Heart and Mouth

The last few posts of this series have shown how the bible teaches that

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23);

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23); and that

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

I have also led us in a short prayer to help us accept these truths.

However, you may not have been ready. You may even think to yourself, yep, I get it. I am not perfect (a sinner), and that sin does mean I’m not good enough for heaven. And I understand – even mentally agree in my head – that Jesus loved me enough to die for me.

Well if you’ve got that far in your thinking and understanding, I have to congratulate you. You’re way ahead of much of the world population! However, there are two more steps to go, but I believe that this one is the most important if we are to get anywhere further down the road.

So here’s today’s verse from the book of Romans in the bible:

If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9).

This series of posts is called “The Romans Road to Salvation”.

Salvation means being saved, which means we have to be saved from something. You are reading this post because God wants you to know that you need a saviour. However perfect or messed up your life is, you need a saviour.

So what do we need saving from? We saw in my second post that the wages of sin is death. Ultimately, we need saving from eternal death. The bible has some devastating ways of describing this eternal separation from God, and calls it hell. We all need a saviour because our sin means we deserve this hell and could never get ourselves out of it.

So if, like I’ve shared in the other steps, you believe that we’ve all fallen short of God’s perfection, and that the wages of sin is death, if you believe that God’s gift is eternal life through the love he showed when Jesus died for us, then there is one more step to take.

It’s one thing to understand something, and even to believe it in a logical, head-knowledge kind of way. But what today’s verse is asking you to do is to speak it out with your mouth because you really believe it in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. Then you will be saved.

Do you believe that Jesus is Lord? This means he’s the ultimate ruler. It also means he deserves to be the Lord, or manager, of your life.

If so, please pray this prayer:

Dear God, I declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, and I believe in my heart that he died for me and rose from the dead. Now I choose to live for him and make him the Lord of my life. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, do get in touch. We’d be delighted to help you in your next steps along this new-life journey.

Jon Petts.