(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to
each of the sermons in the series will be found here as they are posted.)
You have probably received comfort or encouragement through the thoughtful words of others.1 As the sage said...
Paul's letter to the church in Rome is arguably the most theological New Testament book. In it, the apostle outlines five steps of God's dealing with man: sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, and service.2 In the fourth section, Paul explains how God exercises His sovereignty by placing the same expectations on everyone, Jew and gentile alike. No one gets preferential treatment. All must approach Him the same way, and that way includes making...
XXXIII. The Foremost Confession3
...which is...
Elsewhere in his epistles, Paul makes clear that faith is the sole requirement for salvation,8 passages like...
The decision to believe in God is a personal choice you make for yourself, but it is not a private choice you keep to yourself.11 It should not be a secret, a decision about which no one else knows, and do not assume that your belief will be apparent to others solely by your behavior.12 You must, to some extent, articulate your faith, not just demonstrate it. As you look forward to spending eternity with God, do not wait until you come before Him to express your commitment to Him. He expects an earlier response than that.13
What Paul says in v. 9, "Jesus is Lord," may have been an actual confessional statement for use with baptism (Cranfield 1979:527),14 and baptism is one of the initial ways believers combine their internal appreciation with an external affirmation.
Baptism is an important practice for Christians, as it often signals a person's relationship to the church community. Baptismal traditions differ widely among denominations, raising two questions about the practice but not always answering them in accordance with scripture.15
For many people, baptism is their first public declaration to follow Jesus. Unfortunately, for some people, baptism is also their last public declaration to follow Jesus. There is no enduring proof of their earlier pronouncement. Their attitudes (concerns) and their actions (conduct) remain unchanged, and look the same as those who have no interest in God. That failure to follow-through on one's initial commitment can have dire results. As the author of Hebrews states...16
Is baptism necessary for the salvation Paul describes in Rom 10? ...Absolutely not!17 Your salvation is not dependent on what you do. It is dependent on what God did by providing atonement through the sacrifice of His son. The moment you add something, the moment you say that your salvation depends on something you do—being baptized or observing the Sabbath or keeping kosher—at that point, salvation is no longer by God's grace alone; it is also by your effort. This is the
error the apostle exposes and corrects in his letter to the Galatian church.18
Unfortunately, the error Paul addresses to the Galatians, the error of thinking that keeping the law, any law, is necessary for salvation, has continued to mislead Christians to this day. This is a concern for me as pastor. No one should say that salvation depends in any way on keeping the Sabbath. ...It does not, and to suggest it does, as some Seventh-day Adventists do, borders on the same kind of heresy Paul addressed in his letter.19 The Sabbath has nothing to do with salvation.... If you ever wondered about the eternal fate of Christian friends and relatives who worship on a different day, set your mind at ease. Sunday-keepers are just as secure as Sabbath-keepers if they have faith in God's grace. It is as simple as that.
Is keeping the Sabbath important? ...Yes, as important as keeping many other precepts, but obeying God's law relates to a different stage in a believer's life that has nothing to do with salvation, and to avoid the error Paul addresses, we must distinguish among...20
Stage #1: The process of conversion is a person's gradual awakening to his need for God's pardon. Whether it takes years or minutes, the person becomes increasing aware of his sinful condition. In that process, the law plays a convicting role, showing God's standard and exposing man's deficiency.
Again, for you, stage #2, the moment of justification, is in the past. You are currently in stage #3, the process of sanctification. Keep clear the differences between them, and you will avoid the error Paul warns against. Your eternal life may depend on it.
Justification and sanctification are two distinct stages in a relationship with God (separate and sequential). They are what the hymn writer John Sammis (1887) termed simply, Trust and Obey. If the difference between them is not clear to you, please come see me, and I will attempt to do a better job explaining it. If, however, you hold a contrary view, that salvation depends on keeping the Sabbath or any other aspect of God's law, be wary of the consequence. Paul says...
Having considered The Foremost Confession, we will look next at The Foremost Confusion, which is the prevention by God, in Exod 23:27.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.
Prov 16:24 Pleasant words are...sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.Words can be very powerful, especially if they have significant meaning.
An elderly woman returned to her house one evening after a revival service at church and was startled to discover an intruder. As he was in the act of robbing her home of its valuables, she yelled the first thing that came to mind, "Stop! Acts 2:38!" The burglar halted dead in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the responding officers cuffed the man to take him in, one of them asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture passage at you." "Scripture?" the burglar replied... "She said she had an axe...and two 38s!" (Acts 2:38a Repent and be baptized....)Words can be very powerful, especially if they have significant meaning...and there is significant meaning in The Foremost Confession.
