StudyGrowKnow

Confessing, Then Believing??

October 26, 2026 at 4:25 PM Leave a comment

Romans 10:9-11 presents an interesting order.

…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (NKJV)

Notice please, Paul states that a person should confess with their mouth and then says the person should believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, it will be at that point that a person is saved. Confession, then believing is the order. Seems kind of weird doesn’t it? You confess first, then believe? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? That doesn’t make sense to us because we do not understand what is behind Paul’s statement. We must start with context or we will never get it.

Before we get into the actual contextual meaning, let me quote from a few conservative scholars who offer their opinions on the meaning of these two verses.

Dr. Thomas Constable states, “The terms ‘mouth’ and ‘heart,’ which have been a source of confusion in the interpretation of this verse, come from Moses’ words that Paul quoted in the preceding verse. The statement quoted accounts for the unusual order of ‘confess’ and then ‘believe’ in this verse. The normal chronological order is that one believes and then acknowledges his or her belief (i.e., confesses; 2 Cor 4:13-14). ‘Confess’ means to say the same thing about something as someone else does…In this context it refers to saying the same thing about Jesus Christ as other believers in Him do.”

J Vernon McGee says, “There are many folk who maintain that a believer has to make a public confession of faith. That is not what Paul is saying here. It does not mean to go forward in a public meeting. In the church I served for twenty-one years I saw many people come forward, but they were not all saved. Paul is not saying that you have to make a public confession. Paul is saying that man needs to bring into agreement his confession and his life. The mouth and the heart should be in harmony, saying the same thing…”

Dr. Charles Ryrie notes, “These are simultaneous actions: one inward (heart) and the other outward (mouth).”

What I find interesting, as much as I respect the above conservative Bible scholars is that they seem to miss the point that Dr. Tom Eckman (The Grace Guy at YouTube), brought out recently in his presentation of this section of Scripture. It’s something I had not thought about and he actually explains why Paul used the word “confess” before the word “believe.”

Just like our previous article that dealt with aspects of 2 Timothy 2 and the actual context in that section of Scripture, so too do we need to dig a bit to understand the actual context of this section of Romans. First, it is of the utmost importance to comprehend that when we reach Romans 9, starting with that chapter and continuing on to the end of Romans 11, Paul is dealing with Israel. I’m well aware of the fact that in today’s modern evangelicalism, many to most churches have arrived to the point doctrinally that they believe and espouse the contrary to Scripture idea that the Church has taken the place of Israel, effectively replacing Israel. When they read Romans 9-11, they automatically see the Church whenever Israel is mentioned. In fact, when they read the section of the valley of dry, dead bones in Ezekiel 37:1–14, even though God Himself says that the bones represent the whole house of Israel (v11), people read into that the subject of the Church. This, in my opinion, changes the very intended meaning of Scripture and ultimately, makes God a liar. Those folks get around this by stating that God is fulfilling His covenants and promises with Israel, but He is now simply doing that through the Church, since the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, rejected Him out of hand to the death. They say this is part of Israel’s judgment. Yet, this isn’t really the case if we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.

So when these same people read/study Romans 9-11, the Church automatically replaces Israel in their minds. However, as we look at the passages in Romans noted above, it should be clear that Paul is specifically dealing with Israel and what will be the final remnant in history (future). That remnant will then go into the Millennial Kingdom after surviving with their lives, the coming Tribulation period. This belief that the Church has replaced Israel goes all the way back to Augustine, who saw things allegorically instead of literally, and has really infected too many churches today.

This view is what became foundational for the then upcoming Roman Catholic Church and they still maintain this allegorical view of Israel-to-the-Church transition. Interestingly enough, many within the Reformed camp (of which Lordship Salvation makes up the bulk), also follow the Roman Catholic view of the Church replacing Israel, and in general when it comes to interpreting prophetic discourse in Scripture. Those folks would deny that they are changing the meaning of God’s intended meaning regarding the future of Israel and they would also argue that those of us who take things in a more literal way (in its most plain and ordinary sense), are the ones who are guilty of changing God’s intended meaning regarding Israel.

