Latest / Reformed Thinking / Heart and Mouth: The Near Gospel of the Risen Lord (Romans 10:9–10)

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Heart and Mouth: The Near Gospel of the Risen Lord (Romans 10:9–10) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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take God's word, stack up the source material, and try to
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figure out what the gospel really means for how we live and
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how we think. That's right.
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And today we're focusing on a passage that is just so central
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to the Christian life. I think for a lot of us it can
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become almost too familiar. We're looking at Romans 10,
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verses 9 and 10. It is familiar, but it's also, I
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think, one of the most explosive passages Paul ever wrote,
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because it just radically redefines where righteousness
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comes from. Our whole mission today is to
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dig into the meaning of Paul's, well, his really astonishing
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claim that salvation isn't some distant.
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Thing that it's near. It's near, and we need to
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dissect that saving dynamic. He describes this link between
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internal belief and external confession and really grasp the
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the sheer contrast Paul draws. Between what and what?
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Between God's method, which is faith, and the world's
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relentless, exhausting method of, you know, religious
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performance. And I think if you're looking
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for a hook, a way to grab you the listener right away, it has
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to be the initial offense of this claim itself.
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Yeah, we all have this instinct, you know, deep in our bones that
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says if something is really worth having, you've got to
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fight for it. You have to strive for it or
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build some complex, difficult system to earn it, right.
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And the moment someone says salvation is just near, yeah,
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that the work is done and it's delivered to your ears, a part
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of our pride just recoils. It feels too easy.
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It feels too accessible, and that's the scandal of it.
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We're digging into what you could call the scandal of
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accessibility. I like that.
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The scandal of accessibility. Gospel isn't offensive because
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it's hard. It's offensive because it's
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available. We assume grace has to be rare
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or hidden or earned by some great spiritual feat, and Paul
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just says no. It's near that statement alone.
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It just tears down centuries of human religious effort.
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OK, so let's start there. Let's unpack that.
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Yeah, that latter instinct. Because it isn't just something
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from history. Yeah, it's totally modern.
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Oh, completely. When you look at human religion
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or morality or even secular self help culture, what's the central
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theme? It's always striving.
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It's this quest to prove your worth, to pile up enough
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spiritual capital or good behavior to finally gain
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acceptance, whether that's from a God or, you know, just from
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yourself. That observation is so crucial
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because that instinct is universal.
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We project our marketplace ethics onto God.
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You get what you pay for. Exactly.
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You get what you pay for, and if something's free, it must be
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worthless. We just instinctively assume
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that getting close to God has to be earned by the distance we
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travel or the suffering we go through.
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And if it were easy, we couldn't boast about it.
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And our pride demands a resume. It demands a list of efforts.
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The latter instinct is always say I must justify myself by
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what I've done, or, you know, at the very least, by how sincerely
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I tried. And then Paul, in Romans 10.8,
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he just steps in and intentionally dismantles that
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whole project, that entire ladder.
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He does. And he's not just inventing a
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new system. He's reaching way back to the
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writings of Moses to Deuteronomy 30, which would have been
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immediately familiar to his Jewish readers.
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This connection to Moses is so key.
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Paul is establishing that the gospel isn't some radical break
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from the Old Covenant. It's the fulfillment of what it
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really meant all along. In Deuteronomy 30, Moses tells
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Israel that the covenant requirements are not far off.
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They're not incomprehensible. They're not impossibly distant.
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OK. And Paul takes that whole
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framework of distance versus nearness which really defined
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the works righteousness quest, and he applies it directly to
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the righteousness you find in Christ.
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So how would Paul's contemporaries, the people he's
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arguing against, how would they have viewed that Deuteronomy 30
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passage? Why was his reapplication of it
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so radical? Well, the general understanding
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was that the command was clear and accessible, and Paul agrees
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it is clear. But when religious people then
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or now try to gain life by the law, they turn that
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accessibility into an impossible test.