Paul's letter to the church in Rome is arguably the most theological New Testament book. In it, the apostle outlines five steps of God's dealing with man: sin, salvation, sanctification, sovereignty, and service.2 In the fourth section, Paul explains how God exercises His sovereignty by placing the same expectations on everyone, Jew and gentile alike. No one gets preferential treatment. All must approach Him the same way, and that way includes making...
XXXIII. The Foremost Confession3
...which is...
- The profession before God (Rom 10:9-10)
Rom 10:9 ...if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,5 you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.As we begin, a brief note about the meaning of two words Paul uses in v. 10 is in order. The terms "justified" and "saved" are synonyms. Both words refer to having a relationship with God6 and to the wonderful prospects that relationship offers for the future.7 The apostle is not making a distinction between "justified" and "saved," so they are, essentially, interchangeable, and switching them would not alter the meaning of the passage.
Elsewhere in his epistles, Paul makes clear that faith is the sole requirement for salvation,8 passages like...
Rom 3:28 ...a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law..
Eph 2:8a ...it is by grace you have been saved, through faith....In Rom 10:9, he is not revising that assertion, as if confession is an additional requirement. He is stating that faith—saving faith—is not just a conviction; it is also a declaration.9 The two go hand-in-hand, so Paul says...
1. Your salvation follows a public (spoken) affirmation—"with your mouth"—that Jesus reigns.10...and...
2. Your salvation follows a personal (sincere) appreciation—"in your heart"—that Jesus rose.This dual response the apostle advocates may present a dilemma to some Christians.
- All of us would agree with his second point, that we must accept personally the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, which is that it actually did happen. It was not a story the disciples invented; there were witnesses. We accept his second point.
- Some of us, though, have trouble with his first point, that we must admit publicly the sincerity of our devotion, which is that we willingly, even enthusiastically, serve him.
The decision to believe in God is a personal choice you make for yourself, but it is not a private choice you keep to yourself.11 It should not be a secret, a decision about which no one else knows, and do not assume that your belief will be apparent to others solely by your behavior.12 You must, to some extent, articulate your faith, not just demonstrate it. As you look forward to spending eternity with God, do not wait until you come before Him to express your commitment to Him. He expects an earlier response than that.13
What Paul says in v. 9, "Jesus is Lord," may have been an actual confessional statement for use with baptism (Cranfield 1979:527),14 and baptism is one of the initial ways believers combine their internal appreciation with an external affirmation.
Baptism is an important practice for Christians, as it often signals a person's relationship to the church community. Baptismal traditions differ widely among denominations, raising two questions about the practice but not always answering them in accordance with scripture.15
- First, who is eligible for baptism?
...and...
- Is it a rite for all, including infants, or is it just for adults?
- Second, what does baptism accomplish?
The biblical text is clear:
- Does it make a change at that moment, cleansing the soul from sin (baptismal regeneration), or does it mark a change that has already occurred?
- Baptism is only for those capable of making a commitment to God, which is not a decision parents can make for their children, as much as parents might wish they could. The person, himself, must choose to be baptized.
- Baptism does not change a person's condition before God, from unregenerate to regenerate. That change must occur first, before baptism, with an appeal to God's merciful pardon. Baptism indicates a person's (ceremonial) cleansing from a sinful past.
For many people, baptism is their first public declaration to follow Jesus. Unfortunately, for some people, baptism is also their last public declaration to follow Jesus. There is no enduring proof of their earlier pronouncement. Their attitudes (concerns) and their actions (conduct) remain unchanged, and look the same as those who have no interest in God. That failure to follow-through on one's initial commitment can have dire results. As the author of Hebrews states...16
Heb 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,This is not a reference to violating a single command but to an intentional and continual pattern of disobedience. Those guilty of that place their salvation in jeopardy. Having obtained forgiveness from God, you are obligated to follow after God. As Jesus says...
Luke 9:62 ...No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God [and]
Matt 10:22b [= 24:13] ...he who stands firm to the end will be saved.Baptism is one of the initial ways believers combine their internal appreciation with an external affirmation, but it must not be the final way. What Paul advocates in Rom 10 is ongoing.
