The Word — Confess and believe in God

Published 9:00 am Sunday, August 21, 2022

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Have you ever been confused or felt like something was overly complicated? Absolutely in life we have those types of things that come up. The one thing for certain that is not complicated is to become a Christ Follower.

As we look at the Word today, we see our choice: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 8: 9-10) The steps are laid out well. 1. Tell God you believe Jesus is Lord. 2. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. The result is you will be saved. Two things and BOOM!

Over time man has meddled with this process. They have created so many checklists. Is it a serious decision, yes! 1. Because the price that was paid was the life of the son of God. Take another look at the scripture “you will be saved.” From what are you being saved? When a person dies, they go to Heaven, or they go to Hell. 2. Where you spend eternity matters.

Heaven is where God is, and Hell is where God is not. Heaven is the place where God dwells and where God’s people will dwell for eternity with him. Paul referred to Heaven as the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Hell is described as outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a place of God’s punishment and wrath (John 3:36).

Look back, “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness” shows when a person really believes with their heart – Jesus’ sacrifice makes them righteous. There are no man-made checklists that makes the price Jesus paid greater. Gods’ gift and plan cannot be improved upon. To be clear, God did it all. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16,17)

As Christ Followers, I urge you not to complicate what God has done. This week share the gospel. When our heart believes, the results are “righteousness.” “But we all, … are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Yvette Perrin can be reached at theword2yvette@ gmail.com.