Photo by Ben White
By Mike Chaffin
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. Romans 10:9
Out of 31,102 verses in the Bible, we have made it to the top ten! We will find the top ten to be not only popular, but doctrinal as well. I like Encyclopedia Brittanica’s definition of doctrine I refer to here,
“The basic meaning of the term doctrine is “teaching.” Christian doctrine, accordingly, is the attempt to state in intellectually responsible terms the message of the gospel and the content of the faith it elicits.”
Our verse is at the very core of the gospel message.
To begin with a sinner must recognize the truth of Romans 3:23
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
As we learned in the 11th Most Referenced Verse, sinning has a payday.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Romans 5:8 clears up why and how the gift is possible.
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8
However, to enjoy the free gift of eternal life over the payment for sin our verse tells us how to be redeemed.
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. Romans 10:9
Why does this work? Romans 10:10 holds the key.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10
Salvation is the greatest gift we can ever receive. It comes with so many perks. The Holy Spirit lives in us. We get peace, joy, love and so much more. But Romans 8:1 succinctly sums up the promise.
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
This is the doctrine of the gospel message. Believe and receive.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I know I am a sinner and I need a savior. I need you. I believe you died for my sins. Take them from me and cleanse me. I want you to be Lord of my life. Live in me and lead and guide me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
