Romans (LXXXIX)
Romans 10:5-8
(from a manuscript of a sermon preached on 1/9/11 at Sovereign Redeemer Assembly)
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans
10, and let’s read verses 4 through 8:
Romans 10: (4)
For Christ [is] the end of Law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. (5) For Moses writes [of] the righteousness [which is] of the Law: The man doing
these things shall live by them. (6) But the righteousness of faith says this:
Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into Heaven?
(that is, to bring down Christ); (7) or, Who will go
down 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 proclaim).
In Romans 10:1, Paul makes a
judgment about the spiritual state of these Jews. He says that they are not saved. In verses 2 and 3, he gives the BASIS,
the REASON why he judges these people to be unsaved. He says that although they have a ZEAL
TO GOD, which is what most religionists who come in the name of Christianity
base their judgments on, they were lacking knowledge – specifically, they
were lacking knowledge of the righteousness of God. And because they were lacking this
specific knowledge, they were AUTOMATICALLY seeking to establish their OWN
righteousness and were not submitted to the righteousness of God. In verse 4, he says what this specific
doctrine is that the unbelieving Jews were ignorant of, which is that Christ is
the end of Law for righteousness to everyone that believes. This means that Jesus Christ met in full
the demands of God’s holy Law, and acceptance before God does not come
through our OWN righteousness but through the righteousness of CHRIST that is
imputed to all who believe.
Starting with verse 5, the Holy
Spirit through Paul continues to talk about the righteousness that these
unbelieving Jews THOUGHT was the righteousness that recommended them to
God. They THOUGHT that it was their
OWN works of the Law that was the ground of their acceptance before God. This is the ANTITHESIS of the
righteousness of God revealed in the GOSPEL. Now do you think it made any difference
whether or not they thought they were ENABLED BY GOD to meet the
condition? Think back to the
Pharisee in Luke 18 who said, “GOD I THANK YOU that I am not as the rest
of men.” This Pharisee was
THANKING GOD for ENABLING him to meet the condition of Law-keeping. Do you think that God said, “Well,
since you believe that I enabled you to meet the condition, then you really
aren’t seeking to establish your own righteousness”? No – Jesus Christ said that the
TAX COLLECTOR went down to his house justified RATHER THAN the Pharisee. The tax collector cried out to God for mercy,
knowing that he could not be justified by his works. Jesus Christ said that the Pharisee was
EXALTING HIMSELF, EVEN THOUGH the Pharisee thanked God. So AWAY with the trash that we hear from
self-righteous religionists that if a condition is God-enabled then there is no
boasting because it’s grace and not works. When we see here in verse 5 and verses
like this the concept of righteousness by works, IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY
DIFFERENCE whether or not the person believes that his works are God-enabled or
self-enabled or any kind of combination of the two. It’s still WORKS
RIGHTEOUSNESS. Let’s always
keep that in mind.
So here in verse 5, Paul quotes
Moses in Leviticus. He introduces
this quote by saying that Moses “writes of the righteousness which is of
the Law.” This is the
righteousness that is attained by Law-keeping. Let’s go back to Leviticus 18 and
read verses 4 and 5:
Leviticus 18:
(4) You shall do My judgments and you shall keep My
statutes, to walk in them; I [am]
Jehovah your God, (5) and you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if
a man does, he shall live by them. I [am]
Jehovah.
Does this mean that God is saying
that those who strive to keep the Law, even though they might not be perfect,
will inherit eternal life? Well,
there’s another passage in the New Testament that quotes a portion of
this passage in Leviticus, and it’s in Galatians, and it gives us a clear
answer. Let’s read Galatians
3:10-12:
Galatians 3: (10) For as many as
are out of works of Law, [these]
are under a curse. For it has been written, Cursed [is] everyone who does not continue in
all the things having been written in the book of the Law, to do them. (11) And
that no one is justified by Law before God [is] clear because, The just shall live
by faith. (12) But the Law is not of faith, but, The
man doing these things shall live in them.
Now what does this show us about
what Leviticus 18:5 and Romans 10:5 are saying? It shows us that these passages are
saying that only PERFECT CONFORMITY to God's Law merits eternal life. And, as
Galatians 3:10 says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in ALL the
things having been written in the book of the Law, to do them.” PERFECT OBEDIENCE is required for
fellowship with God and eternal life.
Now Paul is NOT saying that good works form the ground of salvation;
instead, he is saying that in order for good works to form the ground of
salvation, they must be perfect, and since no man is perfect, one cannot be
justified based on his works.
Let’s turn back to Romans 3 and read verse 10 and then verses 19
and 20:
Romans 3: (10)
according as it has been written, [There
is] not a righteous [one],
not even one! … (19) But we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to
those within the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God. (20) Because by
works of Law not one of all flesh will be justified before Him, for through Law
[is] full knowledge of sin.