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They say the law is near, so you have no excuse if you fail to do
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it perfectly. Paul's radical move is to say
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no, the Word of Faith is near. It's not the moral command
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itself that's near and just waiting for your perfect
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obedience. It's the Savior promised in that
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Word who has been brought close to you.
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That distinction is that's theological lightning.
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Paul was saying. The saving word isn't locked
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away in heaven for spiritual athletes to go get.
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Right. Or buried in the depths for some
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heroic seeker to uncover. He's defining works
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righteousness as an impossible epic quest.
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If you're asking who will ascend, you're treating the
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saving word as if it's geographically or spiritually
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distant. You're implying you have to do
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something to get it. You are.
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You're implying that Christ's incarnation and perfect life
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weren't quite enough, and that you have to perform the decisive
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act of retrieval. You're trying to make the
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incarnation happen all over again through your own spiritual
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effort. And that's the constant battle,
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isn't it? Trying to reduce salvation to
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some secret technique or an arduous physical climb.
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And the Gospel says it's not a quest, it's a proclamation.
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It's news. So the nearness Paul is talking
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about isn't defined by how well we climbed the ladder of self
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improvement. No, it's defined entirely by how
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graciously God descended to meet us where we are.
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That's it exactly. That nearness is divine
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condescension. God doesn't wait for us to
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finish our climb or perfect our resume.
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He brought Christ to sinners through the promised message
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delivered right to the human ear.
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It's. God's action.
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It's God's active, decisive intervention in history, the
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finished work of Christ, that makes the Word near accessible
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and ready to be received. We are saved by an accomplished
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fact, not a future possibility that depends on our effort.
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And this just fundamentally redefines the condition of
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salvation. The world, religion, our own
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flesh, they all demand, perform, earn your worth.
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Be sincere enough. But Christ's command summarized
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here just flips the script entirely.
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The contrast is total. It is the single greatest
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insight of the Reformation. The world says, show me your
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credentials, show me your moral purity, show me your discipline,
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The Gospel says. Show me your need.
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Show me your need, abandoned your credentials and receive
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this gift. The command of Christ is come
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empty handed. Trust me.
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And then, as a necessary result, confess me, this is the
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foundational identity of the gospel.
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We are justified as the ungodly, which means we bring nothing to
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the table but need. But wouldn't a lot of people,
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when they hear come empty handed, just cure that as
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another call to better self-control?
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You know, they might think, OK, I must discipline myself to be
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humble enough to receive the gifts.
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Yes, they just turn humility into the next rung on the
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ladder. That is the perpetual subtlety
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of the religious mind. We try to earn the capacity to
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receive the gift, but the gospel is public news about a risen
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king and a free alien righteousness, a gift offered to
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the ungodly who believe. So if you try to turn that into
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a technique, even the. Technique of perfecting your own
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humility. You immediately turn it back
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into a ladder. You push salvation far away,
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again making it dependent on the quality of your own faith
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instead of the object of your faith, who is Christ.
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And this scandal of accessibility is why the message
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is so polarizing. If the word is near, it means
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it's close enough for the ashamed, the morally bankrupt,
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the weary. But it's also near enough to
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strip the proud of every single excuse for not believing it
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demands A verdict right now. It does.
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It forces us to confront our core loyalty.
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Do we prefer the difficulty we can boast in or the free gift
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that requires submission? That is the dividing line Paul
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is constantly driving toward in Romans.
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Right. To really get the way to Romans
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10.9 to 10, we have to recognize that Paul isn't writing this in
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a vacuum. This whole discussion on
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righteousness, law versus faith. It's Paul's answer to this huge
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theological crisis he introduces back in Romans 9.
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Why is he writing this now? He is grappling with a massive,
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heartbreaking issue. It runs like a major chord
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through Romans 9:10 and 11:00. And that issue is.
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The unbelief of Israel. How can Israel, God's chosen
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people, who had every spiritual privilege, the adoption, the
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glory, the covenants, the law, the worship, the very promises
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of God, how can they as a people reject their own Messiah?
