The Sound of Salvation Text: Romans 10:5-17
Introduction: An Invasion of Grace
We live in an age that prizes authenticity, which usually means looking deep within yourself to find your truth. Our culture treats faith as something you generate from the inside out. It is a feeling, a personal journey, a private spiritual quest. It is a quiet, internal hum. But the Christian faith is nothing of the sort. The Christian faith is not a hum; it is a thunderclap. It is not something that bubbles up from within; it is something that invades from without. It does not originate in the quiet recesses of the human heart. It is a response to a public proclamation, a historical announcement about something that happened outside of you, for you.
The modern man wants a salvation he can achieve, or at least discover on his own terms. He wants to be the hero of his own story. Paul, in this dense and glorious passage, demolishes that entire project. He shows us that salvation is not a quest but a gift. It is not something to be heroically achieved in the heavens or the abyss, but something to be humbly received right where you are. And it is received in a particular way, through a particular means. God has an appointed method for saving sinners, and it is not quiet, it is not private, and it is not internal. It is loud, it is public, and it is objective. It is the preached Word.
Here Paul lays out the fundamental difference between the religion of human achievement and the gospel of divine accomplishment. He contrasts the righteousness that comes from law-keeping with the righteousness that comes by faith, and in doing so, he gives us the divine logic of evangelism, the golden chain that links the throne of God to the heart of a sinner.
The Text
For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of law: “THE MAN WHO DOES THESE THINGS SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL GO UP INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL GO DOWN 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 which we are preaching, 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, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES UPON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
(Romans 10:5-17 LSB)
Two Kinds of Righteousness (vv. 5-8)
Paul begins by setting up a stark contrast between two ways of seeking to be right with God. First, the way of law.
"For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of law: 'THE MAN WHO DOES THESE THINGS SHALL LIVE BY THEM.'" (Romans 10:5)
This is the covenant of works. The principle is simple: perform perfectly, and you will live. The standard is absolute obedience to the whole law, all the time, without failure. If you want to build a ladder to God, this is the blueprint. The problem is that no one, apart from Christ, has ever been able to climb it. Our shins are all scraped and bloody from the first rung. This way is not wrong; it is simply impossible for fallen creatures. It is a righteousness of doing.
But then Paul introduces another way, the righteousness of faith. And he does a remarkable thing. He quotes from Deuteronomy 30, a passage where Moses is speaking about the accessibility of the law, and Paul reapplies it Christologically. He shows that what was true of the law in a typological sense is now ultimately true of the gospel in Christ.
"But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way: 'DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL GO UP INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL GO DOWN INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).'" (Romans 10:6-7)
The righteousness of faith tells you to stop trying to perform impossible, heroic feats. You do not have to ascend to heaven to get Christ. He already descended in the incarnation. You do not have to descend into the abyss, the place of the dead, to rescue Him. He has already conquered death in the resurrection. The great work of salvation has been accomplished entirely by Christ. He did the climbing. He did the descending. The work is finished. Therefore, you are not required to do the impossible. You are required to believe the accomplished.
And because the work is finished, the message of that work is not far away. It is not an elusive secret.
"But what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART', that is, the word of faith which we are preaching." (Romans 10:8)
Salvation is not at the top of a mountain you must climb. It is as near as the preacher's voice in your ear. The gospel is accessible. It is right here. It is the word of faith that we preach. This is a crucial point. The gospel is a message, a word, a proclamation. It is objective content that must be declared.
The Heart and Mouth of Salvation (vv. 9-13)
So what is this "word of faith" that is so near? Paul spells out the content with beautiful simplicity.
"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;" (Romans 10:9)
Here we have the two inseparable components of saving faith. First, belief in the heart. This is not a vague feeling. It is assent to a historical fact: God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is the lynchpin of our faith. It is God the Father's public vindication of the Son's finished work. To believe this is to trust that Christ's payment for sin was accepted in full.
Second, confession with the mouth. "Jesus is Lord." In the first century, this was the ultimate political statement. The required imperial confession was "Caesar is Lord." To say "Jesus is Lord" was to declare your ultimate allegiance. It was to say that Jesus, not Caesar, is the true king of the world. This is not an optional extra for bold Christians. True, heart-felt belief will always make its way to the mouth. As Paul says in the next verse:
"for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation." (Romans 10:10)
Belief is the root, which secures our righteous standing before God. Confession is the fruit, which is the outward evidence and instrument of our final salvation. The two are as connected as lightning and thunder. You cannot have one without the other. A faith that will not confess is a faith that does not exist.
And this offer is gloriously universal. It is for anyone and everyone who will believe.
"For the Scripture says, 'WHOEVER BELIEVES UPON HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek...for 'WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'" (Romans 10:11-13)
The ground is level at the foot of the cross. The same Lord is Lord over all, and He is not stingy. He is "abounding in riches" for all who call on Him. And notice the climax. Paul quotes Joel 2:32, "Whoever calls on the name of the LORD (Yahweh) will be saved." By applying this directly to Jesus, Paul makes the staggering claim that Jesus is Yahweh. To call on the name of the Lord is to confess Jesus as Lord.
The Divine Logistics (vv. 14-17)
This reality, that salvation comes through calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, leads Paul to a series of cascading, logical questions. This is the machinery of the Great Commission.
"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:14-15)
This is the unbreakable chain of God's ordinary means of grace. Calling depends on believing. Believing depends on hearing. Hearing depends on a preacher. And a preacher depends on being sent.
This demolishes any notion of evangelism that does not involve the proclamation of the gospel. People are not saved by osmosis. They are not saved by us just being nice neighbors. They are saved when they hear the Word of faith and believe it. And for them to hear, someone must be sent to open his mouth and preach. This is why the feet of the evangelist, the missionary, the pastor, are beautiful. They are not beautiful in themselves, but because of the glorious news they carry.
Of course, not everyone who hears believes. The gospel is a savor of life to life for some, and death to death for others.
"However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, 'LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?'" (Romans 10:16)
Unbelief is not a surprise. It does not indicate a failure in the gospel's power. It is a fulfillment of prophecy. The hardness of the human heart is a real and tragic thing. But the responsibility of the church remains the same: to proclaim the report.
Paul then concludes with the central axiom of the entire passage, the principle that governs everything he has just said.
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17)
This is it. Faith is not self-generated. It is not a leap in the dark. Faith is created in the human heart by the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the preached Word. The "word of Christ" means the message about Christ, the gospel. Someone must speak the propositional truths about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When that Word is proclaimed, the Spirit attends it, and faith is the result. This is why preaching is central to the life of the church. It is not just one activity among many. It is the very power of God for salvation.
Conclusion: Speak the Word
The salvation accomplished by Christ is not a distant, unattainable reality. It is near. It is as near as the sound of the gospel. God has not asked us to do the impossible. He has done the impossible for us in His Son. Our task is to believe in our hearts what He has done, and confess with our mouths who He is.
This means that our faith must be a vocal faith. A public faith. A confessing faith. And it means that the central task of the church is to keep that word of faith sounding forth. We are a people constituted by a message. We are a people with beautiful feet, sent to carry that message to our neighbors and to the nations.
Faith comes by hearing. Therefore, we must speak. We must preach. We must declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead. We must tell the world that the Word is near them, in our mouths, ready to be proclaimed, and ready to be received. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.