Romans 10:9 “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.”

“Aha,” someone might be tempted to say. “Here we have hit upon what we must do to become righteous in God’s eyes and be saved.” But if that is what we think we find in this verse, we have missed Paul’s point.

Confessing Jesus as Lord is not a good work we do to be saved. “Jesus is Lord,” was one of the earliest and simplest Christian creeds. It identified who the Christians were. It distinguished them from the pagans, who considered other gods their lords. It distinguished the Christians from the Jews, who had rejected Jesus as their Lord.

It does the same thing for us today. It’s not so much a work we do. It is an expression of a living faith in Jesus, which Paul goes on to describe:

“…and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,” Many people of Paul’s day believed that Jesus died: practically the whole Jewish nation, and a large number of Romans who were stationed in Jerusalem at the time of his crucifixion. But only the Christians believed he rose again from the dead. Thus, only those who believe that he rose can perceive the significance of his death as the payment for our sins. Only they understand it as the basis for our holy and righteous status before God. Only they will receive its ultimate blessing:

“…you will be saved.” Faith is not our work. It is God’s. We do not save ourselves. We are the objects of God’s saving work. He is the actor. But faith is the way by which true righteousness becomes our very own. Faith receives God’s gift and we are saved. It does not depend upon what you and I are doing. It does depend upon the one to whom we are listening.

A Christian radio station has a bill board which asks, “Does your Father know what you are listening to?” Perhaps an even better question is, “Do you?” The righteousness that saves us can’t be found in endless repetitions of the law. It is found only in the message of faith in Christ. Happy listening.