I’ve been kind of meditating on the concept of salvation lately. My contention has been this:

Romans 10:9//… that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

vs.

Matthew 33:38//And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

I know a lot of Christians (and even more pseudo-Christians) who use Romans to assure their salvation even though they may not necessarily be doing their best to live a Christian life. I nod my head and think, “Yup, that’s what the Bible says, so I guess you’re good.” It makes salvation pretty easy: McSalvation, if you will.

Then I read passages like Matthew 33:38, and that makes it sound harder. To me, Matthew 33 is, “Go to the cross or go home,” but a lot of Romans 10:9 Christians wouldn’t be worthy of Christ by the standard set forth in Matthew 33:38 (and I’m not trying to be righteous here, there are days when I don’t like to admit which camp I’m probably in).

I sought the Lord on the matter and do you know what He told me? “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” At first that seemed to support Romans without addressing Matthew and I was a little disappointed. Then I looked it up.

That phrase appears three times in scripture: Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, and Romans 10:13. In Acts and Romans the author/speaker is quoting Joel, so we turn to Joel for the initial context. I’ll let you look it up (v. 31 and 32), but it’s talking about the “great and terrible day of the Lord.” It’s talking about calling on the name of the Lord in a time when you may be immediately martyred for doing so. Then I realized that Romans 10:9 was written during a time when you may have been martyred for confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus.

My conclusion is this: If one will call upon the name of the Lord, and confess His diety – under threat of torture and/or death – one will be saved. Hence taking up the cross. Your comments are welcome.

Yes, that’s Madonna.

“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will decieve many” (Matthew 24:5).

“knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3).

“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants …” (Revelation 2:20)

“But He was wounded for our transgression … bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet he opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:5-7)

I just want to pray … b/c I just want to be with Him. I don’t want to go to work, and I don’t want to clean my apartment. I just want to sit at His feet and listen to Him talk about whatever is on His heart to talk about.

A woman in our office got healed yesterday. It was an amazing miracle: swollen disc and a bone spur that was about to cause permanent nerve damage and perpetual pain. You know what, though? I don’t even want to talk about it, because it’s not as good as talking to Him. I love healing; I have a serious contention to move in that gifting that goes back to my days as a heathen. But healing is boring compared to His face.

Two weeks in India demonstrated the unmatchable power and love of my Lord, but signs and wonders are really starting to take their rightful (second) place in my heart. We know, and we say, that signs and wonders are to confirm or validate the gospel, but as a baby Christian these past two years I wonder if I hadn’t made signs and wonders the gospel. We get really excited when a criple stands and walks in the name of Jesus, but when someone gets saved we kind of pat him on the back and say, “Good job.” I think my heart is really starting to understand, and really starting to want more than simple miracles.

I, like I said, really want to move more in the gift of healing, but I’d give it all to someone else’s faithful hands if it meant He’d encounter me in my quiet time – if I could walk with Him in the cool of every day.