Confess with your mouth

Salluz

Aspiring Man of God
From Romans 10:9

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.

My question is on the declare with your mouth portion. Do you have to literally say this out loud to be saved? Saving my thoughts until after I hear others'
 

Goodboy

Won't Be Long Now!
From Romans 10:9

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.

My question is on the declare with your mouth portion. Do you have to literally say this out loud to be saved? Saving my thoughts until after I hear others'
No I do not believe you have to say it out loud with your mouth, but you must declare it in your mind not just think it. I believe the bible says declare it with your mouth, so people would not just think the thought and then think they are saved. Saying it out loud is a good indication to both you and others that it is actually your decision, not just a thought you had. Some people have conversations with themselves out loud, but all of us at times have conversations with ourselves and with God in our mind.

The reason I don't believe that the bible is stating that you have to say it out loud, is because it would exclude those who cannot speak from being saved.
 

Andy C

Well-Known Member
In the Gopsel of John, he wrote dozens of verses on salvation, below are just a few.

No, you dont need to confess out loud, just believe.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.


John 5:24"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."


John 6:28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”



John 6:35-40 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.



John 6:47-51 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”



John 7:37-38 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”




John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”



John 8:23-24 And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”



John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
 

Jeff K

Well-Known Member
I'm sure there are many who confess with their mouths - give lip service to the Lord - and yet their hearts are from Him and worship Him in vain. It is when one believes from the heart - total being - that their confession of the mouth will be in harmony with their heart.

I suppose that is one of the reasons I'm not a big talker - I always want to make sure my words line up with what I believe and it sometimes takes me awhile to process all that information. Just as a side note.

The day I got saved, I said to myself, "ok Lord, I'm ready to do it Your way", because in my heart, I came to understand and believe He is the only way.
 

Len

Well-Known Member
From Romans 10:9

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.

My question is on the declare with your mouth portion. Do you have to literally say this out loud to be saved? Saving my thoughts until after I hear others
Yes you do, that verse says "with your mouth" and then goes onto say "believe in your heart" here are two seperate actions ......

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10

..... go for it ....
 

mattfivefour

Well-Known Member
Len is in part correct in his statement that you need to do both. But he is, respectfully, incorrect in stating these are two separate actions. Believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth are actually two sides of the same coin. Confession is belief acted upon. James says that faith without works is dead. He was in no way suggesting that one had to perform some sort of work in addition to faith; he was merely stating that faith will produce a work, otherwise it has no life. Anybody can say they have faith and James challenges those who merely say they have faith in their hearts to prove it. In the case of salvation, that salvation hangs entirely upon faith in the fully finished, fully sufficient work of Christ. This is why the inward step of salvation MUST be believing in one's heart that Jesus Christ is Lord (implying deity, since His name is a transliteration of the Greek Iesous which is itself a transliteration of the Hebrew Yehoshua (or Yeshua), meaning Jehovah (Yahweh) saves. Integral to that is the belief that Jesus came in the flesh, died for our sins, and was bodily resurrected from the grave.

So first one must truly believe this in one's heart. But this kind of belief has to be more than a mere superficial agreement that these things are true. The faith that results in salvation means that the person consciously decides to totally risk their eternal soul on those things. Therefore such a transaction—if truly undertaken—cannot hide itself in silence. No, true faith in Christ must inevitably produce an outward confession of Christ as Lord. Remember, in the original text the word "confess" (homologeo) means literally "to agree with." So, for a Jew or Gentile of that day to publicly agree that Christ was the Lord God who had taken on flesh, died for our sins, and been raised from the dead, meant that they were so convinced in their heart that they were willing to risk not only their eternal soul on those truths but their earthly lives as well. THAT ... is true faith—faith that saves.

As the venerable Bible scholar and professor A.T. Robertson said in his Word Pictures In The New Testament, "No Jew would do this who had not really trusted in Christ, for Lord in Greek (Kyrios) was used of God in the Septuagint (the Jewish Greek translation of the Old Testament that existed in Jesus's day.) [And] no Gentile would do it who had not ceased worshiping the emperor as Kyrios." You see, for the Jew to openly state their faith in Christ was to assure themselves of expulsion from the community and put themselves in very real jeopardy of imprisonment or death. And imprisonment and execution were also the very likely fate of the Gentile who publicly refused to worship the emperor as lord any longer because they believed that Christ alone was Lord.

