In Romans 10:9 is God referring to the Father?
You would be wise to stick with the King James Bible:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
"God" in verse 9 does refer to God the Father. At the same time one must be clear that the triune Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) were all involved with the resurrection of Christ. The Father raised Him, Christ raised Himself, and the Holy Spirit also raised Him. If this is difficult to comprehend it must simply by accepted on faith, since this is what the Bible reveals.
But what is this passage teaching us? That is what's important:
1. "Confess" means "profess" or PUBLICLY DECLARE. So God expects every genuine believer to
publicly declare ("with thy/the mouth") that he or she has put their
total faith and trust in Christ and His finished work of redemption. PLUS NOTHING. That they are not counting on their own good works, or water baptism, or their church member, or tithing, or charitable giving, or anything else, in order to be saved.
2. The finished work of Christ is that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, for our justification. Every believer must understand these basic truths about the Gospel and acknowledge them.
3. Saving faith is from the heart ("believe in thine heart"). It must be genuine, and
while repentance is not mentioned in this passage, it is a condition for salvation as much as faith (Acts 2:38;3:19)
4.
But at the same time, how and when should this public declaration be made? The most appropriate time would be
JUST BEFORE BAPTISM when other Christians are witnessing the baptism of believers. And Christian baptism should be almost immediately after conversion (as you will note in the book of Acts).
5. Take the example of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip in Acts 8.
If you use the NIV you will not find this verse: And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. [EXAMPLE OF CONFESSING WITH THE MOUTH] [Note: "Son of God" = God = LORD Jesus]
Why was it removed? Expunged? Primarily because the traditionalist churches did not believe in believer's baptism. They practised infant baptism and believed in baptismal regeneration, hence the corrupted Greek manuscripts expunged this verse. But as you can see it is critical in understanding Romans 10:9, since Acts 8:38 says this: And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.