"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" (vs 9-10). In this passage the Apostle Paul reinterprets a passage from Moses' sermon to the Israelites when they renewed the covenant with God before entering the promised land (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Paul contrasts the righteousness based on faith with the righteousness that comes from the law and considers this passage from Moses' sermon as now fulfilled in Christ. Paul says there is no need to travel to heaven to bring Christ to earth because God has already sent him into the world. And it is not necessary to bring Christ up from the realm of the dead because God has raised Christ from the dead. Just as Moses reassured the Israelites before they entered the promised land that God's commandments are not hard because His words are near, neither does it require superhuman effort on your part to be saved. Therefore, all you have to do is believe in Christ's resurrection from the dead, which infers that you also believe in and accept Christ's death and sacrifice to bear the sin of humanity. Paul says that saving faith is simply a deep inward trust in Christ, but it is a trust that is at the core of one's being (the heart). The evidence of that trust is demonstrated in the affirmation, usually by confessing with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord. Can you proclaim today that Jesus is Lord?
