The Near Word, Jesus as Lord, and Everyone Who Calls

Paul begins with Leviticus 18:5, then performs a striking Christ-centered rereading of Deuteronomy 30. Moses said the command was not in heaven or beyond the sea but near, in mouth and heart. Paul takes that near-word pattern and says the word of faith is near: confess Jesus as Lord and believe God raised him from the dead.

The climax is Joel 2:32: “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In Joel, the one whose name is called is the LORD—YHWH. In Romans 10:9–13, Paul’s immediate discourse centers on confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in his resurrection, the same Lord being rich to Jew and Greek, and everyone who calls on him being saved. That makes this one of Romans’ strongest LORD/YHWH→Christ connections.