tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8357993002975833949.post1605435039481779339..comments2023-06-22T04:39:18.584-04:00Comments on the tenth letter...: Imperatives, Indicatives, Assurance, and BaptismJay Miklovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15414242753908645401noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8357993002975833949.post-40878573511477800732015-03-04T16:44:00.528-05:002015-03-04T16:44:00.528-05:00I agree that assurance of salvation is far too oft...I agree that assurance of salvation is far too often neglected. <br /><br />Indeed, assurance is too often assumed. And far too often the Gospel verses you quoted are used by both camps to bring authenticity, and even assurance, into question, causing people to question their salvation.<br /><br />You start out claiming Romans as the evangelical go-to book of the bible for instruction regarding ‘how to be saved’. While that is fairly true, the Greek word for “saved” (sozo) in Romans can be used for different aspects of salvation. Sometimes saved can refer to justification, although “justified” is used more specifically by Paul. Saved (sozo) can also refer to sanctification, and also to glorification. So it's important to understand if Paul means "saved" from the penalty of sin, or "saved" from the power/influence of sin, when he uses "saved" in Romans 10.<br />You asked the question if it is fair to take Romans 10:9-10, which teaches that “if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we will be saved”, as teaching how we are to go about being saved? My answer is…absolutely.<br /><br />In the context of Romans 10, Paul is sharing about the gospel he preaches in his missionary activity (to unbelievers) and he is arguing for the need for his message to be taken to those who have not heard, and are thus unbelievers. He drives this home in verse 14: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14 ESV). Obviously, he is teaching about an unbeliever hearing the preaching of the word of God, believing it, and then calling on the name of the Lord.<br /><br />Using your argument that this text is only given to those that are ‘already believers’ does not negate it’s description of how an unbeliever is saved. Indeed, it is a positive assurance to the Roman church that their current confessing and believing evidences their salvation in Christ. But elsewhere in Romans it is discussed heavily how we are justified, that is saved, from the penalty of sin. Why spend so much time discussing justification to one who is already justified, unless you are giving them assurance of their justification, and reminding them how they got to that state (which would then be a good motivation for evangelizing unbelievers to also be justified).<br /><br />Taking Romans as a ‘how to’ book for salvation does not negate its usefulness for instruction AND assurance. Paul may indicate that justification is a once in a lifetime event, but sanctification is a lifelong event. As the NASB words it in Romans 10:10: “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness (being justified, and right before God by believing inwardly), and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (being sanctified, set apart, growing more like Christ by believing/acting outwardly).<br />This all points back to what Christ HAS DONE for us (and imputed to us) in order to be justified, and IS doing for us through the Holy Spirit (and imparting to us) to be sanctified. It is not, as you put it, taking “our assurance from something WE have done as opposed to finding our assurance in what Christ has already done for us.”<br /><br />Rather, Romans 10:9-10 is instructional AND assuring about what Christ has done for us, and is doing for us.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com