This is why Paul made it clear to the Church at Rome that salvation required an inward faith proven by the willingness to make an outward profession. And, quite frankly, while the earthly stakes are, in most cases today (certainly in the Western nations) no longer imprisonment and death for expressing faith in Christ, the same principle of confession proving faith remains true. If somebody in their heart thinks they believe that Christ is indeed Lord but decides not to tell anybody of their belief, they are, I suggest, just fooling themself. What possible reason could someone in our free, democratic societies have for not publicly confessing who Jesus is? Fear of rejection by employers, employees, friends, family, the community? Fear of losing prestige or employment? Those fears may be real, but if Christ is real in your life, then you will gladly announce that fact and suffer the consequences. And in no way are those my words. Christ Himself said, "Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. " (Matthew 10:32-33)

So confessing with the mouth does not save, but it is the proof that the heart truly believes. Therefore, the believing in the heart and the confessing with the mouth are two sides of the same coin: the former is the one thing required, the latter the one thing that demonstrates the former thing is actually there.

I pray this helps.
 

Jeff K

Well-Known Member
So confessing with the mouth does not save, but it is the proof that the heart truly believes. Therefore, the believing in the heart and the confessing with the mouth are two sides of the same coin: the former is the one thing required, the latter the one thing that demonstrates the former thing is actually there.

I had a similar conversation with a man when he tried to convince me that according to Mark 16:16, you had to be baptized to be saved. Confessing Christ through baptism (proof that the heart truly believes) at that time would truly cost you something. Many places are still like that today.

"Two sides of the same coin", as Adrian stated above - I'll have to use that phrase.
 

antitox

Well-Known Member
I had a similar conversation with a man when he tried to convince me that according to Mark 16:16, you had to be baptized to be saved. Confessing Christ through baptism (proof that the heart truly believes) at that time would truly cost you something. Many places are still like that today.

"Two sides of the same coin", as Adrian stated above - I'll have to use that phrase.

Glad you brought this up. I'm sure you know this but it's an opportunity to draw some contrasts. First of all, if one has given his life to the Lord, he will be willing to confess Him because it's in his heart. Jesus said that if we confess Him before men, He will confess us before the Father. Secondly, It doesn't mean that the act of confessing is the hinging element itself, but if we are confronted or asked by someone we should be willing to confess Him. Thirdly, baptism is a way of confessing before men which is why the bible says that if we born again and baptized we would be saved.(Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.") I point that scripture out because you can see that it only says that whoever does not believe will be condemned. So scripture is not trying to make it impersonal as just an act only, but a real personal experience. Salvation is not dependent upon baptism per se, it's just an established thing by God to make a public showing of a new life before men. So whether you confess or are baptized or both, it's just an outward expression of the inward change.
 

Salluz

Aspiring Man of God
I have to admit either I was just reading it wrong--or I had it explained to me wrong originally--but I always thought that portion had to do with a prayer for salvation, that confessing with your mouth was a form of asking Jesus to save you. I never put it together with confessing Jesus before other people before now.

I have been feeling recently that I'm finally understanding in a more concrete way the relationship between faith and works in a believer's life, but I've been wanting to reassess how I share the gospel with others.. what information is most necessary, what verses do I share if I have the time, what approach do I take? I also have to admit that the concept of presenting it to people based on their background is so hard for me, but I know Paul became all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some, but I feel like I've been trying to use a one size fits all approach, and I'm just hoping I haven't done damage by it. But that's another issue.

I think I might try to dump too much information on people, but at the same time I don't want there to be any misconceptions, so I try to give them all of my understanding. If this verse was brought up with someone considering Christ do I go into a conversation of the relationship between works and faith being two sides of the same coin, or so I focus on the faith and save the work portions for later? I might be questioning everything too much, but I'm torn up about it right now. Hopefully something made sense in me trying to work my thoughts out through writing, although maybe it would have been better in another thread, it might be relevant enough to the topic at hand
 

Jeff K

Well-Known Member
I have to admit either I was just reading it wrong--or I had it explained to me wrong originally--but I always thought that portion had to do with a prayer for salvation, that confessing with your mouth was a form of asking Jesus to save you. I never put it together with confessing Jesus before other people before now.

I have been feeling recently that I'm finally understanding in a more concrete way the relationship between faith and works in a believer's life, but I've been wanting to reassess how I share the gospel with others.. what information is most necessary, what verses do I share if I have the time, what approach do I take? I also have to admit that the concept of presenting it to people based on their background is so hard for me, but I know Paul became all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some, but I feel like I've been trying to use a one size fits all approach, and I'm just hoping I haven't done damage by it. But that's another issue.