But I contend that Romans 9-11 is mainly dealing with the nation of Israel, not about the allegorical interpretation of Israel morphing into the Church. When we begin to see it like this, Paul’s use of “confess” prior to “believe” makes a great deal more sense. But let me break it down further.

When young Jewish men entered into school under the tutelage of a seasoned rabbi, they of course studied the Hebrew Scriptures. How was that done? Immediately, we might think of how we learned things in school. We brought paper and pencil to school, copied passages out of books or what the teacher may have written on the board and went from there at our desks. This is not the way young Jewish men learned Scripture. Everything was done audibly. The rabbi would state out loud certain passages to students. The students, in turn, would then recite those passages back to the rabbi, also audibly. There were no pens/pencils and pieces of paper. Scribes of course had those, but that was part of their job. Everything a young Jewish boy learned in rabbinic school he learned by recitation (or confession).

Let’s consider John 1, where we learn about Nathanael, starting in verse 41.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:45-46)

This is the “setup” for the reveal. Philip finds Nathanael and essentially “witnesses” to him. I love how Philip responds to Nathanael after he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” to which Philip simply responds, “Come and see.” He’s not going to argue with him. He invites him to see for himself and Nathanael does.

The next part of the text is interesting to me because of what it reveals.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49)

Something appears to be missing, doesn’t it? Just because Jesus said he “saw” Nathanael under the tree, Nathanael cries out “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” I’ve never gotten this until I sat at a table on a Wednesday evening recently and heard Tom Eckman explain it. It wasn’t simply that Nathanael was sitting under a tree, though that is miraculous enough. What was he doing under that tree? That is what Jesus saw/heard and that is what caused Nathanael to realize something as his spirit quickened to what Jesus said.

In essence, it is very likely that Nathanael was doing what many other young Jewish men were doing at the time. He was learning Scripture while sitting under the tree. He was repeating verses out loud in order to commit them to memory. I do this same thing when I memorize a new portion of Scripture. I speak it aloud to myself so that I get at least two senses working for me; sound and hearing.

I can imagine as Nathanael tried to learn the verses, he was speaking them aloud in an effort to remember them. This is the “confession” part of what Paul is talking about. Nathanael “confessed” the Scriptures to himself in an effort to remember and recall them. But notice when Nathanael actually meets Jesus and Jesus says He saw him under that tree and described the chain of events leading up to that, including Philip when he had originally called out to Nathanael. Hearing this, Nathanael’s eyes were immediately opened by the Holy Spirit and he saw the truth about Jesus. He had been “confessing” Scripture aloud and now, as he stood before Jesus, that Scripture had become real to him. That caused him to call out what the Holy Spirit had made clear to Nathanael. He could not help but announce that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but was also the true King of Israel!

So, there was confession and then there was realization or belief. Every young Jewish male would have understood this process of confessing (reciting aloud) Scripture first and then as revelation came, they would then believe.

In our western world, it is often reversed. We come to realize the truth about Jesus and then we confess or talk about that truth. Paul is literally speaking about Jewish people and the nation of Israel in Romans 9-11 and he has quite a bit to say to Gentile Christians (as well as to Jews who might have read his letter to the Romans. Paul was pointing out truth after truth and without the proper backdrop, we westerners don’t have much of a clue because when we went to school, we did not stand up and recite or confess back to the teacher what the teacher was teaching the classroom of students. Normally, we wrote things down and could refer to it whenever we wanted to refer to it.

Nathanael and other Jewish men did not have that luxury. They had to use their minds to recite and recall because oral tradition was how important truth was passed down. This is why Paul talked about confessing first and believing second.

It would be interesting to know what Nathanael was “confessing” or reciting to himself as he attempted to learn more Scripture. What part of the Hebrew Scriptures was Nathanael trying to memorize? We can guess but we won’t know on this side of eternity. The fact though that Jesus knew and heard Nathanael is really all we need to know to more fully comprehend why Paul used the order of words he used.

I’ll be back with other passages in upcoming articles.

 

Entry filed under: christianity, israel, Judaism, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, sanctification.