We’ve already seen these
things in many previous sermons. If
anyone wants to be recommended to God based on his works and efforts, then he
is a DEBTOR to do the WHOLE LAW, as Galatians 5:3 says. These Jews who thought that their own
righteousness was what recommended them to God were required to KEEP THE LAW
PERFECTLY, and if they didn’t, then they were under God’s
CURSE. And since NO ONE can keep
the law perfectly, EVERYONE who thinks that his own works and efforts, whether
he thanks God for them or not, form the ground of his acceptance before God and
worthiness for heaven, is under a curse. ONLY those who rest in
the righteousness of Christ ALONE for ALL of salvation, from regeneration to
final glory, are accepted before God, NOT because of even the TINIEST PART of
their own works and efforts, but SOLELY because of the atoning blood and
imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Let’s go back to our text in
Romans 10 and read verses 6 and 7:
Romans 10: (6)
But the righteousness of faith says this: Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into Heaven? (that
is, to bring down Christ); (7) or, Who will go down into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from [the] dead.)
Now this is a passage that’s
difficult to understand – at least it’s been difficult for me to
understand. The first part that is
not as difficult to understand is the phrase “the righteousness of
faith,” since we’ve already seen this phrase in Romans 4:11 and 13
and Romans 9:30. The
“righteousness of faith” is the OPPOSITE of “the
righteousness which is of the Law” in verse 5. While “the righteousness which is
of the Law” speaks of attaining righteousness through one’s own
works and efforts, “the righteousness of faith” is that
righteousness that is OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES, which is the perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ, that is IMPUTED to God’s people and RECEIVED through the
instrument of faith.
Now what about the rest of verses 6
and 7? This has been really hard
for me. It’s been one of the
most difficult passages to understand that I’ve encountered. I’ve looked at the original Greek
of this passage and then the original Hebrew of the passage that this passage
is based on, and I’ve looked at the immediate context and larger context
of this passage and the Old Testament passage, and I’ve consulted 19
commentaries, and I’m still not totally certain about what this passage
means. I have some ideas that I
think might be on track, but I don’t claim to know for sure. If any of you men have any insights on
this, I’d be happy to hear them.
So what I’d like to do is to go into some of the reasoning that I
used and questions that I asked when I was trying to get at the meaning of this
passage, and maybe it will be helpful to you.
First we see that the righteousness
of faith SAYS. This is what’s
called a “rhetorical trope” – in particular, a “personification”
in which human qualities are assigned to an
abstraction. In this case,
“righteousness” is personified as SAYING something. Basically, it means that the concept of
the righteousness of faith NECESSARILY IMPLIES something. So when I look for what this passage
means, I am looking to see what the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul is
saying that the righteousness of faith necessarily implies.
The first thing I see is that before
the two questions, Paul says that the righteousness of faith says, “DO
NOT say in your heart ...” And “saying in your
heart” is the same thing as “thinking.” So when we go into
each question, we need to keep in mind that the righteousness of faith
necessarily implies NOT asking these questions, because these questions are NOT
consistent with the righteousness of faith.
Paul then uses a partial quote from
Deuteronomy 30 and then adds explanations after each question. Let’s go to the passage in
Deuteronomy 30. Let’s read verses
11 to 14:
Deuteronomy 30:
(11) For this command which I am commanding you today [is] not too wonderful for you, nor [is] it too far off. (12) It [is] not in the heavens [that
you should] say, Who shall go up into the
heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it?
(13) And it [is] not beyond the
sea [that you should] say, Who shall cross over for us to the region beyond the sea and
take it for us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? (14) For the Word [is] very near to you, in your mouth
and in your heart, that you may do it.
Now let’s go back to our
passage in Romans 10. One thing we
see right away is that our passage in Romans 10 is not an exact quote from
Deuteronomy 30. So we need to be
careful in saying that Paul is quoting Moses here. It certainly looks like he is BASING his
statement on a part of Deuteronomy 30, using similar phrases, but it’s
obvious that it was not Paul’s intention to make an exact quote.
So the first question is: “Who
will go up into heaven?” And the explanation that goes with this is the
phrase, “that is, to bring down Christ.” The second question is: “Who will
go down into the abyss?” And
the explanation is, “that is, to bring Christ up from the
dead.” What do these
questions mean, and why are they not consistent with the righteousness of
faith? Well, the Deuteronomy
passage clearly states that the command is not hidden or far off, so that
someone has to go up into the heavens or beyond the sea to get it, but it is
very near, in the mouth and in the heart.
And we see in verse 8 of Romans 10 that the Word is very near to you, in
your mouth and in your heart. So
there’s definitely the concept of DISTANCE here. The Word is not far, but it is
near. Now some commentators have
said this is all this passage in Romans means – that
the Word, the gospel, is not far or hard to grasp, but it is near and easy to
grasp. But that CAN’T be all
that it means, because we have the explanation that is NOT in the Old Testament
passage regarding bringing down Christ and bringing Christ up from the
dead. Some go a little
further to say that this means that we don’t need to bring down Christ
from heaven or bring Christ up from the abyss to bring us the gospel, because
it is already near us. But I
don’t think THIS can be all that it means either, especially when Paul
doesn’t just talk about bringing Christ up from the abyss; He talks about
bringing Christ up FROM THE DEAD, which implies the RESURRECTION. So I think there’s more to it.
What does bringing down Christ from
heaven and bringing Christ up from the dead mean then? Well, I think we get a clue in verse 9:
Romans 10: (9)
Because if you confess [the]
Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from
[the] dead, you will be saved.
