Romans 10:9

Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

First, it should be noted that this verse contains "doctrine of the gospel" as stated in the foregoing verse. Significantly, it is a pairing of CONFESSION and FAITH as coordinates among the conditions of salvation, that is primary salvation, or pardon from "old sins" (2 Peter 1:9), such as takes place in conversion to Christ. If this passage stood alone in the New Testament, it might be fairly inferred that these are THE TWO conditions of salvation; but it does not stand alone, for there are other similar pairings of the elementary conditions of primary salvation, as in the case of REPENTANCE and BAPTISM (Acts 2:38), and that of FAITH and BAPTISM (Mark 16:16). There are no legitimate grounds for thinking that any one of these pairings excludes the conditions mentioned in the others. Faith, repentance, confession, and baptism are all divinely imposed conditions of salvation, none of them outranking any of the others. Faith is omitted in one of the pairings and mentioned second in another. Repentance is mentioned in only one, confession in only one, and baptism in two; but all alike are commanded, all alike are necessary; and all alike are prerequisite to justification.

Confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord ... is a reference to the confession of faith preceding one's baptism into Christ, as in the case of the eunuch (Acts 8:37 margin). David Lipscomb rejected this understanding of this clause on the ground that a formal confession of faith

is left out of all the precepts and examples concerning remission, and is to be found only in a reference in a letter to Christians as to what had been required.[8]

The ground of dissent from Lipscomb is found in the words "with thy mouth," which certainly indicate a spoken confession. Moreover, Christ himself, upon the occasion of a FORMAL confession BY Peter (Matthew 16:16-18), reciprocated with a FORMAL confession OF Peter, with his own precious promise almost certainly in view, wherein he had declared only a short while previously that

Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32).

In addition to these considerations, which are accounted weighty enough, there is the impressive witness of Acts 8:37, properly rejected from the text on sufficient critical grounds, but which, as a very ancient gloss, positively proves the custom of the early church in requiring a confession.

Despite this, however, there can be no dissent from Lipscomb's views as further expressed thus:

It is necessary that at every step of the religious life, even after one has grown old in the service of the Lord, with the mouth confession must be made unto salvation, and with the heart he must believe unto righteousness. He must live and walk through faith unto the end. It is just as necessary that confession of Christ should be made at all times, or Christ will not own us.