I think I might try to dump too much information on people, but at the same time I don't want there to be any misconceptions, so I try to give them all of my understanding. If this verse was brought up with someone considering Christ do I go into a conversation of the relationship between works and faith being two sides of the same coin, or so I focus on the faith and save the work portions for later? I might be questioning everything too much, but I'm torn up about it right now. Hopefully something made sense in me trying to work my thoughts out through writing, although maybe it would have been better in another thread, it might be relevant enough to the topic at hand

I would say focus on the gospel of Christ and let the Holy Spirit work.

I made a tract for myself to use when sharing Christ with others. It's just 10 verses that I like to use. The tract keeps me on track and also gives the person something to take with them to review the verses. So far, I have not come across a background of a person that the gospel did not relate to.

Your heart to understand and share Christ with others is encouraging!
 

Wings

Member
I have to admit either I was just reading it wrong--or I had it explained to me wrong originally--but I always thought that portion had to do with a prayer for salvation, that confessing with your mouth was a form of asking Jesus to save you. I never put it together with confessing Jesus before other people before now.

I have been feeling recently that I'm finally understanding in a more concrete way the relationship between faith and works in a believer's life, but I've been wanting to reassess how I share the gospel with others.. what information is most necessary, what verses do I share if I have the time, what approach do I take? I also have to admit that the concept of presenting it to people based on their background is so hard for me, but I know Paul became all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some, but I feel like I've been trying to use a one size fits all approach, and I'm just hoping I haven't done damage by it. But that's another issue.

I think I might try to dump too much information on people, but at the same time I don't want there to be any misconceptions, so I try to give them all of my understanding. If this verse was brought up with someone considering Christ do I go into a conversation of the relationship between works and faith being two sides of the same coin, or so I focus on the faith and save the work portions for later? I might be questioning everything too much, but I'm torn up about it right now. Hopefully something made sense in me trying to work my thoughts out through writing, although maybe it would have been better in another thread, it might be relevant enough to the topic at hand

Hello @Salluz,

I can understand how you feel about this. I love John's gospel, for it is packed full of witness testimonies, and the reason John gives for it's content is just wonderfully straightforward I feel:-

'And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples,
which are not written in this book:
But these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye might have life through His Name.'

(John 20:30-31)

Praise God!

In Christ Jesus
our risen and glorified
Saviour, Lord and Head.
Chris
 
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PhilR

Active Member
From Romans 10:9

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.

My question is on the declare with your mouth portion. Do you have to literally say this out loud to be saved? Saving my thoughts until after I hear others'
This is one of those verses that can be worrisome and need not be. You have to consider who Paul is addressing. Romans 9 thru 11 is a side bar to the nation of Israel and not to the church. The Church, the body of Christ is only directed to believe the gospel of their salvation, Christ's death, burial and resurrection to be saved. (1 Cor 15:1-4). Just as the Jews as a people (Israel) verbally declared or confessed with their mouths in Ex. 19:8, "All the Lord hath spoken we will do" they were committing and promising to keep the Law. Paul was now saying to them to commit their faith (confess with their mouths) to their risen King and Savior. Paul was relating to the Jews in terms they could relate to. The problem was they believed he died alright, but they did not believe he was raised from the dead or they would have known he was their Messiah, King, and Savior. In any event, salvation comes from trusting in Christ as ones Savior, not verbally confessing. If you have believed Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead to save you then you are saved; you don't need to verbally confess with your mouth. 1 Cor 15;1-4 and Eph 1: 13,14 tells all you need to believe to be saved and have eternal life.
 
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Cindy S.

When he comes, will he find faith? Luke 18:8
In the Gopsel of John, he wrote dozens of verses on salvation, below are just a few.

No, you dont need to confess out loud, just believe.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.


John 5:24"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."


John 6:28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”



John 6:35-40 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.



John 6:47-51 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”



John 7:37-38 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”




John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”



John 8:23-24 And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”



John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
You have to "believe" before you can confess with your mouth. I confessed with my mouth at my baptism, but I was saved when I believed.
 

Graceismine

Member
There is the Scripture that says, (1Cor 12:3) " Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed: and no one can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost".
What comes out of our mouth is what is in our heart. I believe also that our faith is built as we hear ourselves speak these things. I doubt that a Muslim could be forced to say Jesus is Lord because the Holy Spirit is not in him. So as we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, I agree with Matt there is another step, we must declare it as an affirmation of who we belong to. I am not saying that a person is not saved because he does not speak it because only God knows the heart. If we dont want our spirit to shrivel up let's start proclaiming loud and clear that JESUS IS LORD, Hallelujah!
 
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