With your mouth you profess your faith and are saved.

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:10).  

Salvation is not just an inward conviction.  It is a life that is lived both from within and also that we speak about it.

It is not saying we are saved by our words.  It is saying that every part of our being gets saved, and that means we share our faith and declare Jesus as Lord.

This may sound easy to many Christians reading this who live in safe places.  But this was written in the context of hostilities on multiple fronts.  The Jewish people rejected the message of Jesus and tried to kill those who spread it.  The Roman Empire was being ruled by Nero at the time and there was a growing anger against Christians who believed in only One God.  At some point, during or after this writing, Nero would brutally murder many believers.

It would be easy to stay silent about one’s faith.  It meant there would not be a risk of persecution.  Torture and death.  Isn’t it safer to be silent?

Paul says if we believe, we will speak.

He is getting ready to make the case that if we don’t speak, the nations will not hear the gospel.  He further has sandwiched this with just previously describing how God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (after Pharaoh had already hardened it), in order to proclaim the glory of God throughout the earth to all nations.

Central to God’s heart is that all people will hear the gospel of righteousness by faith.  And if we are silent, then one must question whether we truly believe.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13).