Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved

For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom 10:13)

Friend, I pray and desire that you may be saved today. This is also God’s own desire for you, for He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Your greatest need is not to have a job or money. Your greatest need is not a wife or a child. Your greatest need is not to be healed and be healthy. Your greatest need is salvation from your sins. You may be wealthy or healthy, but what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? There is no profit for your soul if you drove a Porsche and lived in the most expensive neighbourhood but remain unsaved. If your sins are upon you, then you will surely die. But there is a message of good news here. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into world to save sinners, even the worst of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

Let us unpack the verse that heads this message. Let us in it hear the promise of God. Let us see in it a faithful saying and let us receive it as ours. Let us receive it with meekness and believe its message: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

EVERYONE - Anyone and everyone - without distinction. Jews and Gentiles can appropriate this wonderful blessing of salvation to themselves. Our Saviour calls upon male and female to be saved - and He is able to save them. This promise may be received by a boy or a girl. It may be an old man as well as a young man. Anyone means the sick as well as the healthy so long as they call upon the Saviour Jesus Christ, there will be salvation for their souls. Therefore, the salvation that there is in Jesus Christ does not discriminate in terms of nation or tribe, language or race, age or gender or anything else. Rich or poor may gain entrance into the glorious kingdom of God. Jews and Gentiles are saved in the same way. Neither Jews nor Gentiles have righteousness of their own. Salvation is for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

WHO CALLS ON - To call on or upon is taken from the Greek word epikalesntai means a believing expectation of our all from Christ. To call upon is to express faith in prayer, trusting only in the one being called upon. Calling upon is the same as crying out for help, having abandoned all hope in oneself. Calling upon is not despair, where all hope is abandoned. It is trusting in another to who is both able and willing to offer or bring help to the one who calls. The point is made - if anyone is to be saved, he has a responsibility to call upon Christ. Do you need to saved from your sins? Then call upon Christ. 

THE NAME OF THE LORD - In Joel 2:32, from where this verse is cited, the LORD referred to is Yahweh, but both Peter and Paul's inspired hermeneutics takes it to refer to Christ! Salvation full and free is to be obtained from only one Saviour - the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God became man and so was and continues to be God and Man in two distinct natures and one person forever. To call on the Name of the LORD is to appeal to Him to save in accordance with who He is and what He has done and accomplished for salvation. The saving mercy and grace is extended to those who ask the Lord for it. God says that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and who is it that He will have mercy? Everyone who calls on His name.

 Charles Hodge commenting on this verse puts it this way;

     "Whosoever, therefore, betakes himself to God as his refuge, and calls upon Him, in the exercise of faith, as his God, shall be saved, whether Gentile or Jew." 

Robert Haldane also commenting on this verse puts it this way:

"By calling on the name of the Lord, all parts of religious worship which we render to God are intended. It denotes a full entire communion with God. He who calls on the name of the Lord, profoundly humbles himself before God, recognises His power, adores His majesty, believes His promises, confides in His goodness, hopes in His mercy, honours Him as his God, and loves Him as his Saviour. It supposes that this invocation is inseparable from all other parts of religion. To call on the name of the Lord is to place ourselves under His protection, and to have recourse to Him for aid."

WILL BE SAVED ­– The Gospel speaks of salvation from sins. Salvation is eternal and happy blessedness, where our sinful nature is replaced with a new nature after the image and likeness of Christ in true righteousness and holiness. It is being born again and adopted into the family of God. It is becoming a child of God, and therefore co-heir with Christ. It is being made a partaker of the kingdom of God. Therefore, salvation spoken of is that happy condition in which even angels have never been partakers. Remember that by nature we were sinners, dead sinners, enslaved in sin, blind to the riches and preciousness of Christ, children of wrath and enemies of God. In salvation all that old condition is done away with and we are immediately made to be the redeemed of the Lord.

No one has ever called upon the name of the Lord who did not get saved. Zacchaeus was saved in spite being a corrupt man in his duties. The paralytic was forgiven his sins and freed from the bondage of sin. Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitute and who, perhaps, broke many families in her sexual immorality was saved. The dying thief who repented while he was upon the cross went to Paradise with Christ that same day.

Don't trust upon yourself or any other. Don't depend upon your work, merit or conduct. Depend on Christ. Don't depend on a preacher or a pastor or a priest. Depend on Christ alone. Don’t repeat any preacher’s prayer – repent from your own heart, thinking about your own sin with your own mind, sorrowing over your own guilt, weeping for offending such a benevolent God, pleading for the forgiveness of your own iniquity, entrusting your soul only to the Saviour. To get to God, you need a Mediator – Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5). However, to go to the Mediator, you don’t need another mediator! The Mediator has already come to men and has taken the nature of men in order that He may be a merciful and faithful high priest in relation to God, on our behalf (Hebrews 4:14-16). The mediation of Mary is not necessary; the mediation of a human priest is completely unwarranted; the mediation of a pastor is completely useless! Don’t trust any other mediation to be saved. Jesus Christ is perfectly sufficient to handle your case. He is all you need and you have Him if you will trust Him!

We have a great Saviour in Jesus Christ. There is no need to delay a salvation so full and free. There is nothing to keep you from coming to Christ except your own rebellion and sin. A great high priest is none other than the Saviour Christ – come to Him. A great sacrifice of Christ who is the sin-bearing Lamb of God. He is able to save to the uttermost all those who draw near to God through Him (Heb. 7:25).

He bears the name above all names – reigning Son of God, surpassing all other titles, powers and claims. He is our mighty Advocate with the Father. He is our Friend, Prophet, Priest and King. He knows all our weaknesses, tears and pain for He was tempted like us in every respect yet emerged triumphant, without sin.

Come and obtain salvation for your soul. Come and find rest for yourself. Do not harden your heart. You have heard His invitation – “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest!”

Seek His grace and you will find it. He is supreme to save go to Him without any more delay. Let us praise our risen, ascended Lord, the great Saviour of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ.