Believing in your heart
Some thoughts
If you declare 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 profess your faith and are saved. (Rom 10, 9 – 10)
When Resurrection of the Lord is one of the most important theme here, it also speaks of two human organs or two human acts. When one is connected to professing with the mouth, the other is connected to believing in the heart. If I say in the contemporary language, a concordance between both of those acts (saying and believing or mouth and heart) will help us to say that s/he is an authentic person.
I am interested to focus on that word “believe in your heart”. First thing to keep in mind is that, it is not limited to a believe in a fact; it is a belief on a person. Belief in the person is not limited to a belief that the person is good or wonderful or that he is God or he has risen. It’s closely connected to believing in his identity, his entireity — which necessarily includes his human life, his style, his dealings and his teachings.
What is the entireity of this person, who was risen? He is son of God; and he lived a way of life. In some sense, following his style or his way of life is inseparably connected to believing in him as the risen Lord.
In this sense, an authenticity between the heart and the mouth is not just sayng “Jesus is Lord” or that “he is risen”, but an authentic attempt (with all our failings to follow perfectly) to follow him in all our actions, deeds and words. Probably that famous saying of Francis of Assisi (called Second Christ by some) makes a lot of sense.
I think, thus resurrection doesn’t remain a one-off, super special event. Those adjectives definitely fit to resurrection. But it is much more than that. As one of my beloeved professors say, resurrection also becomes God’s unconditional and un-asked for gift, for all of us, at all times. Or Resurrection is not just a gift for justification or salvation, but for each and every moment of our life; especially in the difficult moments of life.
Resurrection doesn’t take away the struggles of life, but it reminds of the presence of accompanying God in the midst of it. More than an invitation to some other-worldly spirituality, it is an invitation to a life with God and other creation, in joy and peace, in the midst of all difficulties and struggles.
