“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13)
The context of Romans 10:13 is eternal salvation, it is the call of faith brought on by the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Romans 10:17 assures us that our faith in His Word is where our salvation lies, so the answer to eternal life is found in a study of the words of God and not the words of man.
The words of men have brought us religion that is unfortunately corrupted by man’s sin nature. This corruption has led good men to doing all that they can to earn salvation while all along God has offered it as a simple free gift. Man has created religion that requires everything from good works, to church membership, baptism, catechisms, and even election where God supposedly has chosen some to go to Heaven and others to Hell regardless of anything they do. Religion has subsequently made salvation difficult, while God has required nothing but simply calling upon him by faith and repentance.
I want to take apart Romans 10:13 in a simple fashion to show what it means to “call upon the name of the Lord” for eternal salvation.
Call upon the Lord
By definition, call upon means “to call upon deity for any purpose.” This word does not simply mean to pray, matter of fact, it is not translated as “pray” anywhere in the Bible. This word is more than a prayer, it includes 2 things found in Romans 10:9, thy mouth and thine heart
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”
(Romans 10:9)
Think about it like this – How would a loved one feel if your words “I Love You” were just lip service, that is, from thy mouth but not from thine heart? Romans 10:9-10 connects “call upon the name of the Lord” directly to the heart, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…” Why? The heart is the seat of man’s affections, and the heart is what God wants from us. Your body is going to the grave, but your heart and soul will live on forever in either Heaven or Hell.
Call upon the Lord to be Saved
“the Lord” wants us to call upon Him. Why? He wants to forgive our sins and save us from an eternity in Hell.
We have many enemies in this life to be saved from – Satan, self, sin, society, finally death. This death that is our enemy is not the grave but the second death caused by the enemy called sin. Romans 3:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” Unless we are saved from this death, Hell will be our eternal home. In the end, both death and Hell will be cast into the lake of fire to be tormented for eternity.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 20:14-15)
Jesus defeated this second death when He died on the Cross. Now, in order to be saved, we simply have to “call upon the name of the Lord.” Peter explains this clearly, reminding us of the high price Jesus paid to save us, making the direct connection between our salvation and the blood of Jesus Christ:
“And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed [not saved] with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers [there is nothing that we can do]; 19 But [we are saved] with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:“
(I Peter 1:17-19)
Hence, eternal salvation is only through “the precious blood of Christ” and not through any religion. It is only “through faith in his blood“ that we can have “the remission of sins” (Romans 3:25). “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved” (Romans 5:9). By putting our faith and trust to be saved by the blood of Christ, we become accepted of God.
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
(Ephesians 1:6-7)
Call upon the Lord to be Saved from Hell
When we take the last breathe in these decaying frames, it is only then that the rubber meets the road where faith, and even the lack of it, will truly become sight. Who was right and who was wrong will finally be revealed. If annihilation is the end, then those who lived it up will have had the greater life, but if Heaven and Hell are real, then those who lived it up in these bodies will step into an eternity that only faith could direct the destination.
Man only knows about Heaven by what he reads in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. This is equally true about Hell. So, to believe in one and not the other is utterly unsensible, either we believe all of the Bible or none of it. This is where religion stepped in, taking advantage of man’s attempts to fully trust the unknown, writing their own books and placing them as an authority over God’s Word, though based enough upon God’s Word to deceive multitudes.
Your eternity is at stake, that is, exponentially millions of years longer then the number of days the earth has been in existence. We look at our 70 or so years in this life as an eternity, but this is not even a grain of sand on the sea shores of eternity. When we put this into perspective, we stand in awe at the perspective of what really lies beyond the grave. It is then that we need to determine where we will place our authority. Are we going to trust the fallible words of man, his books and catechisms, or will be dig into the truth that God has promised to preserve to every generation, His Holy Words.
“The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
(Psalm 12:6-7)
When we dig into the depths of religion we find man doing all he can to better himself for God, whereas, when we dig into the depths of God’s Word we find a God Who wants us to surrender to Him to allow Him to make us better for Himself. One takes futile work while the other takes simple faith.
The choice of your eternal destination is:
- HEAVEN = Eternal bliss and beauty with God
- HELL = Eternal suffering and separation from God
The choice is yours, and it is made by either “call upon the name of the Lord” or not. God forces no man to put their faith in Him, He created us with a free will to make that choice. Romans 1 tells us that He gave creation to point us to Him. Romans 2 He gave us a conscience to point to Him and Romans 3 He gave us His Word to point us to Him. If you have read this article, then you stand with out excuse as His Word is expounded here to point us to Him. I say this not in arrogance, but in love and hope that you will “call upon the name of the Lord.”
What does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord?
Do we stand around calling out the Lord’s name? NO! This is the call of faith, the call to be saved. The call of faith, a person must be aware of some things:
- You must know that you are a sinner (Romans 3:23)
- You must know the price for your sin is eternity in Hell (Romans 6:23; 5:12; Revelation 20:14-15; 21:8)
- You must know that Jesus paid the price for your sin (Romans 5:6-8)
- You must know that you have to repentant of your sin by turning to God as your only hope for salvation (Acts 20:21)
- You must call upon the Lord by faith for salvation (Romans 10:9-13)
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:9-13)