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And this is an abstract for him. He opens Chapter 9 with his
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great sorrow and unceasing anguish for his kinsmen.
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He sees this massive failure right at the heart of the chosen
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people. Absolutely so.
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Paul is engaged in a profound defense of God's faithfulness
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even in the middle of Israel's rejection.
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He has to hold 2 difficult truths together at the same
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time, truths we often try to separate.
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The famous theological tension, God's sovereignty and salvation,
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and humanity's responsibility for their unbelief.
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That's it. First, God's saving purpose is
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free and sovereign. He states it clearly in Chapter
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9 that salvation is not about ethnic descent or birthright.
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Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
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God chooses whom He will save. That's the reality of election.
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And the second truth? That Israel's unbelief is
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entirely their fault. They were not just passive
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victims of a divine decree. They stumbled and they did not
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submit to God's way of salvation.
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But how does Paul avoid making them sound like just victims of
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God's election? That seems like a really
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difficult. Well, the key is understanding
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the object of their failure. God's election establishes the
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principle that salvation is by grace alone, meaning it can't be
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earned by human effort. That shuts down Israel's attempt
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to claim merit based on pedigree or works OK.
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Their fault, however, rests in their response to the clear
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reveal called gospel. Paul's point is that the law and
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the prophets clearly pointed to Christ.
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Israel's zeal was real, but their pursuit was tragically
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misguided. So they rejected the very thing
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they were called to receive. They had the message, the word
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was Neil, but they actively refused the terms.
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They refused submission. And that takes us right into his
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diagnosis in 10.14. The pathology of zeal.
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Paul grants them the zeal, the effort, the religious fervor.
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He does. He honors their effort, their
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religious energy. His prayer is for their
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salvation because he recognizes the sheer misdirected effort
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they are putting in. But the pathology is deadly
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simple. What is it?
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They pursued righteousness, but they pursued it the wrong way.
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They were seeking to establish their own righteousness, rooted
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in their adherence to the Mosaic Law or tradition.
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Instead of submitting to God's righteousness, they were trying
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to manufacture a credit account, hoping God would acknowledge
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their moral success. So they took the law, which was
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supposed to be a tutor, to lead them to Christ, and they
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basically repurposed it. They turned it into a ladder to
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climb into heaven, a ladder that could never hold their weight.
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That is a perfect summary. The law which is holy and good
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was never given to be the means by which sinners justify
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themselves. Its whole purpose is to expose
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sin, to reveal God's non negotiable standard, and by
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doing that drive the Sinner in despair away from self effort
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and toward the promised Messiah. So Israel's big mistake was not
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understanding the law's true function.
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And as a result, not understanding the Gospel's true
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gift. And this whole analysis builds
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to that pivotal claim in 10.4. Christ is the end of the law for
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righteousness to everyone who believes.
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We have to get really specific here.
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When Paul says Christ is the end of the law, what does that Greek
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word callus mean? Is it just termination?
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Is the law just obsolete now? This is a central point of
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reformed terminutics. Talus means so much more than
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just a stopping point or termination, though it certainly
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includes that aspect. It means goal.
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It means fulfillment, completion goal.
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Think of a race where the goal line is the Telus.
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Christ is the destination of the law.
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He satisfies the law in two critical ways.
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OK, what are those two ways? I'm thinking of the two great
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requirements of the. Law, obedience and penalty right
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precisely first, Christ provides perfect obedience, what we call
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active obedience. He lived the life the law
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demanded. Florida State fulfilling its
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righteous requirements. Second, he bore the law's
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penalty for sin on the cross, the passive obedience.
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He completely exhausted the curse.
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So he completes what the law demanded, both morally and
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judicially, in a way no Israelite or any modern
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Christian could ever hope to do. So righteousness is found
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exclusively in Him, because he is the telos.
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The law's demands are met not by us, but in Him.
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That is the essential theological connection.
