8 … the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord …
Core message of the gospel, verses 9 and 10 have been used by millions as part of the so-called “Romans Road.” Taken together, these truths from this letter form a precise outline of the good news Paul preached:
- All have sinned (3:23).
- The wages of sin is death, but eternal life is a gift of God (6:23).
- God’s love is proven; while we were sinners, Christ died for us (5:8).
- We are saved through confession and faith in Him (10:9-10).
- All who call out to the Lord will be saved (10:13).
Two things are required here, the first being confession. This is not the confession of sin, though that is implicit in the Gospel message (see 3:23). We must recognize the truth that we have come short of God’s glory; that is the essential nature of sin. But here the confession specifically refers to acknowledging that Jesus is “Lord.” In the context of our passage, this means confession that a person believes that Jesus is God, a belief in His deity. How do we know that?
First, when Paul uses the word “Lord,” he takes it from Old Testament passages where Yahweh is clearly in view. Yahweh (sometimes rendered Jehovah) is the specific name of God to His people Israel, often showing in our English Bibles as the word “Lord,” in small caps. Note the very familiar, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (Deut 6:4). God had made the revelation of His self-identity to Moses, the one Jews looked to as the law-giver:
God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them. (Ex 6:2–3; also Ex 3:14-16).
So when Paul, in Romans 9:28 and 29, uses the word in our English Bibles translated “Lord,” he refers to the divine name of God Almighty, Yahweh of Israel, as taken from Isaiah 10:23 and 1:9 (see also Rom 4:8; 10:16; 11:3, 34; 14:11; 15:11) and further, in 10:13 (a few verses after our present passage). To be saved and declared righteous by God means confessing, that is, believing and acknowledging, that Jesus Christ is none other than God Himself. The deity of Christ is central to the Gospel message.
Lord, I do confess and believe that Jesus is Lord, God in the flesh.
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