of difficult or impossible things as something “afar off.” They spoke of easy things as “near.”

In Romans 10:9-10, Paul applies these mouth and heart comments to our confession and belief. In becoming a Christian, one must confess the Lord Jesus with his mouth, and believe in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead.

To call Jesus “Lord” (a title of God) is to confess that He is supreme in our life. This confession implies important facts about our salvation. For example —

1. If God requires sinners to confess Jesus in order to be saved, then salvation is not by faith alone as many assert. Jesus Himself stated that “whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).
2. To confess Jesus is Lord is to say that He rules our lives (Romans 10:9). This confession implies humble submission and careful obedience. “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Sadly, many who speak freely about Jesus their “Lord” refuse to obey His commands.
3. Romans 10 does not mention baptism. Does that mean that it is not essential to salvation? Some have written tracts that strongly assert this view, but this presents them with a problem: the passage does not mention repentance, either. Is repentance not necessary to be saved? In addition, Paul has al-ready shown that baptism is necessary for salvation (Romans 6:3-4 — we are baptized into Christ, into His death, etc.).
4. If, as some claim, we are saved “at the point of faith,” when does repentance or confession occur — before faith? What a tangled web some people weave for their system of salvation! But how simple is the plan for those who have true faith.

– Rick Duggin