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The gospel is not Plan B for those who failed the law.
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Paul is arguing that Christ was Moses's intended destination all
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along. The whole system, law,
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sacrifice, prophecy was this grand journey designed to point
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the Sinner away from self and toward the Savior.
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So when we submit to Christ, we're not rejecting the law.
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We're submitting to its only effective fulfillment.
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The law shows us the Cliff. Christ is the bridge.
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And this brings us into a deep law gospel clarity, which is,
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you know, the heart of Reformed theology.
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It is Paul establishes Christ as the goal, and then he draws this
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stark contrast between 2 completely different ways of
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talking about righteousness, two different grammars.
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We see the law's unyielding voice in 10.5.
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He uses the grammar of demand. He quotes Leviticus 18.5.
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The one who does these things shall live by them.
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This is the law speaking with its true, non negotiable voice.
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It's a glorious, holy, perfect standard reflecting God's own
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nature. But for us, for sinners, it's
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crushing. Utterly crushing.
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The law doesn't offer a partial credit or negotiation or mercy
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in this context. It just says do and live.
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The problem is, the moment you fail, even in a single thought
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or aspiration, you fall short of the life it promises.
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The law's voice is crystal clear, it demands perfection,
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and it accepts nothing less than sustained, heartfelt obedience.
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It's the ultimate mirror. It shows us not just that we're
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sinners, but that we're completely bankrupt and have no
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legal claim on life. Correct.
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And against this terrifying grammar of demand, Paul
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introduces the righteousness based on faith, which speaks a
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totally different language. The grammar of GIF.
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The grammar of gift and it doesn't ask the hypothetical
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questions. Paul, listen verses 6:00 and
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7:00. This is where we get that
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wonderful metaphor of the heroic quest, the folly of trying to
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attribute to a finished work. What's the specific impulse Paul
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is capturing when he asks who will ascend into heaven or who
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will descend into the abyss? These questions brilliantly
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capture that works righteousness, impulse, that
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deep human desire to treat salvation as something that has
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to be physically or spiritually retrieved by our decisive
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action. OK, the person asking who will
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ascend into heaven is implicitly saying that Christ's perfect
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life and work are too distant, Maybe theoretical, and they need
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to be brought down by their own intense spiritual effort.
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You know, deep meditation, arduous discipline, reaching
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some higher plane of ascetic devotion.
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They're trying to achieve a spiritual altitude that makes
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them worthy. Exactly.
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They're trying to climb the distance Christ has already
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crossed in the Incarnation. And what about descending to the
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abyss? That question implies that
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Christ's death and resurrection aren't fully accessible.
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Or that they need to be validated by us somehow?
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Or completed by some profound human feat, maybe exhaustive
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introspection, a deep psychological self flagellation,
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or undergoing some kind of spiritual near death experience
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to find a hidden truth. So someone who feels their
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justification depends on the depth of their repentance or the
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sincerity of their emotional conviction is in a way trying to
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descend into the abyss to retrieve evidence of Christ's
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work. That's the critical insight
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works. Righteousness is fundamentally a
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quest to retrieve or add to Christ's work.
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Whenever we try to contribute the decisive act that tips the
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scales, whether it's physical deeds or extreme spiritual
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introspection, we are implicitly treating Christ's saving work as
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unfinished, as if something still needs to be fetched or
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added or completed by our striving or discipline or even
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our theological correctness. This is why the Gospel just
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refuses that entire project. The gospel refuses the quest
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because the Savior has already finished the work and has been
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given to us. The word is near.
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The word is near. It is.
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The Word is near, and it is accessible.
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Paul reaches back to Deuteronomy 30 to emphasize that the word is
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not far off. It's not reserved for spiritual
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elites or those who have mastered a complex theological
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system. It has been accomplished by God
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in Christ and is now brought near through the plain concrete
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act of proclamation. So it's not a vague feeling.
