The Roman Colosseum
A Free Grace Translation of Romans 10:9-10 (10:8-11)
8 ἀλλὰ τί λέγει; Ἐγγύς σου τὸ ῥῆμά ἐστιν, ἐν τῷ στόματί σου καὶ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου· τοῦτ’ ἔστιν τὸ ῥῆμα τῆς πίστεως ὃ κηρύσσομεν.
But what does it say [in the Old Testament]? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.’ This is the word of faith which we preach,
9 ὅτι ἐὰν ὁμολογήσῃς ἐν τῷ στόματί σου Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, καὶ πιστεύσῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὸν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, σωθήσῃ·
that if you confess/profess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 καρδίᾳ γὰρ πιστεύεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην, στόματι δὲ ὁμολογεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν.
For with the heart a person believes unto righteousness [i.e. justification], but with the mouth he professes unto salvation [i.e. sanctification].
11 λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ἐπ’ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται.
For the Scripture says, Everyone believing on Him will not be disappointed. [Isa. 28:16.]
A Free Grace Commentary on Romans 10:9-10 (10:8-11)
10:8 Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 30:14.
10:9 When Paul says “you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9), what does he mean? I understand it to mean salvation in all three tenses: justification, sanctification, and eventually glorification.
10:10 In verse 10, Paul explains what he’s talking about in a little more detail: believing with the heart results in first-tense salvation, i.e. justification; whereas confession with the mouth results in second-tense salvation, i.e. sanctification. Notice the contrasting conjunction “but” (Gr. de) in verse 10. Most English translations read “and” not “but”. However, see Henry Alford’s notes on Romans 10:10 in his Greek NT. Alford’s translation of v. 10: “For with the heart faith is exercised unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Alford, Greek NT, vol. 2, p. 395, bold his.) Alford goes on to say: “Clearly the words dik. [‘righteousness’] and sōt. [‘salvation’] are not used here, as De W., [et] al., merely as different terms for the same thing, for the sake of parallelism: but as Thol. quotes from Crell., sōt. [‘salvation’] is the ‘terminus ultimus et apex justificationis,’ [that is, ‘the ultimate end and apex of justification,’] consequent not merely on the act of justifying faith as the other, but on a good confession before the world, maintained unto the end.” (Ibid., p. 395.) Compare also Wycliffe’s translation of verse 10: “For by heart me believeth to rightwiseness [Forsooth by heart men believeth to rightwiseness], but by mouth acknowledging is made to health.” Also see Stuhlmacher’s translation of v. 10 in his commentary on Romans: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” (Peter Stuhlmacher, Paul's Letter to the Romans: A Commentary, p. 153.) Paul here is making a contrast between justification and sanctification. Paul is saying that a person is justified (declared righteous by God) by faith, but we are sanctified by working out our faith (cf. Phil. 2:12). Godet in his commentary on Romans explains Paul’s point excellently. Godet writes: “Ver. 10. The idea of salvation is analyzed; it embraces the two facts: being justified and being saved (in the full sense of the word). The former is especially connected with the act of faith, the latter with that of profession. Paul, in expressing himself thus, is not swayed, as De Wette believes, by the love of parallelism. There is in his eyes a real distinction to be made between being justified and being saved. We have already seen again and again, particularly in chap. 5. [vv.] 9 and 10, that justification is something of the present; for it introduces us from this time forth into reconciliation with God. But salvation includes, besides, sanctification and glory. Hence it is that while the former depends only on faith, the latter implies persevering fidelity in the profession of the faith, even to death and to glory. In this ver. 10, Paul returns to the natural and psychological order, according to which faith precedes profession. This is because he is here expounding his thought, without any longer binding himself to the order of the Mosaic quotation [from Deut. 30:12-14]. And to put, as it were, a final period to this whole passage, the idea of which is the perfect freeness of salvation, he repeats once more the passage of Isaiah which had served him as a point of departure (9. 33).” (Frederic Godet, Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, pp. 383-384.) John Murray also sees some distinction between “righteousness” and “salvation” in Romans 10:10. Commenting on verses 9-10, he writes: “The effect of this confession and belief is said to be salvation—‘thou shalt be saved’. We are not to regard confession and faith as having the same efficacy unto salvation. The contrast between mouth and heart needs to be observed.” (Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 2, p. 55.)
