Matthew10:32
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Everyone who depends on Jesus will be saved. The mercy and grace of God to is given to those who choose to believe Him. All God-all man. God so loves the world that whoever calls on Him could be saved. Our slate is washed clean in the blood of our Savior. He gave His life without sin in exchange for ours. All praise and honor to our Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They will get us safely home. Carla
Romans 10:8-13
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 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. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between •Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 •For “•whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” NKJV
Confess comes before believe in this verse because “mouth” precedes “heart” in Deuteronomy (verse 8). The order is reversed in the next verse. One has to confess with the mouth to be saved. For indicates that this verse explains verse 9. The condition for righteousness, that is for being justified, is internal faith. The condition of salvation, meaning deliverance from wrath and from the power of sin, is external confession (verses 1; 5:9, 10), which is calling on the Lord for help (verses 12, 13).
What is righteousness? Most of us immediately think of a person trying to keep a list of rules, like a little boy or girl who never steps over the line. When Paul speaks of righteousness in Romans, he means far more than this commonsense understanding of the word. He draws on the Old Testament concept of righteousness, which speaks of a proper relationship between God and a person, or between God and His people.
In the Old Testament, righteousness is fundamentally an attribute of God (Psalm 71:15; 119:42). He alone is truly righteous. He is the One who remains faithful, to His promises, His covenant with Israel, and the Law. In turn, the Israelites as God’s people had the responsibility to exemplify God’s righteousness on this earth. Ultimately, this meant they had to love and worship the living God alone.
- The Law of Moses could be summed up in that command and its corollary, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31). Tragically, the Israelites did not comply. They proved unfaithful to the covenant, although God proved Himself as faithful. By sending prophets to His people, the Lord warned them again and again of their sinfulness. Finally He had to discipline them, with famine, military defeat, and even exile in Babylon. But God remained faithful, and He restored His people to the land and to Himself when they repented and turned to Him.
After their return from Babylon, the Israelites confused righteousness with a strict adherence to the Law as recorded in the Pentateuch. Indeed, the Jewish religious leaders added numerous amendments to the Law to ensure that no one would inadvertently break it. Zealous obedience to the Law was equated with righteousness. Yet mere external compliance to a set of rules did not please the Lord. What God wanted was repentant, humbled hearts that truly worshiped Him. He wanted to be the God of their hearts and minds, and the center of their devotion.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul clearly states that no one has achieved this standard; no one has completely loved and worshiped the Lord as they should (3:23). All have sinned. No good work or outward appearance of piety can restore a proper relationship with the Holy One (Isaiah 64:6). On the one hand, the Gentiles did not pursue a right relationship with their Creator, so they had been given over to all kinds of evil (1:18–31). On the other hand, the Jews through external obedience to the Law and their traditions were attempting to justify themselves before God (9:31, 32). Both failed. Jesus is the only One who can stand before the glorious God; He is the only One who is truly righteous. Remarkably, He has offered us a way out of our slavery to sin. By placing our faith and trust in Him, we can be declared righteous. We can have a righteousness that has nothing to do with our own works but instead relies on Jesus’ sinless life and His sacrificial death for our sins. The Lord forgives us and declares us righteous because of our identification by faith with the righteousness of His Son (4:5). Through Jesus, we can finally be released from the guilt of our sins. Not only can we approach the Holy One in praise and thankfulness, but we can do God’s will. The NKJV Study Bible
Paul cites Deuteronomy 30:14 to affirm the accessibility of the word of faith. Just as Moses announced the accessible nature of the law, Paul announces the accessible nature of the gospel. This word is especially near because the Spirit wrote it upon the hearts and minds of believers (Jeremiah 31:33; 2 Corinthians 3:3).
To confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” describes an outward expression of inward trust. Paul does not regard believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth as separate activities, but as parts of a singular expression of faith in Jesus’ lordship. God raised him from the dead. Paul presented God’s resurrection of Christ as the basis of the believer’s justification before God (Romans 4:25; 5:1). Therefore, faith in the resurrection is essential. The resurrection also shows that God vindicated Christ from the shame of the cross (9:33). Elsewhere in his letters, Paul associates Christ’s resurrection with His lordship (Ephesians 1:19–22; Philippians 2:9).
Righteousness refers to a right relationship with God that has been restored after placing faith in Jesus as Lord (Romans 5:1, 10; 8:1). Here the term is close in meaning to salvation.
Everyone who believes in him is a quote from Isaiah 28:16, adding the Greek word pas, meaning “everyone” or “all,” to demonstrate that this promise applies to both Jewish and non-Jewish people (Romans 9:33). Both Jews and Gentiles are under God’s judgment because of sin (3:9–20), yet both are eligible for righteousness through faith in Christ.
The expression “call upon him” In the Old Testament, referred to prayer directed toward Yahweh (Genesis 4:26; 12:8; 13:4). The Greek word kyrios, translated “Lord,” refers to Jesus Christ. Thus, Paul identifies Jesus Christ with Yahweh of the Old Testament. Faithlife Study Bible.
Deuteronomy 30:12–14
It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’…
Joel 2:32
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the LORD has said,
Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.
Romans 3:29
Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
Israel 28:16
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Matthew10:32
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Here is our grounding power: To see is to be open.
Seeing allows awe.
And awe gives birth to gratitude.
Which means, in the words of Meister Eckhart, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice.”
Borrowing from Barbara Brown Taylor, that which draws me to faith is not the believing parts, but the beholding parts. In other words, awe always precedes faith.
One of my favorite stories is the little boy saying to his mama, "Mama, Mama, listen to me. But this time, with your eyes."
Be there... This is not easy when we have measurements about what makes being there, being present, okay...
Be there... in other words, we don't run from the moment (even moments that unnerve and distress).
We don't suffocate the moment with stuff (physical and mental).
We don't sanitize the moment with platitudes.
We sit. We listen. We look. We taste. We smell. We see.
And we look for the light of God in the most ordinary, and even the most dull, of contexts.
And we make choices that spill that light of God, in places where darkness is wounding, and where healing and restoration are indispensable.
I know this: I preordain, when I hope or try to orchestrate, rather than just experience, just be. I also know that whether it is experience or relationship or liturgy or prayer or meditation, if you don't bring it with you, you're not going to find it there.
We’ve been shaped for this—“and be there”—through loss, through love, through everything we didn’t foresee and somehow survived anyway. It may look like delight. It may look like purpose. It may look like simply getting up one more time and refusing to look away. Sabbath Moments
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