That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  (10)  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:9-10

Explanation:

Paul gets down to the heart of what saving faith looks like. It is an acknowledgement and a trust in the person of Jesus Christ and who He is. When we confess Jesus Christ as the the Lord and Messiah with our mouth, believing in our heart that He died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, placing our trust in Him by calling on Him to save us, we will be saved. That is promise language, and Jesus always comes through on his promises.

The prayer doesn’t save us.  God saves us.  This is why He includes believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth.  Calling on the Lord is an expression of the trust that we are placing in Christ as our only hope for salvation.  We agree with God about our sin, acknowledge who He is, and turn from our sin to Him as our hope for salvation.

He says that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.  God imputes righteousness to thos who believe by faith.  The one who believes is now right with God not by the deeds of the law, but by God crediting Jesus’ obedience to our account.

Application:

Salvation comes through faith in Christ alone. I’m so glad that it is not by works that we must achieve righteousness, because we would be without hope.  There is a place for works.  We do good works after we are saved because of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling activity in our lives.

Salvation is for everyone who believes. We must believe ourselves, and make this news known to every person in our influence and beyond.

Salvation was made possible by the resurrected Christ. We know that salvation is possible because Jesus Christ died and was proven to be the Son of God with power by resurrection from the dead.

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  (18)  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  (19)  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  (20)  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  1 Corinthians 15:17-20

Response:

1. Believe.

2. Proclaim.

3. Rejoice!