Describing the way of salvation that OT Israel missed, Paul declares in Romans 10 that it is not the way of obedience to God’s commandments as a covenant of works, a way in which salvation is impossible for sinners already condemned. Rather, it is a way that is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone as our Savior. Romans 10.9, 10 form a structure known as a chiasm (a term related to the Greek letter chi which looks like an X). This is a literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order. That arrangement is obvious in these two verses.

The core idea of these verses taken together is salvation (C). To be “saved,” in the context of Romans as a whole and Romans 10 in particular, is to be justified or counted righteous by God (cf. Rom 1.16, 17; 10.1-4). Even the unconverted Jews had a very strong sense of the importance of morality and the impending accountability of Judgment Day—something most people sorely lack today. Their problem was not that they did not care about being justified by God on the Last Day. No, but they had fallen into a trap of thinking that they could pass divine scrutiny on the grounds of their own faith and good works. Paul, formerly a Jewish rabbi, had repented of his misguided, self-righteous efforts, because he received light from the Lord Jesus of the gospel way to be justified by pure grace.

Working outward from the middle of this chiasm, lines B1 and B2 are both about the faith found in those whom God saves. It is believing in your heart that God has raised the Lord Jesus from the dead (B1). This is the faith that “believes unto righteousness.” The word translated “unto” “may express either purpose or result” (PNTC, Leon Morris, in loc.). Faith is not itself that righteousness, but only the instrument by which it becomes our possession. God imputes or credits the very righteousness of Christ to the believing sinner, who is wholly guilty in himself or herself. This is what Martin Luther was driving at by the Latin phrase, “simul justus et peccator,” simultaneously righteous and a sinner.

This imputed righteousness is only a legal act of God and does not in itself make the believer constitutionally righteous in his own heart and life. That is a work of the Spirit in those who are justified and it is called sanctification. The sins of all the elect were imputed or charged against Christ our Substitute on the cross without making Him personally sinful. Even so, in justification, His righteousness is ours by imputation, not infusion. Second Corinthians 5.21 describes this wonderful double-imputation (Christ’s merits to us and our demerits to Him) in these words, “For our sake he [God] made [legally, not constitutionally] him [Christ] to be sin who knew [experienced] no sin, so that in him [Christ] we [believers] might become [legally, not constitutionally] the righteousness of God [i.e., Christ’s own righteousness]” (ESV).

The comparison and contrast of heart and mouth are just as obvious from these verses. As the heart refers to the inner being of a person, the mouth represents his or her outward presentation to others. True faith within produces unashamed confession without. The confession is the fruit of faith, and not itself, per se, the instrument of justification. Strictly speaking, that instrument is faith and faith alone.

Why did Paul use the chiasm, then? In verse nine, he begins with the human responsibility to confess the Lord Jesus outwardly and moves to its cause, namely, faith in the Lord Jesus. In verse ten, Paul emphasizes the importance of faith first, before mentioning its outward manifestation. It is “the word of faith, which we preach” (v. 8), the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is to be openly confessed, but this is only done as it should be done when the heart truly believes the message. The believing heart is the heart of the matter in our justification by God, as other Scriptures teach without even mentioning confession with the mouth (e.g., Acts 16.31; Eph 2.8, etc.).

The Spirit of God takes the Word of God to do the work of God—saving sinners by regenerating their souls, imparting the gift of saving faith, and producing an open confession to others of Christ as Lord and Savior.

This gospel teaching is a great blessing to those who will receive it, for it declares our liberation from any attempt to earn justification by anything we can do. That would be a miserable and hopeless way to go through life, and a fatal way to approach Judgment Day. This gospel teaching also encourages us not only to believe and confess Christ for justification, but also to be assured that we actually are justified or counted righteous by God, when all that we have done is trust this gospel and receive by faith the Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord (John 1.12). On the Last Day, the Lord will lovingly receive all true Christian believers, clothed as they all shall be with His glorious robe of righteousness. Praise the Lord! Ω