Is baptism necessary for the salvation Paul describes in Rom 10? ...Absolutely not!17 Your salvation is not dependent on what you do. It is dependent on what God did by providing atonement through the sacrifice of His son. The moment you add something, the moment you say that your salvation depends on something you do—being baptized or observing the Sabbath or keeping kosher—at that point, salvation is no longer by God's grace alone; it is also by your effort. This is the
error the apostle exposes and corrects in his letter to the Galatian church.18
- Paul says that the gospel has a single tenet, one requirement.
Gal 2:16 ...a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus.... [Indeed,] by observing the law no one will be justified.... 21b [In fact,] if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
The gospel has a single tenet, one requirement: faith.
- Paul also says that the alternative to a single-tenet gospel is a package deal.
Gal 3:10 All who rely on observing the law [any portion of it] are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
That package—"everything written in the Book of the Law"—is not just 10 commandments; it is all 613 commandments—an impossibility, which is why Paul says...
Gal 3:11a [N]o one is justified before God by the law.... 21c For if a law [any law] had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law [and would not have required Jesus' sacrifice].
The alternative to a single-tenet gospel is the whole package, "everything written."Thankfully, the only thing necessary for salvation is faith, as Paul describes in Rom 10: faith affirmed "with your mouth" and appreciated "in your heart."
Unfortunately, the error Paul addresses to the Galatians, the error of thinking that keeping the law, any law, is necessary for salvation, has continued to mislead Christians to this day. This is a concern for me as pastor. No one should say that salvation depends in any way on keeping the Sabbath. ...It does not, and to suggest it does, as some Seventh-day Adventists do, borders on the same kind of heresy Paul addressed in his letter.19 The Sabbath has nothing to do with salvation.... If you ever wondered about the eternal fate of Christian friends and relatives who worship on a different day, set your mind at ease. Sunday-keepers are just as secure as Sabbath-keepers if they have faith in God's grace. It is as simple as that.
Is keeping the Sabbath important? ...Yes, as important as keeping many other precepts, but obeying God's law relates to a different stage in a believer's life that has nothing to do with salvation, and to avoid the error Paul addresses, we must distinguish among...20
Four Stages in a Believer's Life
Stage #1: The process of conversion is a person's gradual awakening to his need for God's pardon. Whether it takes years or minutes, the person becomes increasing aware of his sinful condition. In that process, the law plays a convicting role, showing God's standard and exposing man's deficiency.
Rom 3:20b ...through the Law [comes] the knowledge of sin.Stage #2: The moment of justification is God's declaring a person to be righteous. It is immediate, occurring the instant a person turns to God in repentance and faith. At that moment, the law plays no role; justification is entirely and exclusively by God's grace.
Rom3:24a being justified[is]a gift by His grace...Stage #3: The process of sanctification is a person's gradual aligning of his life to God's perfect standard. It is a long-term undertaking by which the person becomes increasingly godly. In that process, the law plays a conforming role (instructing the believer about the righteous lifestyle he should adopt).
Rom 6:19 ...present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.Stage #4: The moment of glorification is God's transforming a person to perfection. It is immediate, occurring the instant a person receives his resurrection body. At that moment, the law plays no role; glorification is entirely and exclusively by God's power.
Rom 8:30 ...those whom He justified, He [will] also [have] glorified.These are the four stages in every believer's life. For you who know God, stage #2, the moment of justification, is in the past. You are currently in stage #3, the process of sanctification. What Paul addresses in his letters (especially Galatians) is distinguishing these two stages, and we must understand...
The Differences between Justification and Sanctification
Justification and sanctification are two distinct stages in a relationship with God (separate and sequential). They are what the hymn writer John Sammis (1887) termed simply, Trust and Obey. If the difference between them is not clear to you, please come see me, and I will attempt to do a better job explaining it. If, however, you hold a contrary view, that salvation depends on keeping the Sabbath or any other aspect of God's law, be wary of the consequence. Paul says...
Gal 5:4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.God exercises His sovereignty by placing the same expectations on everyone, Jew and gentile alike. Thankfully, those expectations are not difficult to understand or to undertake. They are, in fact, simple and straightforward, readily accessible to anyone who would approach God. It starts with The Foremost Confession, which is the profession before God that Paul describes in Rom 10, that "Jesus is Lord." It is what "every tongue [will] confess" one day (Phil 2:11), so you have a head start.
Having considered The Foremost Confession, we will look next at The Foremost Confusion, which is the prevention by God, in Exod 23:27.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes, see the pdf here.
(This sermon is part of Dr. Manuel's sermon series: "What is Foremost?" Links to each of the sermons in the series will be found here as they are posted)
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Jim Skaggs