Heart + Mouth + Life

Last year a dear friend was taken to the hospital. He had been ill and the end was soon, but he had not yet made his peace with God.

My husband felt the urging of the Spirit to go quickly. He obeyed and went to our friend’s bedside. He told him about Jesus and how he could be sure of heaven when he died. This man agreed about his need, then prayed asking God to forgive his sins. He died within a day or two after that.

His wife, who still has not made her peace with God, told us that just before her husband died, he told her that he had put his faith in Christ. Our hearts rejoiced because “saying so” is such an important verification for our salvation. This comes from Romans 10:

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)

Believing in my heart is more than just acknowledging that God exists and Jesus was a real person. Even the demons believe that! (James 2:19) Instead it is a deep conviction about the truths in the Bible, particularly that Jesus is God the Son who came to earth and died on the cross for my sins, was buried, and then rose from the dead on the third day. Without the resurrection, there is no salvation. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians:

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)

But saying it is also important. Confessing means to “say the same thing” or be in agreement with God, confirming verbally that I believe in what God says. When He says I have sinned, confessing my sin means that I agree. When He says Jesus died and rose again, confessing Christ means that I agree. When He says Jesus is Lord, saying so means I submit to His lordship.

Putting words to it is not a magical thing; just saying those words do not make it true. If that were so, I could say I have a Porsche and then go find one in my driveway. However, saying the words that God says is important. There are several reasons.

The first is that declaring a truth affirms it to my own doubting heart. Confession is sort of like prayer; I can pray silently, but when I pray aloud, I seem to have a greater sense of knowing I am heard. Verbal confession gives me a strong affirmation of what I believe.

Declaring a truth aloud also has the same effect on others; they know where I stand if I tell them out loud. Our friend’s wife knows that her husband trusted Christ for his salvation and eternal life. We do too, and for us that is a great comfort and assurance that we will see him again.

One more thing that confession may do is that the enemy is always trying to make me believe something other than what God says. The more vocal I am in my agreement with God, the less susceptible I am to Satan’s lies and his attempts to stonewall my Christian testimony. Even when I am alone and struggling, it seems that the issues become clearer when I say aloud the truth of Scripture and what I believe.

The heart, the mouth, and the life are closely connected. Jesus said that whatever a person believes in their heart will come out in their life. That means that if anyone really does believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and rose from the dead, saying it will be easy and living it will also be part of the equation.