A friend recently asked me this question after reading through The Roman Road: A Well-Engineered Path to Salvation. It’s a fantastic question and gave me reason to write down my understanding of how they work out.

First, Romans 10:9 – “because, 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.”

Second, Matthew 7:21 – ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

The apparent argument for conflict here would run something like this. First, I’m told by Paul (in Romans) that if I say out loud “Jesus is Lord”, I’ll be saved. However, Jesus Himself clearly says that not everyone who call’s Him LORD will be saved, but that many will (on the Day of Judgement) approach Him, calling Him LORD, and (many) will not be saved! There certainly appears to be a disconnect, and I would agree that taking the two verses, as they are presented here, doesn’t provide much in the way of unity and compatability - how then will we understand this?

I would submit that the key to understanding how these verses work together in such a way as to provide a true and full bodied understanding of God’s Salvific work will lie in the phrase believe in your heart, and that it will be helpful to further articulate what scripture means when it says “confess with your mouth”.

You can read the full article on the H57 WIKI.