Confession - Romans 10:5-13

Just like I wrote about the picture of the tank on the beach being a powerful message about man’s abilities vs. God’s abilities, this is also pertinent to the audience Paul is writing to in Rome who are trying to “establish their own righteousness, (and) have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” They have convinced themselves that creating their own righteousness will yield the same results as adhering to God’s righteousness, which we know will end up with them being rusty tanks on the beach.

I honestly still don’t know what Paul is talking about here, but when we get to verses 9 and 10 he says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This seems like a pretty standard, straight forward statement of belief, accepting Jesus with both our hearts and our minds, but the IM says, “Some Christians have used Paul’s words in Romans 10:9 to claim that all a person must do to be saved is to verbally confess a belief in Jesus Christ.”
I’ve heard of this before, the belief that all you have to do is believe in Jesus or at least just say that you believe and you’ll be saved. I personally have never understood this perspective because, yes we are told to not only believe but to confess our beliefs, but we are also told to be like Jesus is, and he was righteous. Of course we can’t be perfect, but we can try our best, and trying our best encompasses much more than a weak acknowledgement of God’s possible existence.
The IM continues, “However, in other passages, Paul taught that repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and striving to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ are also essential. In Romans 10:4-13, Paul’s purpose was not to give a comprehensive description of the process of salvation. Instead, Paul was supporting the point that he stated in verse 4: ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
The IM further points out that Paul is quoting Deuteronomy to support his statement from verse 4, which would make sense why I can’t understand what exactly is going on.