Day 3: Because God Says It, You Can Believe It

In Romans 10:8-10, the apostle Paul is speaking about receiving righteousness through faith in Jesus, and how our heart and words are connected in this process:

"But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' – that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." (NASB)

We need to understand two important words that are used in this paragraph. The word "confess" has a special meaning in the Bible. Its literal meaning is 'to say the same as'. So, when we confess, we are saying the same with our mouth as God says in His Word, whatever that may be about sin, about salvation, about healing, about prayer. Confession is making the words of our mouth agree with the Word of God.

The word "salvation" is an all-inclusive word that covers all the benefits provided for us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It includes spiritual benefits, physical benefits, material benefits, benefits in this life and in the next, in time and in eternity.

Bearing this in mind, let us look more closely at what Paul says in Romans 10:8-10 about the relationship between the mouth and the heart. He uses that pair of words three times, once in each verse:

• In verse 8 he says, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." Notice, mouth comes first and then heart.
• In verse 9 he says, "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." Notice again that mouth comes before heart.
• In verse 10, he repeats that pair of words for the third time, but he reverses the order, "for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." There the heart comes before the mouth.

I believe there is a very practical reason for this connection. Many times, the way to become convinced of God's truth in experience is to make the right confession. Even when you don't feel exactly in your heart that you believe a particular truth of God's Word, you still believe it is God's Word, and you believe that it is true from the beginning to the ending. Because God says it, you're willing to say it.

In a certain sense, you humble yourself, and you abase your own carnal mind before the authority of the Word of God. And so, because God says it, you say it with your mouth and from your mouth it moves on into your heart. You keep repeating it with your mouth and that way it gets established in your heart. Then it becomes natural for you to say it because it is in your heart, and it comes out of your heart to your mouth.

In other words, this is the way you establish yourself in the truth of God's Word. You confess yourself into the salvation of God, first with the mouth, and from the mouth to the heart, then from the heart back to the mouth. Confession is made unto salvation. Then, once it is established in your mouth and in your heart, you act it out. In this respect, it is interesting to hear James 2:17 and 26 say this:

"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (NIV)

And then again:

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (NIV)

In other words, it's not enough merely to believe and to say it, but you have also to act it out. This brings us back to exactly the same principle that was established for Joshua: THINK God's Word, SPEAK God's Word, ACT God's Word. The result is guaranteed: success.