Notice what is confessed and
believed. “The Lord
Jesus” is confessed, and “God raised Him from the dead” is
believed. Now we if we go back to
our passage and apply these things to the two questions, we see that the first
question has to do with “the Lord Jesus,” and the second question
has to do with “God raised Him from the dead.”
Let’s go back to the first
question: “Who will go up into heaven to bring down Christ?” Some commentators see the “going
up” and “bringing down” to imply a work of the sinner in some
way that puts the person’s works in the place of Christ’s
works. I’m not saying that
there’s no merit in that reasoning, but here’s how I went about
interpreting it. If somebody asks
the question, “Who will go up into heaven to bring down Christ,”
what is that implying? It’s
implying that Christ needs to come down from heaven for some reason – and
it doesn’t look like the Second Coming of Christ on Judgment Day. If he needs to come down, then He either
hasn’t ever come down or didn’t do everything He needed to when He
came down first, so He needs to come down again. Now remember that Paul is contrasting
the righteousness of the Law to the righteousness of faith. Thus, if Christ needs to come down from
heaven, what does that say about His accomplishing perfect righteousness? He hasn’t done it. He is not the Lord Jesus, the God-Man
Mediator, who lived a life of perfect obedience as a representative and
substitute of His people, who fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law. This is what those who are of the righteousness
of the Law believe. They do NOT
believe that it is the righteousness of CHRIST that recommends them to God;
they believe that it is their OWN righteousness that recommends them to God.
Now for the second question:
“Who will go down into the abyss to bring Christ up from the
dead?” Again, some
commentators see the “going down” and “bringing up” to
imply a work of the sinner in some way that puts the person’s works in
the place of Christ’s works.
Again, I’m not saying that there’s no merit in that
reasoning, but here’s how I went about interpreting this one. If somebody asks the question,
“Who will go down into the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead?”, what is that implying? It’s implying that Christ needs to
come up from the dead. If you
encountered a person who says, “Christ needs to come up from the
dead,” what would you conclude about what that person believes? You can conclude that he believes that
Christ has NOT come up from the dead – that Christ has NOT risen, He is still dead. That corresponds to the phrase “God
raised Him from the dead” in verse 9. And what does it mean if someone
believes that Christ has not come up from the dead – that God has not
raised Jesus Christ from the dead?
It means that God was NOT TOTALLY SATISFIED with the work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. It means that
Jesus Christ’s work was NOT finished -- it did NOT accomplish full
salvation of all whom He represented, meaning that there is still MORE TO DO. This is what those who are of the
righteousness of the Law believe.
They do NOT believe that it is the work of Christ ALONE that made full
satisfaction for all whom He represented; instead, they believe that their OWN
works and efforts are what satisfy God.
Now I could go into more detail
about what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus and what it means to believe
that God raised Him from the dead, but that will be the topic for the sermon on
Romans 10:9, the Lord willing. I
just wanted to touch on these as they related to these questions. So there’s
what I think it means. It might be
a combination of what I think and what some of the other commentators have
said, but that’s my best shot at this point, and it does look like it has
merit. And I’m open to any of
the brothers giving me any of their wisdom on this.
Now on to verse 8:
Romans 10: (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 proclaim).
Paul now switches to what the righteousness of faith DOES say. The righteousness of faith says that the Word is near us. This is in contrast with the righteousness of Law in which the Word is NOT near those who have this works-righteousness. So how is it that the Word is near us, the people of God? In the context of the interpretation I just gave of verses 6 and 7, the Word is NEAR us because the Lord Jesus Christ has come down from heaven as the God-Man Mediator to establish a perfect righteousness that is imputed to His people, and He shed His blood and to make full atonement for the sins of His people, being buried in the grave, and being raised from the dead because God was fully satisfied with the work of His Son on the cross. The Word, the utterance, the doctrine, is NEAR us because we believe that salvation has been ACCOMPLISHED IN FULL by Christ. It is NOT near the ones who believe in works salvation, because they believe that salvation has NOT been accomplished in full by Christ. This Word, this utterance, this doctrine is NEAR us in our mouths and in our hearts. This again ties us in to verse 9 that talks about confession with the mouth and belief in the heart. Paul gives a further explanation of this Word by calling it “the Word of faith which we proclaim.” This makes it even more clear that this is talking about the gospel. The gospel is near to us because we believe it. The gospel is far from the wicked because they do not believe it. Notice how “faith” is used here. Faith, which is belief of the gospel, is ESSENTIAL. We will see this more in verse 9, the Lord willing. There’s no such thing as a person who is ignorant of the gospel, a person who does not have faith, who has been saved. There’s no such thing as a saved person who does not know that the Lord Jesus Christ has come down from heaven as the God-Man Mediator to establish a perfect righteousness that is imputed to His people, and that He shed His blood and to make full atonement for the sins of His people, being buried in the grave, and being raised from the dead. To be ignorant of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is to seek to establish one’s own righteousness. Every saved person has the Word near them. Every saved person believes the gospel of salvation conditioned on the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Christ is the end of Law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Amen.