One final step remained. It came rather late, but under Emperor Decius (249-251) Caesar worship was made universal - and compulsory for race and nation within the empire with the single exception of the Jews. On a certain day in the year every Roman citizen had to come to the Temple Caesar and had to burn a pinch of incense there, and say: "Caesar is Lord." When he had done that, he was given a certificate to guarantee that he had done so. After a man had burned his pinch of incense and had acknowledged Caesar as Lord, he could go away and worship any god he liked so long as the worship did not affect public decency and order. Thus, we see that Caesar worship was primarily a test of political loyalty, it was a test of whether or not a man was a good citizen. If a man refused to carry out the ceremony of acknowledging Caesar, he was automatically branded as a traitor and a revolutionary. Exaltation of the emperor, then created a problem for the Christians. They had not failed to pray for the emperor in their meetings, but they would not pray to him in private or in public. Scholars have studied Roman coins and have found a striking similarity between the praises Christians offered in worship of Christ and the adulation Roman citizens directed to the reigning emperor. (Shelley, 1995)
Reading the passage above, it's not difficult to link it with what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome.
because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 NRSV-CI
Emperor worship was a norm in the first century even though it was only made universal in the third century. Christians in Rome would have been familiar with the allegiance test of burning incense to the emperor and proclaiming Caesar as Lord. As the passage above mentioned, failure to comply had dire consequences. Being branded as a traitor or revolutionary was no joke. We know what the Romans did to thousands of Jewish revolutionaries. They crucified them on crosses by the hundreds.
Yet, Paul, when talking about his fellow Israelites' failure to follow Jesus as their Messiah, described how one could call on the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him in a manner which was very similar to the emperor allegiance test. Minus the burning of incense, it was a confession quite like swearing allegiance to the emperor with the added crucial requirement that one must believe what he confessed in his heart. In other words, you must mean what you say.
Jumping forward to the present, we see how often the church in general uses Paul's believe in your heart and confess with your mouth description as a method for non-believers to be accepted as Christians in the community of believers. Once you said the so-called Sinner's Prayer, then you're good. Save and secured eternally. Given the certificate to be called a Christian.
However, this was different in Paul's time. Confessing Jesus as Lord meant the Christians in Rome were not participating in the ceremony to swear their allegiance to Caesar. It was a dangerous thing to do. Jews were exempted from this by the emperor's decree, but non-Jewish Christians were not. There was a price to pay for this confession and it was not simply a matter of saying a prayer and be done with it. The Christians in the first century could not bring themselves into a compromise with the imperial allegiance ceremony and then went about happily worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ after it.
For Paul, it was not a mere formal incense burning ceremony followed by a meaningless verbal profession. Confessing Jesus as Lord proceeded from a heartfelt belief and meant everything inwardly and outwardly. It meant that if one truly confessed Jesus as Lord, then Caesar was not even if his own life was at stake. It meant that he could not live the life he once did. Rather, he had to live in a manner worthy of his confession and calling.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 NRSV-CI
Likewise, it's more than just saying a simple prayer because the pastor, the priest or anyone asked you to in order to show you're a Christian. The prayer or confession is not a mere formality in which after that we can happily go about doing our own things in the way we use to like nothing has ever happened where everything is back to normal and life goes on. We have an allegiance certificate now and we can do whatever we want without worrying about the consequences. That's not how it works according to the apostle.
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