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No, the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, and
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Paul explicitly identifies it. That is the Word of Faith that
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we proclaim. The nearness is the concrete
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physical nearness of an announced message delivered by a
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herald. This is the genius of the
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gospel. God makes salvation accessible,
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not by lowering the standard. Because Christ met the standard
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perfectly. But by providing his Son, and
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then sending ministers to proclaim him, so that sinners
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hear and believe, and call upon him.
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And this immediate accessibility, it just shifts
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the entire issue. It's no longer about human
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capacity or physical distance. It's about human response.
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So if the message is so accessible, so near and so
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clearly proclaimed, then the issue isn't about difficulty or
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access. No, it's about submission it.
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Becomes a question of the will. The responsibility is squarely
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on you, the hearer. You can't claim the terms are
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too hard or the knowledge was too arcane.
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The issue is whether you will finally abandoned that self-made
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righteousness, that exhausting ladder of pride, and just bow in
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submission to the risen Lord. So Paul's aim here is pastoral,
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but it's also polemical. Deeply, it offers the ultimate
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comfort to the weary soul, while at the same time exposing the
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stubborn pride of those who refuse to receive a gift they
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haven't earned. So this contrast human effort
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versus divine gift, is the framework for understanding the
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heart and mouth dynamic. It's the whole setup.
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OK, having established the sheer accessibility of the Word of
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Faith, Paul then gives us the central mechanism in Romans 10
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point cent. He starts with the particle go
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for or because, which tells us. This verse is the theological
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explanation for why belief in confession result in salvation.
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It unpacks that inner logic, for with the heart 1 believes and is
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justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
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This verse is just a magnificent statement on the inseparable
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nature of true faith. Paul will not allow us to split
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the saving relationship into two pieces, a secret internal
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feeling on one hand versus a public external act on the
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other. Has to be both true.
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Saving faith is always unified inward reliance and outward
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allegiance. So let's start with the heart
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and justification. The heart believes in the
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righteousness in a reformed framework.
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How should we understand the heart here, and what's the
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nature of that belief? Well, in biblical language, the
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heart is the command center of the entire person.
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It's not just feelings, right? It's the intellect, the will,
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and the core reliance of the soul.
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Heart belief means total personal reliance upon Christ
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alone. It's the mind dissenting to the
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facts of the gospel that Christ died in Rose, the will choosing
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to receive him, and the affections loving him above all
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else. So it's a receiving and resting
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on Christ alone. For justification, as our
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confession puts it, it is not vague optimism or just
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intellectually accepting a theory.
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And this hard belief is explicitly linked to
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justification, which gives it its legal status.
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Crucially, yes, justification is the decisive, instantaneous
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legal verdict. It is not earned by moral
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improvement or rituals or the eloquence of our prayers.
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It is received by resting on the righteous one.
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This brings that law gospel clarity to its Sherpas point.
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God is not looking at our obedience.
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He is counting the believer righteous solely for Christ's
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sake. It's courtroom language.
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God declares the Sinner just not because of a righteousness
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produced in them, but a righteousness credited to them.
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Exactly. It's an alien righteousness
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alien, a justicia, Christ's own perfect record applied to us.
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Faith is just the instrument, the empty hands that receive
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this finished righteousness that exists outside of us.
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So, the legalist says, do good works and be justified.
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And Paul says the opposite. Believe and you are justified
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because the doing has already been done by Christ.
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But then Paul immediately forces us outside of ourselves by
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balancing this with the outward manifestation the mouth
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confesses. Why does a hidden, quiet,
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private faith fail the test? Because confession is the
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necessary fruit and the public shape of living faith.
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If Christ is truly trusted as Lord in the command center of
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the heart, that conviction cannot remain permanently
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private, hidden from public view.
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Confession is faith coming to speech.
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It's the natural, inevitable outward expression of the inward
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reality. To be silent is to deny the
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Lordship you claim to accept. So confession is a declaration
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of allegiance. Jesus is Lord, even when that's
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costly or inconvenient. It's the believer stepping out
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of the shadows, taking sides with Christ against self rule,
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against sin, and against the world's demand that your highest
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loyalties stay unspoken, safe and private.
