Romans 10:9-10: "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
There is perhaps no more direct a proof text for the modus of salvation. It is laid out simply. Basically, it involves two inter-related steps: believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth. The latter is predicated upon the sincerity of the former as a verbal confession of faith is useless apart from an internal reality to back it up, while a purely internal belief is unverifiable apart from a verbal confession.
These two things go hand in hand. They cannot be separated and maintained with any sense of dignity to either. A verbal confession, to be sure, is not only the evidence of a held belief but it is also, perhaps even more so, the first realized action of that belief. On the other hand, the internal belief is but a seed that unless it is watered and nurtured by action will whither as any other un-actuated belief that we humans so easily believe and un-believe at will.
In the end, the story of the Bible is the story of redemption, the story of salvation from sin. And while Jesus did offer the ultimate example of humanity in His life, His purpose of coming to this world was to die as a substitutionary atonement for sin. We should not lose sight of that stark truth, for it forms the basis of our faith and our confession. It is because of that truth that we can proclaim: "Jesus is Lord!"
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