Romans 10:5-8
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Diserner
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Oh, I love this.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
Moses' original illustration was in fact, that the Law he had given was not beyond their reach, in the sense of finding out what it commands. That they didn't need to climb the highest mountain to reach some guru, or somehow sail over the farthest seas to some remote kingdom.
Paul repurposes this illustration to make a vital point about self-attainment and the Work of Christ. Christ fulfilled the Law for us both positively and negatively, that is, he positively met the demands for righteous living, but he also met the Law's strict and unyielding demand for a punishment for every infraction.
When we understand a righteousness by faith as a gift instead of earning it through Law-keeping, we see that no amount of positive deeds can cause us to be good enough to ascend to heaven; and no amount of negative penance or sorrow, can be holy enough to truly erase the evils we have done.
Instead of our meritorious works, Christ was the one who in the preceding undeserved grace of God took the initiative to come down from heaven and live a perfect life on our behalf, and then he went on to "descend to the abyss," the dark punishments of sin and place of the dead, to defeat death and hell on our behalf.
Now this Word of Faith, that all we have to do is reach out and receive a gift, is the far better good news brought to us than the constant burden of trying to meet all the Law's demands for holiness and righteous living that weigh us down with obligation and guilt and puff us up with pride.
Religion says "DO.'
God says "DONE."
Now the way this relates to the preceding and following passages, is how the Jews had mistaken the Law itself as the way of salvation, to merit through self-goodness and attain a deserved reward, and this became a stumbling block of pride, because it takes tremendous humility to just come as a dirty beggar realizing you deserve nothing and never could. And so the Law became a stumbling block for them, because they wanted to establish their own righteousness instead of submit to God's command to receive it as a gift—they desired to misuse God's commands to make themselves feel good about their performance, instead of helplessly give up and cling naked to the Cross alone.
And now, this September 25, we all have an opportunity to fulfill the mercy being show back to the Jews through the mercy we have received. Join Christians all over the world to spiritually sow back to the roots we received our blessings from, and pray for Israel!
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
Moses' original illustration was in fact, that the Law he had given was not beyond their reach, in the sense of finding out what it commands. That they didn't need to climb the highest mountain to reach some guru, or somehow sail over the farthest seas to some remote kingdom.
Paul repurposes this illustration to make a vital point about self-attainment and the Work of Christ. Christ fulfilled the Law for us both positively and negatively, that is, he positively met the demands for righteous living, but he also met the Law's strict and unyielding demand for a punishment for every infraction.
When we understand a righteousness by faith as a gift instead of earning it through Law-keeping, we see that no amount of positive deeds can cause us to be good enough to ascend to heaven; and no amount of negative penance or sorrow, can be holy enough to truly erase the evils we have done.
Instead of our meritorious works, Christ was the one who in the preceding undeserved grace of God took the initiative to come down from heaven and live a perfect life on our behalf, and then he went on to "descend to the abyss," the dark punishments of sin and place of the dead, to defeat death and hell on our behalf.
Now this Word of Faith, that all we have to do is reach out and receive a gift, is the far better good news brought to us than the constant burden of trying to meet all the Law's demands for holiness and righteous living that weigh us down with obligation and guilt and puff us up with pride.
Religion says "DO.'
God says "DONE."
Now the way this relates to the preceding and following passages, is how the Jews had mistaken the Law itself as the way of salvation, to merit through self-goodness and attain a deserved reward, and this became a stumbling block of pride, because it takes tremendous humility to just come as a dirty beggar realizing you deserve nothing and never could. And so the Law became a stumbling block for them, because they wanted to establish their own righteousness instead of submit to God's command to receive it as a gift—they desired to misuse God's commands to make themselves feel good about their performance, instead of helplessly give up and cling naked to the Cross alone.
And now, this September 25, we all have an opportunity to fulfill the mercy being show back to the Jews through the mercy we have received. Join Christians all over the world to spiritually sow back to the roots we received our blessings from, and pray for Israel!
Deuteronomy 30:11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Moses was not just denying that finding out what the law commands is beyond their reach, but his emphasis was on that that we can do it. Furthermore, in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Moses said that obedience to God's law brings life and a blessing while disobedience brings death and a curse, so choose life! So I want to discuss what Paul said that our faith references these verses as the word of faith that we proclaim, which is at odds with you saying that Jesus met the demands of righteous living for us.
The gift of becoming someone who is righteous means becoming someone who practices righteousness, so while that gift is received apart from being required to have first practiced righteousness as though it were earned as a way, that gift not apart from the gift of us getting to practice righteous living.
According to Exodus 33:13 and Matthew 7:23, knowing God and Jesus is the goal of the law. In Romans 9:30-10:4, they had a zeal for God, but it was not based on knowing Him, so they failed at attain righteousness because they pursued the law as through righteousness were the result of their works in order to establish their own instead of pursuing the law through faith in Christ, for knowing Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness for everyone who has faith, and then this faith references Deuteronomy 30:11-20 as the word of faith that we proclaim that we can do the law and the man who does it will attain life by it, which is again again at odds with you saying that we need to helplessly gift up trying to keep it.
Moreover, in the word being in our mouth so that we can do it is in direct reference to Romans 10:9-10 by confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord so that we can submit to His commands. Likewise, Deuteronomy 30:11-14 is in reference to bringing Christ up from the dead in connection with believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so becoming zealous for doing good works is the way to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 21:20), which is also the way to cling to the cross. In addition, Romans 10:16 speaks against those who do not obey the Gospel.
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