The Message of Faith Is Near: Believe in Your Heart, Confess with Your Mouth

Romans 10:5–11 (NLT)

⁵ For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. ⁶ But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). ⁷ And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” ⁸ In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand;

it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: ⁹ If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. ¹¹ As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

Message
Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands (5). See Leviticus 18:5 NLT:

⁵ If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.

 See Deuteronomy 30:11-14 NLT:

¹¹ “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. ¹² It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ ¹³ It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ ¹⁴ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

The reasons Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:12-13 are written in Deuteronomy 30:11 and 14:

• This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach.
• The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey

See verses 6-7:

⁶ But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). ⁷ And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”

In verses 6-7, Paul applied Deuteronomy 30:12-13 to ‘faith’ rather than to ‘the Law’.

If we apply Deuteronomy 30:14 to ‘faith’ rather than to ‘the Law’, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart (8^a) so that you can believe it in your heart and be made right with God and confess your faith with your mouth and be saved (10), where the message is the very message about faith that we preach (8^b). See verse 9:

⁹ If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Amen.

Verse 11 is quoted from Isaiah 28:16. It was also quoted in Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:6.

“Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

Amen.