The Word is Near You
“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
In my opinion this is one of the most precious scriptures in the Bible! So many people labor under the mistaken notion that God lives at the top of some high mountain somewhere. They spend their whole lives trying to “climb the mountain,” never realizing that God has come to us, we don’t need to go to Him. The verses in Romans tell us some key truths of the Christian faith:
God’s heart is towards people; therefore, His word is near you.
His presence and His truth are accessible because of the mediating presence of Jesus Christ, who was both God and man. You can go out and search for Truth (many people do!), but your search is always going to bring you back to the fact that the Word that was near you in the first place: God exists, He loves you, and He invites you into His family.
The path to salvation is not through human effort, but through our trust and commitment to Jesus.
Christians believe that Jesus conquered death through his resurrection; both the Bible and history affirm it. As sin and death’s conqueror, He is worthy not just of our worship and adoration, but of our allegiance. To declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord is not simply a mantra; it’s a confession. Confession in a Christian context means to agree with God, so anyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord is agreeing that Jesus is who He says He is.
The uniqueness of the Christian faith rests on the distinct teaching that God is near us and sent His son to do what we could not do.
The beauty of this simple truth can be a double-edged sword. Some people reject it because of its simplicity- they prefer to think of themselves as self-sufficient. They want to find God “out there somewhere” on their own. What they don’t realize is that all our intellectual or spiritual pursuits tend to inevitably lead us back to this one question: Is Jesus who He says He is? Many people throughout history who have rejected Christianity often still admit that they find Jesus a compelling figure. There’s something about Him they can’t quite shake off. Why? The Bible says it’s because the Word is near them- his claims and his teaching, when confronted honestly, resonate with our hearts. His compassionate life, his sacrificial death, and his victorious resurrection all draw our hearts into a decision. Will we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord?