It is a cause for great thanksgiving that you have set forth so plainly the way of salvation from Romans 10:9 and 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. This word is faithful and worthy to be proclaimed, for it shows the due order and the clear connection which God has appointed.
With the heart man believes unto righteousness. This is the first and essential thing, a sincere faith in the Lord Jesus Christ crucified, not a mere assent of the mind but a trust of the whole heart resting upon Him alone for salvation. We do not rest upon our faith, our repentance, our prayers or our likeness to Christ, but upon Jesus Himself who is all our salvation, the Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of faith. That simple faith is itself the work of the Holy Spirit, and through the Spirit we continue to exercise it. And sincere faith must treat all of God's Word alike, receiving Christ as He is offered, as Lord as well as Savior.
With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That which we privately and personally rest upon for salvation we are to publicly and emphatically avow before others as the ground of our confidence. This confession is personal. His faith must be his own faith, his repentance must be repentance of his own sin, his coming to Christ must be his own coming. Do say and say it unmistakably, I am the Lord's, and subscribe with your hand unto the Lord by a humble and obedient profession of Him before men.
And this faith is never alone, for faith and repentance are inseparable. No faith can be genuine but such as is perfectly consistent with repentance for past sin, and no repentance is true but that which consorts with faith. They come into the soul together, and repentance lives as long as faith lives. True repentance is not a carnal sorrow that passes away, but the work of the Spirit of God in the renewed heart which gives God glory. It ejects sin as an evil tenant and admits Christ to be the sole master of the heart. It purges the soul from dead works and looks with tears of grief for sin and with hope at the love of Christ and His great finished work. Where such repentance is, there is a turning from sin and a following after Christ.
Then obedience becomes the gracious fruit. Faith is the morning star of obedience. When faith is grafted upon the heart it brings forth good fruit, and we prove that we have grace by our accurate obedience. Noah obeyed the Lord exactly and carefully, and so must we. No man is really saved unless he is in his heart obedient to Christ. We do not give a secondary place to obedience, yet we understand it rightly. We do not obey to earn salvation, for salvation is by grace through faith, but the more of faith in Him we have, the more of obedience to Him will we manifest. It is the obedience of a child, not of a slave, the obedience of love, not of terror, wholehearted and complete, beginning at home and showing itself in doing according to all that the Lord has commanded.
Your counsel to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and to begin in the book of John, is wise. There you will see Christ set forth as Lord and Savior, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
We pray now for all who are looking for salvation, that the Lord would grant them this true faith of the heart, this godly repentance that needs not to be repented of, and this open confession with the mouth. May the Holy Spirit work in them to trust Christ alone, to turn from sin, to follow and obey Jesus, and to continue in His Word. May they know the joy of salvation restored and find that obedience which springs from love. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our only hope, Amen.