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If the heart has bowed to the risen King, the mouth will say
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so. And this guards the gospel on 2
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crucial fronts at the same time. OK, front one guarding against
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legalism, right? It prevents any subtle
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reintroduction of merit. Confession is not the work that
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buys the gift. It testifies to the work.
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It testifies to the finished work.
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The act of confession does not add merit to the heart's belief.
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It is the evidence that the heart has truly believed unto
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justification. We're justified by faith alone,
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but the faith that justifies is never alone.
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And front to guarding against the modern temptation of easy
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believe ISM yes, which wants the benefits of Christ without the
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burden of His public lordship. And this is the contemporary
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threat, a private, quiet faith that never identifies with
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Christ's people, never owns his name in a challenging social
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setting, and it never endures the potential shame or ridicule
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of discipleship. Paul insists that a faith that
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permanently refuses to confess the lordship of Christ is
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ultimately unbelief, wearing a mask of piety.
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So true faith has to move toward public identification.
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It must Confession is the ordinary pathway by which the
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full reality of salvation is openly embraced and publicly
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owned. OK, let's clarify the pairing.
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Paul uses Justified linked to the heart and Saved linked to
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the mouth. We need to be careful here not
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to suggest we're justified by faith plus confession.
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That is the crucial distinction. Paul is not splitting salvation
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into two stages or two tracks, one legal and one practical.
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So taria or salvation, It functions as the broader
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category. It encompasses the full
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deliverance God grants of which justification is the decisive
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instantaneous legal part. OK.
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He used the terms this way to make a polemical and pastoral
22:41
point designed to close the two main escape routes for religious
22:44
error. What are those two escape
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routes? First, against the person trying
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to earn their way in, he stresses that righteousness,
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justification, is received only by believing with the heart.
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This removes all legalistic merit.
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Second, against the person trying to sneak in without true
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allegiance, he stresses that salvation, the full experience
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of deliverance, discipleship, final glory is not compatible
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with a lifelong defiant refusal to own Christ's lordship.
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So the heart without the mouth lacks the necessary fruit.
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And the mouth without the heart is just hypocrisy.
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Paul's formulation closes both of those doors.
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So confession is not just a one time initiation speech you give
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on a Sunday morning. No, it is the continuing posture
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of a justified life. It's bound up with invocation
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toward God, calling on the Lord, worshipping Him, depending on
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him, praying to him, where Christ is truly trusted in the
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innermost being. Christ will inevitably and
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consistently be truly named in the public sphere of 1's actual
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life. That public naming is the sign
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that the person has truly submitted to Christ as Lord.
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Paul forces us to remember that salvation isn't just a set of
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disconnected theological principles or a checklist.
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It's anchored to a living person, Jesus Christ, who died
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and rose again. We're not just believing a
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doctrine of the resurrection. We're believing that God raised
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him from the dead and that he's reigning now.
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This Christ centered synthesis is everything.
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If we treat Christianity as detached psychology, saying I
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need to generate a feeling of faith without reference to the
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object Christ, it's not enough. Or it's just performance?
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If we reduce it to performance, saying I must perform a public
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confession without true heart reliance on Christ, it's equally
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hollow. The core is the risen Jesus who
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is Lord. The Word is near because Christ
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has already accomplished the decisive work in His death and
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resurrection. You aren't retrieving anything.
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You are receiving a finished historical reality.
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And that resurrection is the ultimate anchor for our
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assurance. It's the objective basis for
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peace with God. The resurrection is God's
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public, definitive statement that the payment for sin was
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fully accepted and the debt was completely exhausted.
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Your peace is grounded in that objective fact, not in I felt
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sincere when I confessed, but in Christ has finished the work and
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God raised him up. Justification is a standing
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secured by a living, reigning mediator, and that standing can
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never be shaken by the quality of your confession or your
25:09
spiritual discipline. This grounding in the risen king
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is also what drives the confession itself.
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Yeah, it isn't self generated bravado or trying to impress.
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People, not at all. It's the necessary fruit of a
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heart that has been conquered by the risen Lord.
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The mouth confesses because the person has been liberated.
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His lordship is not tyranny or oppression.
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It's rescue and liberation from the cruel masters of sin, guilt,
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and the debilitating fear of man.
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So arisen king creates loyalty. A risen king who purchased us
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with his blood commands and creates necessary public
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loyalty. The Gospel says he is Lord and
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it demands allegiance from the person he rescued.
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OK, let's move this into the applications.
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This is where the ancient texts hits the modern world, forcing
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us to ask, what does this mean for how you Live Today?
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The first challenge has to be renouncing every form of bladder
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climbing, especially the ones we disguise as piety.
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We have to repent from self salvation in all its forms, and
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that includes the respectable modern versions of the latter.
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It isn't just overt ritualism anymore.
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It's often a quiet, subtle pride that says God owes me something
26:12
because I'm trying hard. Or I'm safe because I'm morally
26:15
decent. Or my righteousness is my
26:18
devotion to my family, my usefulness and ministry, or my
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consistent practice of daily disciplines.
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The modern ladder is often these internal spiritual metrics we
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set for ourselves, measuring our feelings of closeness to God or
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our ability to maintain self-control.
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That is precisely the danger. We start comparing ourselves to
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others or measuring the consistency of our private
26:40
prayer life, and we start relying on the quality of our
26:42
discipline rather than the object of our faith.
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Which is Christ? Which is Christ.
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Paul's logic demands that we recognize these internal efforts
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as just sophisticated attempts to establish our own
26:53
righteousness. The command is to throw the
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entire resume of self effort away.
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Good works, good feelings, good intentions, and come empty
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handed, trusting Christ as your only righteousness.
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This is the heart believing unto justification.
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Then the second application has to focus on the confession
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aspect, the loyalty test. This text forces us to examine
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what approval we truly crave and what potential shame we're
27:17
trying to avoid. If you truly believe that God
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raised Jesus from the dead, you are utterly convinced that he is
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alive, reigning, and is therefore worth owning in
27:25
public, even if that ownership costs you social standing or
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career advancement or comfort. The fear of man is a subtle,
27:32
dangerous form of idolatry. Why?
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Because it treats human opinion as the ultimate truth,
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essentially denying the Lordship of Christ.
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So let's press that uncomfortable question on the
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secret disciple, the one who is comfortable in church but quiet
27:44
everywhere else. Who is your Lord in those
27:47
moments of friction? Is it Christ or comfort?
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Oh Christ. Or the dread of an awkward
27:52
conversation at the office water cooler.
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We have to be specific about modern allegiance.
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If you adopt Christ's identity, but then on social media you
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only confess your political allegiance or your moral outrage
28:04
or your professional success, you have failed the loyalty
28:06
test. When a colleague asks what you
28:09
did this weekend, or a family member criticizes the church,
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does your mouth confess your primary allegiance?
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A faith that permanently hides is not the faith Paul describes.
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And confession isn't about about being obnoxious or forcing your
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opinion on people. Not at all.
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It's just about unashamed identification with Christ.
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It's repentance from that cowardly silence that seeks
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safety and anonymity. And that identification means
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owning the name of Christ and being clearly identified with
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his people. The visible church confession is
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public profession, clear church membership and living a life
28:39
where your actions and your words declare I belong to Jesus,
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He is my Lord. The fact that we struggle with
28:45
this shows how potent the lure of self salvation saving our own
28:48
reputation still is. And this brings us to
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Application 3, Pastoral solace for the Weary St. the person who
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struggles with fear or inconsistency, or who might
29:00
doubt their salvation because their confession yesterday
29:02
wasn't bold enough or their faith today feels weak.
