What Do You Trust? Romans 10:8-13

A text – Romans 10:8-13

⁸ 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 proclaim), ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation. ¹¹ The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

A reflection:

In this passage of Romans, Paul is making two main points: a person who believes that God raised Jesus from the dead will be saved from eternal death (will himself/herself be raised from the dead); and ANYONE (Jew, Greek, male, female, slave, free – ANYONE) who believes this shall be saved.

It was pretty hard for the Jews of Paul’s day to believe their God and their God’s son would be interested in saving non-Jews. The Jews had been God’s chosen people with seemingly special status for thousands of years. Why let outsiders in? This very preaching – that anyone was eligible to be saved by belief in the son of God – turned off many Jews and became a problem for the apostles. We might see that as petty of the Jews, but we, of course, come from the outsiders group.

On a different but related note, I want to try something with this passage. The word translated from the Greek as believe – let’s try using the word trust there. Confessing with your mouth that you believe something is one thing. But trusting with your whole heart is another. Can we put our money where our mouth is? Can we rely on God’s promises so much that we would trust that God will save us? And maybe more intense: can we trust not only ourselves to be saved but also our children and grandchildren? Do we trust that God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit has broken death for ANYONE who trusts?

It’s a central question of faith, isn’t it. What do we trust really, at the end? Whose promises do we believe? And how likely are we, when push really comes to shove, to place our lives, our spirits, into God’s hands and say, “Lord, I am yours. Save me”?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for your generous love and your gift of salvation to all people. Help us to remember in our own lives and in times of trouble that you are our savior and all we need to do is trust you. Amen.