What the Greeks Understood That We Didn’t
Those verses reveal the first, most basic law of faith: Believe in your heart and say with your mouth. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).
The Greek word sozo, which is translated salvation in that verse, refers to more than the new birth. It covers everything that’s necessary for us to be made sound—spirit, soul and body. It covers not only the re-creation of our human spirit but things like deliverance and healing.
Greek-speaking people in the early Church understood this. They received Jesus as Healer at the same time they received Him as Savior because when sozo was preached, that’s what they heard. As English-speaking people, we didn’t. So, we cut THE BLESSINGS of salvation into different pieces.
But they’re not different! They’re all part of the same package and they’re all received the same way: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13).
What we want to believe and speak, of course, is The WORD of God. We want to say what He says about us. But really, whatever you say is your faith speaking. It may be faith in something you wish you didn’t have, such as sickness. But you’re always believing and confessing something, and for better or for worse, the law of faith is going to work.
That means if you don’t want something, you’d better stop saying it. You need to rely on the vocabulary of silence until you can fill your heart with God’s WORD in that area. For as Jesus said: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh…. [And] every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:34, 36-37).
BVOV : 7
