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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): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ~ Romans 10:5-10
Today, we continue our study of Romans 9-11 where the main subject is the sovereignty of God. In Romans 9 we considered Israel’s past with the Lord. In that chapter we considered all that God did to position Israel to believe in Him consistently which they did not. In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul instructs us regarding Israel’s present with the Lord.
In v.5 of today’s passage we read, “For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, ‘The man who does those things shall live by them.’”
In this verse the Apostle quotes Leviticus 18:5 where God promises to fulfill the humanity of the one who walks in God’s righteousness. God promises His blessing upon those who simply obey the Ten Commandments. If we walk in God’s ways, we will live the life the Lord Jesus died to give us. Yet, we can not do the things the law prescribes perfectly. This is why the Lord Jesus came; to fulfill the Law and the Prophets on our behalf. He did this so that we could be justified in the eyes of the Father.
In v.6-7 of today’s passage we read, “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).”
In this passage the Apostle quotes Moses again where he points us to the importance and necessity of faith in the God of the Bible. By asking the questions, “Who will ascend into heaven?,” and “Who will descend into the abyss?,” the Apostle is saying a righteous standing does not come to us through our good behavior or our obedience to the Law. In fact, the Apostle combines two words in these verses, “faith” and “heart” to point us to how the righteousness of God is realized in and through our lives only by faith.
In v.8-9 of today’s passage we read, “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): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Paul is saying here the same thing that Moses taught that salvation comes to us only by grace through faith in the God of the Bible. Moses knew that the people could not earn God’s favor or their justification before God, and he saw clearly that God would lay the foundation for salvation in the incarnation and the resurrection of of the Lord Jesus. That is why Paul quotes these words from Deuteronomy. Moses saw the coming of Christ down from heaven; he saw the resurrection, the raising of the Lord from the dead.
In these two verses are found the key elements for salvation. The mouth here speaks of our outward man, the intellectual understanding of what has happened, expressed in words; the heart is the inner man, the will, the spirit deep within us understanding the basis upon which God saves us. When we believe in our hearts that God raised Christ from the dead, when we confess with our mouths and we believe in our hearts that the Lord Jesus conquered sin and death on our behalf, we will be saved.
In v.10 of today’s passage we read, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Our salvation begins with the confession of our mouths that "Jesus is Lord." We must not twist those words to mean that we have to stand up in public somewhere and announce that we believe Jesus is Lord before we are saved. Paul does not mean it that way. What he is saying is the mouth is the symbol of the conscious acknowledgment of what we believe. It means that we have come to the place where we recognize that the Lord Jesus has demonstrated that He is Lord over our greatest enemy, death.
So, the only righteousness that gets us into heaven that comes to us is a righteousness that's very high because it must meet the infinite standard of the holiness of God. It's a righteousness that we can't gain on our own and so Christ provides it for us through His death, burial, and resurrection. And it is appropriated to us by our faith placed in Him and in Him alone.
Notice that the Apostle intentionally used the words righteousness and salvation here. Righteousness has to do with what we as believers in the Lord Jesus become. Salvation has to do with what we don't become. Righteousness has to do with what we receive. Salvation has to do with what we don't receive, punishment. Righteousness has to do with entering into blessedness. Salvation has to do with escaping His wrath and the cursedness of sin. Two great terms describing two sides of God's redemptive work in our lives in the present and in eternity.
