Law or Gospel?

In the Epistle for this Sunday from Romans 10, we will hear: "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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."

Is this verse Law or Gospel?

In so many conversations I have had with folks not from my church, this verse is presented as Law - this is what you must do to be saved. I even talked with a man one time who went to a laundromat and told everyone in the place about Jesus so that he could be saved! Yet even after that, he wasn't sure. He contacted me because he wanted me to assure him that he did what he had to do to be saved.

That's what the Law does - it always accuses us and will never give the heart peace. If this is what we have to do to be saved, then we will never know if we have enough faith, if we confess enough, or good enough, or often enough. How can I know?

But you know what? This verse isn't Law, it's Gospel! St. Paul isn't giving us a new Law here, something else for us to do, but teaching us that Jesus has fulfilled the Law for us and that we are saved by Him and His work for us - saved by grace through faith. In fact, just before these verses, St. Paul said that very thing: "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

So how can that man who ran around the laundromat be sure? How can I know? Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and what we do and place them on the cross. For while the Law brings only uncertainty and despair, the Gospel of Christ brings joy and peace. For if Jesus has done it, then I can be sure. His Word is true, His work complete.

O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,

the founder and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy set before him endured the cross,

despising the shame,

and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

(Hebrews 12:2;

Liturgical Gradual for Lent)