Romans 10:5-13

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: “The one who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 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 thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

— ‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭5‬-‭13‬‬ 

Lots of OT references here: Lev 18:5, Deut 30:12-14; 9:4; Joel 2. Lev 18 is about prolonging life in the Promised Land, so that’s a kind of salvation for the Jews. Paul is using that to make his point (how the NT authors use the OT is a whole nother kind of study). Digging into this “righteousness” is book worthy and very debatable. This is a classic NPP text, especially since it’s in the middle of Rom 9-11, where Paul is discussing his fellow Jews. Some would say the whole book of Romans is ethnic and not individual (New Perspective on Paul). Don’t think it’s an either/or. Could be both/and, since nations are composed of individuals. Paul’s point throughout these chapters 9-11 is something about God’s justice/redemption plan and the nation of Israel. 

I know we love these verses for their evangelistic flavor, and perhaps rightly so. I’m not going to diss on that, but there’s clear indications that Paul is focusing on the Jew/Gentile relationship. “There is no distinction.” “He is the same Lord of all” That’s the message of everyone who calls on Jesus will be saved, not necessarily an individual approach.

Paul contrasts salvation by law—whether strictly works salvation or more likely (again NPP) salvation by following Jewish boundary markers, “works of law.”—with salvation by believing. Word is near you, it’s in your heart, you’ve heard it. And with the heart, just believe. No national distinction. All who believe are saved.

Paul does have a confusing view of the law, and putting it together through Romans can break your mind. But it does appear that in 2:13; 7:10 that he really thought that perfect obedience would confer eternal life. But in the next breath he would clearly state that no one could obey perfectly. 

Paul uses the Deut 30 reference to talk about God’s grace. He comes near to His people in relationship, but not only through the law, but in a much more tangible way: Jesus. And we (or more contextually) the Jews) don’t need to ascend the heaven (code for the impossible) or raise Jesus from the dead (he already did that) to find Him. The message has reached them. They just need to believe it.

Lord Jesus: There is no verb written, so it’s best to assume Jesus is the object of what they are believing, and “Lord” is the complement. So it would be “believe Jesus [to be] Lord”. And in this sense, Lord is very likely a reference to YHWH. Quoting from Joel 3:5 in v. 13 confirms that Paul is equating Jesus with YHWH.

I don’t see a major distinction between the mouth confessing and the heart believing. It almost reads like a proverb with parallel structure. This isn’t two necessary steps/conditions to me. Maybe Paul is building off the OT texts. Since they mention both heart and mouth, so does he. We have multiple expressions for how an individual begins their faith journey. I’m not going to limit it to one or two.