10:11 In verse 11, Paul goes back to the key issue, which is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 16:31; Rom. 1:16-17).
For more information see the following books/articles:
“BELIEVE AND CONFESS CHRIST” by Lewis Sperry Chafer (in volume 3 of his Systematic Theology, pp. 378-380).
“Romans 10:9-13 Our Living Lord” by Zane C. Hodges (chapter 15 of his book Absolutely Free!). Please note: This is not a full endorsement of everything in Hodges’ book. But I think his comments on Romans 10:9-13 are pretty good.
“Why Confess Christ? The Use and Abuse of Romans 10:9-10” by John F. Hart (originally published in the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, vol. 12 [Autumn 1999]: pp. 3-35. To view the PDF, click here.)
“If I Don’t Confess Him, Do I Possess Him?” by Larry Moyer (chapter 8 in his book Free and Clear)
4 comments:
“For with the heart faith is exercised unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10, Henry Alford's translation)
Commenting on Romans 10:10, my former pastor from Elmbrook Church, Stuart Briscoe, explains my position very well when he writes:
“He [Paul] differentiates between ‘righteousness’ and ‘salvation,’ attributing the acquisition of the former to heart belief and the latter to mouth confession. Some commentators see in this an example of Paul’s love of Hebraic parallelism, but it would appear that this does not satisfactorily explain his meaning. There is a difference in the believer’s experience between being ‘justified’ or being ‘declared righteous’ and the other aspects of salvation. In the previous chapters we have seen something of the full scope of salvation which is instituted by the reception of forgiveness and justification and goes on through the whole life, through death and into ultimate glory. The ongoing process is sanctification, and, while faith is all that is necessary for justification, clear commitment which finds expression in articulation is necessary if the ongoing experience of growth in Christ is to be known.” (D. Stuart Briscoe, The Communicator’s Commentary Series, Volume 6, Romans [Waco, TX: Word Publishers, 1982], p. 198.)
I found another great quote on Romans 10:9-10. This one is from Richard A. Seymour's book All About Repentance (Hollywood, FL: Harvest House Publishers, 1974), p. 156.
Actually, Seymour is quoting J. Irvin Overholtzer, founder of Child Evangelism Fellowship, from Overholtzer's book Saved By Grace (Grand Rapids: Child Evangelism Fellowship, 1958), pp. 6-7.
The quote is as follows. J. Irvin Overholtzer writes:
"We have required a public confession of Christ as a condition for justification. This, Christ and the apostles never did. Confession of Christ should follow and not precede faith in Christ. The salvation mentioned in Romans 10:9 and 10 refers to something beyond justification, as the context shows."
Amen!
The Free Grace theologian David R. Anderson has a wonderful comment on Romans 10:10 in his book Free Grace Soteriology. He writes:
“But with the mouth confession is made ‘with the goal of’ (eis) salvation. Now once again, let us suspend our ingrained presupposition that salvation or being saved must be equivalent to justification or the transaction which would put us in heaven if we died. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that this salvation is a step beyond justification, just as it was back in Rom 5:9-10. Let us adopt the same definition we discovered in the context of Romans 5, that is, to be saved is to be delivered from wrath, the tyranny of the sin nature in one’s life (Rom 1:18ff). If this is so, obviously deliverance from the penalty of sin is a prerequisite for deliverance from the power of sin. In other words, justification must precede sanctification. No one will be sanctified who has not already been justified. With this understanding in mind, Rom 10:9-10 tells us that one believes in his heart with the goal of being justified, and he confesses with his mouth with the goal of being sanctified, or saved, or delivered from the power of the sin nature in his life. We would propose that this understanding makes sense and fits the following context.” (David R. Anderson, Free Grace Soteriology [Xulon Press, 2010], pp. 20-21.)
Amen!
The translation of Romans 10:9-10 by the late Zane C. Hodges (professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Dallas Theological Seminary from 1959-1986) is also well worth mentioning. Under the heading “AUTHOR’S TRANSLATION”, Hodges translates Romans 10:9-10 as follows:
“(9) that, If you confess with your mouth ‘Lord Jesus,’ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be delivered. (10) For with the heart He is believed for righteousness, but with the mouth He is confessed for deliverance.”
(Zane C. Hodges, Romans: Deliverance From Wrath [Corinth, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2013], p. 301.)
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