Does Romans 10:9-10 Teach Confession For Salvation?

Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  

I have heard countless preachers errantly interpret this passage to mean you must confess Christ publicly to be saved. That is NOT what this Scripture passage means at all! A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one. This is an obscure passage in Romans 10:9-10, because taken by itself, this passage raises the question of whether confessing Christ publicly is necessary to be saved.

From considering other Bible passages, WE KNOW that confession is NOT required for salvation. Confession is made from a heart that already believes! The Pharisees had threatened the Jews, forbidding them to confess Jesus as the Christ, or else they would be excommunicated from the synagogue. John 12:42, “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Therefore, the apostle Paul is simply teaching in Romans 10:9-10 that we are saved by having a BELIEVING heart in 'The Gospel', and that faith compels us to confess Christ with our mouth. The mouth cannot speak except from experience. Acts 4:20, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Therefore, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can only conclude that Romans 10:9-10 is teaching that a saved person confesses because WE ARE saved, not TO BE saved. We know that confession is NOT mandatory for regeneration, otherwise the chief rulers in John 12:42-43 could not have been saved, who refused to confess the name of Jesus. We are instructed 85 times in the Gospel of John to simply “BELIEVE” to be saved, without any mention of someone being required to audibly confess to be saved. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”

We are made a child of God by yielding to the truth of the Gospel. Salvation is of the LORD! Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” God alone can SAVE you in response to your yielding, and God alone can SANCTIFY you in response to your yielding. We live the Christian life the SAME way we get saved—BY YIELDING TO GOD, WHICH IS FAITH! 

“There is nothing in this world that is eternal except this Book that I hold in my hand.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Forever Settled In Heaven”