Lent 1 Wednesday Romans 10:8b-13

The Word Is In You

Saint Paul says in our lesson, “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.”  This statement is so simple that a child can understand it and yet it is so profound that most people do not realize its depth. These words found in tonight’s lesson however, are the cornerstone and foundation of the Church.  We are a confessional church, made up of believers who confess that Jesus is Lord.  We confess that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that God raised Him from the dead. As Luther says, we believe, teach and confess this to be most certainly true.

When you worship here in this church, you are surrounded by His Word in every aspect of the liturgy.  His word is contained in the Hymns, the creeds, the scripture readings, in our confession and absolution of sins, in the waters of baptism, in His supper and in the sermon. As Paul says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim.) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”  That’s it! That’s all you need to have the salvation that gives you eternal life. It really is that easy. You do not have to search the hidden depths of darkness and gloom to ascertain why there is evil in the world, nor do you need to ascend into the highest heaven by becoming perfect in godly wisdom and knowledge to find inner peace and tranquility.

Righteousness by faith is available to anyone who will receive it freely from God through faith in Jesus Christ. There is not one God to the Jews, who is more kind, and another to the Gentiles, who is less kind; the Lord is a Father to all men. The promise is the same to all, who call on the name of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as God manifest in the flesh. All believers thus call upon the Lord Jesus, and none else will do so humbly or sincerely.

We share in our Lord’s righteousness which He obtained through His suffering and death on the cross. We are not ashamed to confess that we are sinners, nor are we ashamed of His name.

 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Joel says the same thing in the Old Testament, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Joel 2:32 (ESV) 

What could be better or easier than calling on the name of the Lord? For those of you who know His name and all of what His Name entails, Jesus Christ is truly your Lord and Savior.  That’s a given; a no-brainer.  There is no mention of doing goods works or that God first sees something good in you. Salvation is never accomplished by our good works.  We are saved by God’s grace through faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone.  It is a fact that the Apostle says, “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3) The Holy Spirit opens our hearts to believe and to confess Jesus Christ. And when you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Calling on the Lord, means having saving knowledge of Him and believing in His work on the cross.   From this saving knowledge, we depend on Him. And as evidence of the sincerity of all this, we diligently obey His commands to the best of our abilities. Only those shall be delivered in the great days, who have acknowledged that they are sinners in need of a Savior that have received forgiveness through Christ Jesus.

Jesus himself tells all who will listen, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.

 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me." John 12:44-50 (ESV) 

 But for many people in this world, our Lord’s promise is taken too lightly. They do not take it to heart. In Paul’s time the heart was seen as not only the place of the emotions and affection, but also as the part of the body where the intellect and will of man resided.

So then an outward confession of faith in Jesus Christ with your mouth first involves an inward belief in your heart. No faith is justifying which is not powerful in sanctifying the heart. This sanctifying of the heart comes from understanding the love of Christ. You cannot just say that you believe God’s Word to be true and then live your life as it was untrue.  Confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is not an incantation that you can say like a sorcerer and ‘poof’ you are saved.

The word here rendered “confess” is often rendered “profess” in scripture.  Confess in the sense that Paul intended means to “speak in agreement with what the word of God maintains. Thus, confession or profession expresses our “agreement or concord with what GOD holds to be true, and what he declares to be true.” Hence the book of Concord is a book that we profess to be a true summary of what scripture teaches in its entirety. To call upon the Lord is to make a public declaration or assent to that, which Paul uses the expression “with thy mouth.” A profession of faith then denotes a public declaration of our agreement with what God has declared in His holy word, and extends to all his declarations about our sin, and our need of a Savior.

So our confession includes adherence to his doctrines about Christ’s own nature as God incarnate in respect to His becoming man.  It includes His perfect holiness in obeying the law. It includes believing in the Holy Spirit and the necessity of a change of heart and holiness of life in us. Your faithful confession is how Jesus Christ get’s to know you.

 So when you live out your life as one of God’s children, you make an active confession each and every day as you follow His commandments and proudly bear and proclaim His name.

Your confession is never more apparent to God and those around you than when you attend a confessional church.  Your confession in never more hidden when you refrain from prayer and you abstain from worship. If you do not call upon the name of the Lord now, it will do you no good to shout out ‘Jesus is Lord’ on the last day. Those who say they believe in Jesus, but remain away from His word and depend on their own works will not enter into heaven. 

Again Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty work in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' (Matthew 7:21-23)  What is the will of God the Father? Well it’s very simple.  The will of the Father is that you regularly call on the name of the Lord in faith through prayer and worship.  

So as Christians, we devote and give up to God our souls and our bodies: our souls in believing with the heart, and our bodies in confessing with the mouth even when it may mean suffering persecution from unbelievers. And although you face persecution because of your confession, you shall never have cause to regret your confident trust in the Lord Jesus in the life to come.

Of such faith no sinner shall be ashamed before God; and he ought to glory in it before men. For what the heart believes, the mouth confesses, and the hand of man fulfils, not expecting a reward for ones work, but knowing that the reward is already freely given through the loving call of Jesus Christ. This is the yielding of your life in its passions and purposes, in its deepest affections and highest powers, to be ruled by a new spirit now and throughout eternity.

And the resultant end of God’s calling; this sanctification, is that you will be “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). It is Paul’s constant and compelling appeal: You belong to Christ; He is in you and you live in Him always in His name, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.