Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 2 Study # 6
August 19, 2018
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Salvation is guaranteed to everyone who "receives" the word of the faith.
Introduction: In Romans 10:9 Paul expresses the most crucial, and saving, truths of what he called in the previous verse, "the word of the faith which we are preaching". The crucial truths have to do with the descent of the Christ from heaven and the resurrection of the Christ out from the dead and the required responses of men in respect to this Christ. Those critical truths focus upon both the fact of, and the purpose for, the descent and the resurrection, and the necessary responses of what is not to be "said" in the heart and with the mouth and what is to be "said" with the mouth and "believed" with the heart.
The fact of, and purpose for, the descent of the Christ consists of the incarnation of God into flesh for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of Justice by a Sufficient Substitute for sinners. The fact of, and purpose for, the resurrection of the Christ from the dead consists of a literal, physical, bodily return to the realms of the living "out from" the realms of the dead for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of validation so that men might have a sufficient basis to "believe". And, the necessary responses of men that are absolutely required by God for that descent and resurrection are that the "mouth" confess that Jesus of Nazareth is, in fact, the "Lord" sent from heaven by the Father and that the "heart" believe that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead by that same Father. Additionally, it must be a part of the "confession" and the "believing" that men had absolutely no power or part in either the descent or the ascent of "the Lord".
In this study we are going to follow Paul into his restatement of these crucial issues of "salvation" as we find it in Romans 10:10-11.
- I. The Restatement.
- A. The peculiarities that serve to focus our attention.
- 1. Paul's switch from "believing/confessing" in the active voice of both verbs to the passive voice of both verbs.
- a. There are five aspects of every verb in Greek that must be taken into account before an accurate translation can be made (tense -- the verb in respect to time, mood -- the verb in respect to the potential of the action, voice -- the verb in respect to the involvement of its subject, person -- the verb in respect to the identity of its subject, and number -- the verb in respect to the "how many" of the subject).
- b. In our text and its context, the verb "to believe" is found for the first time since 6:8 in 9:33 in the active voice; in 10:4 in the active voice; in 10:9 in the active voice; in 10:11 in the active voice; in 10:14 in the active voice; and for the last time until 13:11 in 10:16 in the active voice; so that its presence in 10:10 in the passive voice has to be significant (remember the jot and tittle accuracy statement of Jesus in Matthew 5:18).
- c. Unlike "to believe", the verb "to confess" is only found in the entire letter in 10:9 (in the active voice) and in 10:10 (in the passive voice) where it simply follows the verb "to believe" in respect to the issue of "voice".
- d. This switch insists that our translation reflect the issue of "passivity" even though none of the translators do so.
- 1) In respect to this issue of "passivity" the translation should read "is being believed" and "is being confessed".
- 2) This immediately raises the question of the "subject" aspect of the verb: what is the "subject" of the "is being believed/is being confessed" verbs?
- 3) The problem is that the issue of "passivity" blocks the current translators' placement of "man" as the subject of the verb "believes" and "he" as the subject of the verb "confesses".
- a) Since the verbs are both in the form of the third person, singular number, we have to determine the "who" that exists as a possible third, singular translation.
- b) There are three possibilities: he, she, or it.
- c) How do we settle this question?
- i. We must find our "subject" or "subjects" in the context.
- ii. Our question is: "who" or "what" is "being believed/being confessed"?
- iii. We can immediately dismiss the "she" alternative since there is no "she" in our context.
- iv. If we go to the "he" alternative, we have these possible translations: "he is being believed" and "he is being confessed"; and in our context we have two "he" possibilities, "Jesus" as the "He" that is being confessed, and "God" as the "He" that is being believed".
- v. If we go to the "it" alternative, we have "it is being confessed" and "it is being believed" and the "it" in both cases is the content of "the word of the faith" as Paul sets it forth.
- vi. I believe that because Paul has specifically identified that the "it" of confession is "Lord Jesus" and the "it" of faith is "God has raised Him from the dead", we can go with either "he" or "it" and end up in the same place: "Lord Jesus" is confessed (or "He -- Lord Jesus -- is confessed") and "God has raised Him from the dead" is believed (or "He -- God -- is believed").
- 2. Paul's switch from "confessing and believing" to the more fundamental order of "believing and confessing".
- a. In line with the biblical concept of "faith" actually producing its commensurate response, we have "faith" in the heart resulting in "confessing" with the mouth.
- b. And in line with the biblical purpose of "salvation" being the reconnecting of God and man in active relationship, we have "confessing" as a verbal approach to God by man for the purpose of that reconnection.
- 3. Paul's insistence that "salvation" does not actually occur until "confessing" occurs even though it is "believing" that actually brings about "the out-of-faith righteousness" that is the antithesis of "the righteousness that is out-of-law" as the larger issue of our context (10:5 and following).
- a. The NASB translates the preposition as "resulting in", but "result" is not the actual sense of that preposition; "direction of thought" is the actual sense.
- b. Paul was actually saying that "it/He is being believed with the heart" directs us to the issue of God's promise of righteousness and "it/He is being confessed with the mouth" directs us to the issue of God's promise of salvation.
- c. And, since "righteousness" and "salvation" are connected as "means" and "end", we conclude that "believing" brings us to possibility and "confessing" brings us to reality.
- d. And, for clarification, "confessing" to God is not the "work" that "confessing to men" would be and nowhere are we taught that God does not save those who do not confess to men (Matthew 10:32-33 has its own context and significance that must be understood on its own merits).
- B. The outcome is expressed in two ways.
- 1. The promise of "salvation" is declared at the end of both verse nine and verse ten.
- 2. The promise of "not being ashamed" is declared at the end of verse eleven.
- a. This way of looking at the promise of salvation is simply looking at it from the perspective of how "faith" in the present will be realized in the future.
- b. This commitment is to encourage "faith" since it results in a commitment on God's part to act.