But what says it? The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that is, the word of faith, which we preach
The words Paul quotes here are not his own. He takes a line Moses spoke to a ruined Israel and uses it for the gospel: God's word comes so near that a heart can believe it and a mouth can speak it.
Paul takes the verse from the last chapters of Deuteronomy. There Moses looks past Israel's failure to what grace would do for a scattered people.
In Deuteronomy the lawgiver finishes all the rules and rites of the law. He has shown Israel rebellious and ruined under that order of things. Even so, he still hints at the resources of grace. He pictures the Jew driven out of the land for being unfaithful to the legal covenant, and of course to God Himself. Yet though he could not draw near in that way, the word was near him, in his mouth and in his heart. This is the word, says the apostle, which we preach.
A word out of reach would leave a person with an excuse. This one leaves none.
According to the truth opened up here, it makes no difference at all where a soul is — here, there, or anywhere. "The word is near you." It could not be nearer. What could be nearer than "in your mouth and in your heart"? We need not, as we say, move a muscle to get it. If it were above us or beyond us, it would make sense for us to complain that we cannot reach it. But no; there is no need of either hands or feet in this most blessed and all-important matter. The heart and the mouth are here called into exercise.
The phrase "the word of faith" is Paul's own explanation of the quotation. It marks the difference between something asked of you and something announced to you.
So verse 8, in quoting from Deuteronomy — "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — explains it as "the word of faith that we proclaim." Nor is it credulity, or blind faith as people speak of it, but faith founded on clearly established facts. It is therefore not a matter of a work to be done, but a word to believe concerning a completed work.
Two things follow from the phrase "that we proclaim." The word travels one way only, from God outward. And since it is faith's word, not law's, it has no borders.
So then, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — not the word that man prepares for God, but the word God sends out to be preached.
Since it is the word of faith, not law, it is for Gentiles as much as Jews, and it calls for preachers.
The gospel is God's word before it is ever yours. Faith is the point where it changes hands.
God sends the word of the gospel to us. When we receive it in faith, it becomes the word of faith to us, entering our hearts and coming out of our mouths.
The nearness Israel knew was not the end of the story.
Long ago God brought His commandment very near to Israel so that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ.
The word asks little of us, and what it asks reaches both heart and mouth.
On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth go together like this there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries salvation with it.
Not every belief is the faith this word calls for.
There is no true saving faith without repentance. So-called faith without self-judgment is nothing more than the agreement of the natural mind. It is not a faith formed in the heart by the Spirit. When the heat of trouble rises like a burning sun, this kind of human belief withers away.
- Ruin — Moses spoke these words to an Israel already failed and scattered. The verse begins where human performance ends.
- Nearness — nothing here is above us or beyond us. The word could not be nearer than your mouth and your heart, so no muscle needs moving.
- Word — "the word of faith" is a word to believe about a finished work, not a work to do. God sends it; man does not prepare it.
- Faith — take God's gospel into your heart and it becomes your word of faith. But faith without self-judgment is only the mind's assent, and it withers under trial.
- Confession — heart and mouth agreeing is the mark of something real. And since this is faith's word, not law's, preachers carry it to Gentile and Jew alike.
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among [the] dead, thou shalt be saved.
Paul has just said that the message of faith is not far away. It is near — in the mouth and in the heart. Verse 9 says what that nearness asks of a person. It asks for a confession with the mouth and faith in the heart, and it promises salvation to both.
God gave Israel commands to carry out. What He asks here is different.
Long ago God brought His commandment very near to Israel so that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is no longer a word about what we ought to do. It is a word about what Christ has done, and what God Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part it asks only two things. We must believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. We must confess Him as Lord with our mouths.
The title is not a polite one. It settles the question of who owns you.
It means His authority, His absolute rights over us; He is sovereign Lord... "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." To confess Him is to put yourself openly under His will, and to take your stand with Him. Saul of Tarsus did this when he cried, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" And who would refuse to obey Him? His love for us is greater than we can know, and His will for us is our greatest blessing.
The verse asks for faith in a raised Christ. Kelly points out what the verse leaves out, and what the resurrection proves about God.
Notice that there is no mention here of death, but of resurrection. Death by itself does not imply resurrection, but resurrection always involves death. So you confess Jesus as Lord. Why fear, why be anxious, if the One who has undertaken to save you is above all?... Love came down to meet you and suffer for you. But power has also entered the place where Jesus died in weakness. God entered the grave of Jesus in power and woke Him... He is for you. He has proved it in raising up Jesus from among the dead. "You will be saved" — not forgiven only, but saved.
The two things named are settled events, not hopes or efforts.
So the soul's salvation does not rest on what a person does, such as keeping the law. It does not even rest on a promise God gave without conditions, as He gave one to Abraham. It rests on settled facts: the Son of God has come; He has died and risen again. Honest faith takes hold of this sound, settled truth and understands it.
Verse 9 puts the mouth before the heart, though in real life the heart comes first. One writer sees a safeguard in that order.
The verse names confession first. That is what marks the clear difference between the living Christian and the dead world... Confession seems to be placed first for a reason. Satan's lie deceives the whole world. He would use a verse like this to persuade people that simply believing the resurrection as a fact, or as proof of divine power, is enough to save the soul.
Neither half stands alone. What the mouth says must come from what the heart believes.
It is the mouth and the heart that have the important place here — not the hands and the feet. The mouth shows what is in the heart. No one will confess Jesus as Lord for himself unless he believes in his heart. Something may look like that confession. But without faith there is no plain, honest confession of Him as your own Lord. But the two go together. If I believe, I therefore speak.
Hole warns the quiet believer what that silence costs.
Once you stand on the Word of God and are sure, confess Christ at once. Let nothing make you delay... You will never be happy without it, for you will be a hypocrite. Inside you are a Christian. Outside you are still a man or woman of the world, drifting with the stream and doing as others do. You smile when worldly people joke about sacred things, because you are afraid of standing out. And all the while you hate yourself for it.
The promise at the end is as firm as the two conditions before it.
This gospel verse has three "shalls" that belong together. If you shall confess with your mouth, and shall believe in your heart, you shall be saved. An old lady in England, who had been saved for fifty years and more, said to me the other night, "Thank God for those three shalls."... God has linked them together — a threefold cord which cannot easily be broken.
(This writer quotes an older translation. The ESV reads, "you will be saved.")
- Near — The word is not something to fetch or achieve. It is news of what Christ has done, and what God has done in raising Him.
- Believed — The heart rests on settled facts, not on what we do, and not even on a promise: the Son came, died, and rose.
- Confessed — The mouth shows what is in the heart. Where faith is real, confession follows; delaying it turns a person into a hypocrite.
- Lord — To confess that title is to put yourself openly under His authority. Saul of Tarsus did this when he asked what his Lord wanted him to do.
- Saved — Not forgiven only, but saved. The resurrection is God's proof that He is for you, and the verse's three promises hold together like a cord.