29:06
That soul needs to stop looking inward and look outward to the
29:10
risen Lord. They need to hear with crystal
29:12
clarity that their salvation rests entirely on the Savior's
29:15
sufficiency, not on the eloquence or boldness of their
29:19
confession. The foundation is outside of
29:21
them. The foundation of their
29:22
righteousness is Christ's finished work, vindicated in his
29:25
resurrection. If you struggled with fear or
29:28
inconsistency yesterday, the solution is not to try harder
29:31
today. It's to confess that fear as
29:33
sin, bring it to the Lord, and ask him for fresh courage.
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So the legalist looks the quality of his.
29:38
Faith and the weary St. looks at the object of his faith.
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Precisely. Christ does not despise bruised
29:44
reeds. He strengthens them.
29:46
He binds up the broken hearted. The call is not to generate
29:49
greater subjective feelings, but to look again at the objective
29:52
reality of the risen Lord. Until your heart is reminded.
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His verdict matters more than any human verdict, and His
29:59
finished work is sufficient even for your fears and failures.
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Your peace is secured by a perfect confession.
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His on the cross, not by your imperfect 1.
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Finally, what does this passage say to the church body as a
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whole? If the word is near and calls
30:15
for heart belief and mouth confession, what should the
30:17
church be doing? This passage corrects 2 massive
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modern drifts in the church. We have to avoid trading the
30:23
gospel for pragmatism, preaching only what is culturally
30:26
palatable or whatever draws a crowd.
30:28
And we must avoid reducing the gospel to mysticism, preaching
30:31
only internal feelings or experiences that feel powerful.
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The near word is the proclaimed word of Christ.
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So the church has a foster a culture where confession is
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normal and clear. Yes, that means clear standards
30:43
for membership, which include public profession of faith.
30:46
It means preaching that never assumes the audience is
30:49
justified, but presses the need for heart belief in the risen
30:52
King. And it means constantly
30:54
preaching the risen Lord as the only hope for justification.
30:57
The world encourages us to be vague and noncommittal to gain
31:01
acceptance. But the church has to be clear.
31:03
The church must say clearly and without apology, Jesus is Lord.
31:08
We must never replace the scandalous accessibility of the
31:10
free gospel with some complex, exhausting program of self
31:14
improvement. So this deep dive into Romans
31:16
10.9 to 10 really confirms that the near word is not some soft
31:21
suggestion. It's a summons that presses you,
31:23
the listener, to an immediate verdict.
31:25
It does, and the choice is stark, even shocking in its
31:27
simplicity. Will you keep building that
31:29
ladder of self righteousness, trusting your decency, your
31:32
discipline, or your own internal spiritual metrics?
31:35
Or will you lay all of that down and submit completely to God's
31:37
righteousness received in Christ?
31:39
That is the personal question the heart mouth dynamic searches
31:42
out. Where is your heart resting?
31:45
Either your heart is resting in your own record, your habits,
31:48
your moral correctness, your theological correctness, or it
31:52
is resting entirely in Christ record which is credited to you
31:55
by faith. The difference between those two
31:57
positions is the difference between eternal life and eternal
32:00
striving. And if that inner choice is
32:02
real, the inevitable result has to become public allegiance.
32:05
You can't enthrone Christ privately as Lord and deny Him
32:09
publicly out of fear or convenience forever.
32:12
True belief will always generate true allegiance.
32:14
So here is the comfort and the warning that collide in this
32:17
verse. Salvation is near enough for the
32:20
ashamed, the broken, the one who has failed 1000 times and
32:22
they're striving. But at the same time, it is near
32:25
enough to strip the proud of all excuses and expose every vestige
32:28
of self trust. The issue is never distance.
32:31
The issue is refusal, and so you have to ask who owns you?
32:35
Whose approval do you crave most, gods or man's?
32:38
And then you are called to believe in your heart, confess
32:40
with your mouth, and rest your hope, where God has placed it in
32:43
the risen Lord, who saves all who call upon His name.