AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT
This chapter is a chapter that you hear me quote from weekly as we end our services and provide an opportunity for those to respond and give their life to Christ. This chapter contains one of the most straightforward descriptions of how to receive salvation, and I love it.
As you have heard me say numerous times, I feel like salvation should be more complicated; I feel like there should be some crazy quest we have to go on find a unicorn, slay a dragon, or climb an unclimbable mountain, because if the reward is eternal life with Jesus, shouldn't the process to get there be harder?
I guess I wasn't alone in my thinking because this is the same issue we see being fought about in Acts 15 at the Council of Jerusalem. There they establish what must happen for someone to receive salvation, and the decision is simple. It is through faith in Jesus Christ. In his many traveling ministry trips and writings, Paul is helping to get this decision out to the churches. You see, this information has most likely not reached Rome yet, and Paul is intentionally telling the readers what it takes to be a believer because so many were saying it takes faith plus baptism, faith plus the law, faith plus circumcision, faith plus a perfect life. It is the same thing we see happening today as we try to add to the price of salvation.
This may be dated when it plays, but have you seen the chaos for Taylor Swift's tour and the latest comedian? I think his name is Matt Rife. Their concerts are sold out immediately, and people are scalping the tickets to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars above face value. It is wild to think that you can charge more for a ticket than what is on the front of it, but that is precisely what ticket scalpers do every single day in front of stadiums and venues and in apps, they increase the cost of the ticket way beyond the original.
This is exactly what we see a lot of Christians do. We have become salvation scalpers and keep adding to the price of salvation. This is precisely what the Jewish Christians were doing, saying there is more than just faith alone needed.
Now, if you have been in the faith for a long time, this tends to be a trap that you fall into easier. We start talking about the results of salvation and that people's lives will be different, but in our communication, we say you be saved, you have to do this and stop doing that, and come to this, and don't go here. But what I see Paul tell us is that all we have to do is believe and confess and as a result of those two things, our life is different. Then with the help of the Holy Spirit now in us, we change our lives.
This is exactly why Paul puts it so plainly that the way to salvation is through belief and confession!
CS Lewis said, "Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty is to reach the point of recognizing that all we have done and can do is nothing." One pastor described it like this: "We are not mistakes in need of correction. We are sinners in need of a Savior. We need more than a second chance, but we need a second birth. Paul tells us how to receive that second birth.
Romans 10:9-10 “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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
It is a clear-cut, simple road map to eternity. Faith in Jesus Christ. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. Today if you have never or need to recommit your life take a second to believe and confess before you start your day. Also, let us remember to never be salvation scalpers and increase the price of salvation. Jesus has already paid it all; all we have to do is believe and confess.