Salvation question

[Franklin]

Rom 10:9 "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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

However, Galatians 6:8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

Is this a contradiction?

[pilgrimian]

Rom 10:9 "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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

However, Galatians 6:8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

Is this a contradiction?

There is no contradiction...only seemingly when taken out of context.

Galatians 6:
1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.

6One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. 7Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Sowing and reaping are general truths. Will a Believer sow to his own flesh repeatedly? No.

[Franklin]

So does it stand to reason that reaping eternal life and being saved are two distinct issues?

Is it also possible that both versus mean the exact same thing, and that the tyipcal understanding of confessing with our "mouths" and believing in our "hearts" means something a little different than what it appears on the surface?

[HeIsEnough]

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abrahams belief, was trusting in what God said (was saying to him). To trust in God, is to believe what He says....personally. I believe this comes about fully when we know Him.

[humbleone]

I've wondered about these verses also, particularly because I am often battling fleshly types of sin.... reading those verses in Galatians sometimes makes me feel like I'm doomed or something, since I continually struggle with sin and flesh (gluttony, getting drunk, etc. etc.).

[Timothy]

The believer has two natures, and there battle between the flesh and the spirit, or what Paul calls the old man and the new man. Note that in the previous chapter, Paul describes the battle.

Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

See these past threads:

The Believer's Inner Conflict
http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=188224

Your Inner Conflicts – Old and New Natures
http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=82253