Romans 10:10 English Standard Version (ESV) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Justification and salvation are not the same thing. To clarify that statement we must look to biblical definitions and not what the world has to say about them.

Luke 16:15 English Standard Version (ESV) And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Men make excuses for themselves to escape the justice of mankind. There is no escaping the justice of God because He knows what lies in the hearts of all His creation.

Romans 3:25-27 English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

It is God who justifies, it is justice, it is a legal distinction ruled in the courts of heaven. It is a ruling by that court of not guilty by the blood of the lamb. The law of faith takes precedence.

2 Corinthians 4:16 English Standard Version (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self^[a] is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Salvation is an ongoing process that is renewed every day.

1 John 1:9 English Standard Version (ESV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We sin, we confess, He forgives and this goes on our whole lives. Salvation is not a one and done issue.

John 15:13 English Standard Version (ESV) Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

If Christ had not laid down His life for us as friends we would never have become family. We could not become “blood of my blood” without His blood being shed. This adoption into the family of God cannot happen without the blood of Christ covering our sins.

When God looks at us now He only sees the blood of His Son. Our sins are hidden from His sight.

Exodus 26:14 English Standard Version (ESV) And you shall make for the tent a covering of tanned rams’ skins and a covering of goatskins on top.

God exampled the covering sacrifice in the construction of the wilderness tabernacle. God would not enter into the Holy of Holies without it to commune with Moses. God would go before Israel in the cloud by day and the fire at night but would not enter into communion without the covering sacrifice.

Ezekiel 28:13 English Standard Version (ESV) You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings.On the day that you were created they were prepared.

They were there all along but we did not know what was lost to us until God explained it to us. We could not see the covering for what it was until after it was lost to us and we became outcasts.

Restoration of the cover takes more than just being a gracious gift from God. It took sacrifice, the covering of a more perfect love. We could not receive a love that great without seeing the sacrifice that was made.

1 John 4:19 English Standard Version (ESV) We love because he first loved us.