Salvation & Conversion

Thought for Today
Feb. 11

SATAN'S FAVORITE SCRIPTURES - NO. 4, ROMANS 10:9

There are verses from the Bible that are especially useful to Satan because their meaning can be more easily twisted than can other verses to promote the religion he invented, the false religion which calls itself after the name of the true Lord (Christianity). The process is simple: Such verses, with their wrong interpretation, are popularized by Satan's ministers; then, their erroneous interpretations becomes the norm, the standard by which all other teaching and teachers are judged. It is tried-and-true method of subduing and controlling the minds of men, for once Satan's interpretation of a Scripture becomes the standard by which others are judged, men fear to contradict it. In fact, most men never even question it, assuming that as long as everyone agrees on a meaning, then all is well.

Probably the most abused Scripture in the last decades of the 20th century was Romans 10:9. This verse has a distinguished place among "Satan's favorite Scriptures", for millions of souls in the past several decades were brought under his spell by the meaning that he assigned to those precious words from the apostle Paul. Paul's words are: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Satan's interpretation of that verse is that if a sinner sincerely confesses that he believes that Jesus is Lord and that he is alive from the dead, then that sinner is converted. But Paul was not speaking about conversion. He was speaking about salvation. What a sinner has to do to be converted is to repent and "do works meet for repentance". No one knows another's heart; we cannot tell when another has fully repented. But we know that when a sinner stops sinning and when his repentance is complete, Jesus will baptize that person with the holy Ghost. So, we make no judgment; we never tell anyone that he or she has repented and is born again. It is sin to do that, for that is God's place alone. The family of God is to wait on God to judge a repentant sinner's sincerity by giving His "witness" to that fact. His witness is the holy Ghost baptism.

Romans 10:9 was written to remind believers what they must do to be saved in the end. The tenth chapter of Romans begins with the word "Brethren"; it has nothing whatsoever to do with the conversion of sinners. And to understand fully Paul's meaning in Romans 10:9, we must start with the ancient sermon of Moses from which Paul was drawing his words. Here is the proper explanation for Romans 10:9:

Israel had celebrated the Passover forty times during those forty years in the wilderness. They knew the ceremony by heart. Having observed the somber Day of Atonement ceremony forty times, and during that season the people heard the entire Law read aloud by the elders of Israel. The Law of God was very familiar to them. The Law was embedded in the tongue of the elders as they taught it to the young. Through that long journey through the wilderness, the Israelites had experienced both the goodness and the severity of God, and Moses saw to it that they knew and understood the truth of all they had experienced. Moses, with his Levitical helpers, explained the already simple words of God and enforced the precepts of the Law at all times. The Israelites needed not to yearn for someone to reveal God's way to them. God's way was the Law which they possessed. It was an integral part of their behavior. It was so close to them that it was in their mouths and in their hearts and minds.

Camped across the Jordan from the promised land, the Israelites were given a last message from the 120-year-old Moses who had led them out of Egypt, knowing that these words would be among his last, Moses obviously chose his words with extreme care and passion. Moses' last words were a pleading exhortation to his people to be faithful to what they already knew, for them to realize the value of the Law that had been entrusted to them. Moses hoped they would always remember that God was among them. They had all they needed to please God and to know Him.

Here are the words of Moses, the same words which Paul was quoting in Romans 10: "This commandment that I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off" (Deut. 30:11). Why did Moses say that? Because they had possessed the commandments of God and lived forty years by its standards. "It [God's Law] is not in heaven that thou shouldest say 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it?'" Why should Israel not say that? Because forty years earlier, God had brought the Law down from heaven and from Mt. Sinai's smoking heights delivered the Law to them. "Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?'" God had already "gone over the sea" for them and had brought them through the Red Sea on dry land to the mountain where He gave His Law. "But it [God's word - the Law]", Moses concluded, "is nigh thee." How near to them was it, Moses? "In thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it" (Dt. 30:14).

Yes, they knew the right way. The heathen might have to long for revelation from heaven; they might have to cross mountains and seas to hear the Law of God, but not Israel. Israel's righteousness would be their faithfulness to what God had already given them.

Actually, the Israelites could have preached the same message to Moses. "Moses, you needn't wonder what God's will is for you. He has already shown you. Be careful to trust and obey!" Moses' last sermon, then, was not an evangelistic message for those who did not know God, but an exhortation to God's people to be faithful to Him. In a nutshell, Moses was saying to his people what Jesus would later say to his disciples: "He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Mt. 24:13).

In Rom. 10:9-10, the Apostle Paul was exhorting the saints at Rome to endure to the end, using in his exhortation the pattern of Moses' words. As with Moses, Paul was not speaking to unbelievers, but to saints whose faith was world-renown (Rom. 1:7-8). Let us look at Paul's words, which were a re-stating of Moses' words from Deuteronomy: "Say not in thine heart 'Who shall ascend into heaven' (that is, to bring Christ down from above)." Why do believers not need to long for the Christ to come down from heaven? Because he had already been sent from heaven. His name was Jesus. It would be unbelief for God's people now to long for the Christ to be sent from heaven. We know who he is! Continuing then in Moses' pattern of exhortation, Paul told the saints that they also need not to say, "'Who shall descend into the deep?' (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." Why? Because Christ is already risen! And the believers in Rome knew it, rejoiced in it, indeed, preached it to the world! Paul was simply exhorting them to trust in what they knew that God had already done and not to be lured away by deceivers to hope in anything else.

Quoting Moses again, Paul continued, "But what saith it? 'The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.'" What "word" is in the mouths and hearts of the saints, Paul? "The word of faith, which we preach." Yes, the same word Paul preached, these Roman saints preached as well. They could have exhorted Paul to do as he was exhorting them. "Confess the Lord Jesus, Paul! Believe in your heart, Paul! And if you continue in this holy faith, Paul, you shall be saved."

This confession in Christ can only be made by believers (Rom. 10:13-14). Sinners can no more confess Christ than the ancient heathen nations could obey the Law. They didn't have the Law to obey. And sinners do not have Christ to confess. Sinners confess sin. Saints confess Christ.

Paul, in Romans 10:9-10, was no more telling sinners how to be converted than Moses in his last sermon was telling the Egyptians how to become Israelites. Heathen nations weren't even there to hear Moses' words, and unbelievers were not there to read Paul's letter. Both Moses and Paul knew that in order for the people of God to be saved in the end, they must first "be" God's people, and second, continue trusting in what God had done for them. In other words, one must be baptized into the body of Christ by the holy Ghost (1Cor. 12:13) in order for Paul's words to apply to them.

Christian ministers who use Romans 10:9-10 as Scriptures for "conversion" have not been sent by Jesus. They don't know what they are talking about, and we must reject such men and their doctrines and seek the truth. Both Paul and Moses were only reminding the precious people of God of the simple requirements for them to receive the crown of life that awaits those born-again people who confess Christ and believe in their hearts until the end.