Romans 10
Close Enough to Say
"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart." (Romans 10:8)
Paul quotes Deuteronomy and applies it to the gospel. The word isn’t far away. You don’t have to ascend to heaven to bring Christ down or descend into the deep to bring Christ up. The word is near. In your mouth and in your heart.
Confession and belief is the shape of it. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.
In this chapter, Paul’s whole argument is about the leveling of the gospel. Jew and Gentile, religious and irreligious, the same Lord is Lord of all, richly blessing all who call on Him.
And then the question that grounds it practically is how will they call if they haven’t believed? How will they believe if they haven’t heard? How will they hear if no one preaches?
The chain of witness that led to each of our own faith runs back through generations of people who opened their mouths. Who called on the name. Who told someone. And the question turns forward: whose chain does your witness extend?
