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Romans 10: whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
One of the widest doors in the New Testament. Romans 10:13 opens with the word “whosoever”, and Paul means it.
Romans 10 print
Romans 10 · King James Version
13 whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
Paul's letter to Rome
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, a church he had not founded and had not yet visited, probably from Corinth in the late 50s AD. Chapters 9 to 11 of the letter deal with a question that weighed on him personally: what God is doing with Israel, his own people, now that the Messiah has come. Chapter 10 opens with a line of deep affection: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”
Confess with thy mouth
In the middle of the chapter Paul gives one of the Bible's shortest summaries of faith: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (10:9). The mouth and the heart go together: inward trust and outward words.
Verse 12 then removes every boundary: there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
What does Romans 10:13 mean?
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Paul is quoting the prophet Joel (Joel 2:32), who promised that in the day of the LORD, whoever called on his name would be delivered. Peter quoted the same prophecy on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21).
To call upon the name is to cry out to someone for help, trusting that they will answer. No ritual, no pedigree and no prior achievement is required. The promise is as wide as the word “whosoever”, and as simple as a prayer.
Paul then draws a practical conclusion: people cannot call on someone they have not heard of. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace” (10:15), he writes, quoting Isaiah, and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (10:17).
For new believers and baptisms
Romans 10 is often the passage read at an adult baptism or at the moment someone decides to follow Christ. Evangelists call verses 9, 10 and 13 part of the Romans Road. As a print, verse 13 is a meaningful gift for someone newly baptized, a person in recovery, or a missionary family.