“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:8-10).
Romans 10 records the two greatest uses of the tongue. The first is confessing Jesus Christ and calling upon Him. It is our “part” in salvation:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
The second great use of the tongue is preaching Jesus Christ:
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’” (Romans 10:15).
The person who carries good news has beautiful feet even when they are dirty and dusty. The good news makes them beautiful.
Prior to regular postal service, messages were sent by courier or special messenger. That is the way the New Testament letters were delivered. The messenger would be on the road for months. In addition to the words he carried, he himself would also be a letter:
“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).
Let us use our tongues as messengers of the gospel of Christ.
*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.
