For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Parallel translations
- KJV For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
- BSB For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
- NKJV For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
- NASB for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
- NLT For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. True saving faith is both inwardly real and outwardly owned.
Overview
Paul unpacks v. 9, pairing heart-belief that leads to righteousness with mouth-confession that leads to salvation. The two are not separate stages but aspects of one saving response: genuine inward faith naturally issues in open acknowledgment of Christ. This verse assures believers that righteousness is received by faith and confirms that a living faith does not remain hidden but confesses Jesus as Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Jn 4:15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
- Rom 10:9that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
- Gal 2:16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
- John 1:12–13But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
- John 3:19–21This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
- Heb 10:22let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
- Luke 8:15That in the good ground, these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produces fruit with patience.
- Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Phil 3:9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
- Rev 2:13“I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 10:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.