…..because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. —Romans 10:9-10, in our reading plan for today.
Saving faith believes on Jesus as Lord and calls on him as Lord from the beginning.
You can see that mainly in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you don’t confess Jesus as Lord, you are not saved. Romans 10:9 makes plain that the “Lord” that we call upon to be saved in verses 12 and 13 is the Lord Jesus. That is what saving faith does. It calls on Jesus as Lord.
Some have been taught that their experience should be interpreted like this: I accepted Jesus as my Savior, and not much change happened. Then I later surrendered to him as Lord, and more change happened. That is not a biblical description of what has really happened. It would more biblical to say: I trusted Christ but understood little of his great salvation and sovereign rule in my life; I was immature in my faith and in my affections for Christ. Later I had experiences that opened my heart more and more to the richness of Christ as mighty Lord and beautiful Savior and more and more of my life was conformed to him.
For some this happens in a series of crisis events; for others it happens gradually and without crises. But it is wrong to say that there is saving faith where there is no submission to Jesus as Lord. Saving faith is faith in “the Lord Jesus Christ,” even if at first we grasp very little.
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 