---
title: Romans 10:9
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-10-9/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-10-9.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 10:9
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 10:9

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "if you publicly declare that 'word in your own mouth,' that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved"
- NWT (2013 revision): "if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved"

## JW Usage

JWs read Romans 10:9 as Paul's call to public confession of Christ's lordship and faith in his resurrection — uncontroversial in JW publications. Where the verse becomes interesting is its position in the wider Romans 10:9-13 chain. The Watchtower draws attention to v.13 ("everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah") as a salvation requirement involving the Divine Name, while passing more lightly over the fact that the Lord called upon in v.13 is the same Lord whose lordship is confessed in v.9 — and v.9's Lord is unmistakably Jesus.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's argument flows in one unbroken line. Verse 9: confess "Jesus is Lord" — kyrios. Verse 12: "the same Lord is rich toward all who call on him." Verse 13: quoting Joel 2:32, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." The Lord of v.13 is the same Lord as v.9 — Paul never changes subject. He takes an Old Testament YHWH-text from Joel and deliberately cross-applies it to Jesus, identifying Jesus with the Lord on whose name salvation depends. Verse 14 confirms it: "How will they call on him in whom they have not believed?" — the One Israel had not yet believed in is Jesus. The verse is the keystone of the New Testament's case that the saving Lord is Christ, not a tetragrammatic form Paul never names.

## NWT Issue

The NWT keeps "Jesus is Lord" here without inserting "Jehovah" — exactly as the established pattern requires. The NWT inserts "Jehovah" 237 times across the NT but never where doing so would identify Jesus as YHWH. Romans 10:9 is the cleanest example: insert "Jehovah" here and the chain through to v.13 collapses into a christological identification the Watchtower cannot affirm. Two further NWT signatures appear in this verse: "publicly declare" for homologēsēs (consensus "confess") and "exercise faith" for pisteusēs (consensus "believe"). The "exercise faith" pattern recurs across the NT and reframes pisteuō as ongoing activity — which fits a works-oriented soteriology where faith is something the believer continually performs to maintain standing.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Christ Is Already Reigning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/christ-reigning-now.md) — Acts 2:30-36 / Ephesians 1:20-22 / 1 Corinthians 15:25 [Eschatology]
- [No New Testament Command to Use 'Jehovah'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jehovah-name-no-NT-mandate.md) — The NT's only command about the saving name redirects it to Jesus [Deity of Christ]
- [Every Title For Yahweh Is Given To Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/yahweh-titles-applied-to-jesus.md) — Isaiah 44:6 / Acts 4:12 / Romans 10:9 / Hosea 13:4 / Revelation 22:13 [Deity of Christ]
- [The Salvation-Name Dilemma](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/salvation-name-dilemma.md) — Old Testament — only Jehovah's name saves. New Testament — only Jesus' name saves. [Deity of Christ]