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NASB | Romans 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 10:10 For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Savior] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous--being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation. |
Bible Question:
Few days ago, I had a dialogue with a brother on a situation that when it comes to the critical moment or time that the full gospel message (God, Christ, men, sin, God's wrath and justice, saving grace and faith, repentance and eternal life) cannot be preached to a dying person who has not heard of Christ nor is aware of sin, the most important thing is to get him to believe and profess Christ as his Lord and savior. This should be enough to get him saved. Now, my point is not on the dying person side that whether he/she ultimately saved or not, for this is solely of God's knowledge and will. My discussion would be on the messenger and the message part. Should we just REDUCE the full message as such even though we "consider" the dying person will stop his breath on the next second and we need to fight time for him? Most people might think we can rely on Romans 10:10 to justify the situation. However, I would hope when we say "believe and you will be saved", we should consider scriptural support PLUS the context of the scripture when it is used. Your thoughts (kindly please provide scriptural support for discussion)? Thank you Azure |
Bible Answer: Dear Sister Azure, We are all deeply concerned about the state of modern evangelicalism, with their non-lordship and cheap grace teachings. As Reformed believers we especially find those false teachings odious, for the purveyors "travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, they make him twice as much a son of hell as themselves." (Matthew 23:15). As I considered your question, the following parable came to mind: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' So the last shall be first, and the first last." (Matthew 20:1-16 NASB) I do not think that there is sufficient reason to discount a "death-bed conversion." God when He calls His own. Here is how the old Baptist spoke of this: "Those whom God hath predestined unto life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call (Romans 8:30; 11:7; Ephesians 1:10-11, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14), by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1-6); enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God (Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:17-18); taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26): renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:27; Ephesians 1:19); yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace (Psalm 110:3; Song of Solomon 1:4). "This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all forseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature (2 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 2:8), being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:5; John 5:25); he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20)." --1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (10.1-2) Consequently, whenever I go to the hospital or home of one with terminal illness, I minister to them the Word of God. If they are saved, there is great comfort in the Word. If they are lost, then God's effectual calling will be by the means of the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. I do not attempt to elicit a decision -- for we are not saved by the means of decisions. I communicate the Gospel from the Word. We sorrow for the lost, and we know that while there is life, God may yet save them. You see, the saved are ordained to eternal life to the praise of God's glorious grace (Ephesians 1:5-6), while all others are left to eternal death, to the praise of God's glorious justice (Romans 9:22-23; Jude 4). In the Great Commission we are told to go, making disciples. We have no insight, though, into the secret decrees of God. Some of His elect may be saved very early in life, and others very late. In Him, Doc |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Rom 10:10 | Author | ||
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twbab | ||
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DocTrinsograce | ||
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azurelaw | ||
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EdB | ||
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azurelaw | ||
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DocTrinsograce |