Romans 10:5-10

There were two ways the Jews failed to submit to God’s righteousness.  The first was that they stumbled over Christ, the end of the law for righteousness for all who believe.  The second is that they failed to see that faith was called for in the law.  We see this in Rom. 10:5-8 and its strong call to faith that quotes Deuteronomy 30:11-14.  

Paul, as we have noted, taught that the law was a tutor to lead us to Christ.  It was given to point out sin but was not a cure for sin.  Some may think this is a new truth from Paul but that is not the case.  You may be surprised to know that both Moses and Joshua, the key figures in leading Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, both believed that Israel would not be able to keep the law of Moses (Joshua in Josh. 24:19 and Moses in Deut. 31:16-19).  God even gave Moses a song to teach to the people revealing how they would stray from Him.  

In other words, if you studied Moses as Paul had, you would conclude that the law would produce repeated failure and would continually lead to faith-based righteousness.  If you wonder about this, just note the words quoted in Romans 10 from Deut. 30.  It begins with a reminder from Lev. 18:5 that the requirement of the law was that you must keep the law entirely (cf. Gal. 3:12).  That was the standard for “the righteousness that is of the law.”  

But “the righteousness of faith” spoke differently.  It warned against thinking that you could be justified by the heroic keeping of the law.  Paul sees this in the reference to ascending into heaven and descending into the abyss.  The one who seeks righteousness by keeping the law is attempting the impossible.  Rather, Moses said, “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”  It was a call to righteousness by faith, receiving salvation with the empty hand.  Paul relates each of these phrases to Christ, even telling us the fulfillment of Moses’ words is found in “confess(ing) with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe(ing) in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.”  

Now you may still wonder if Paul only knew this because of his “hindsight” position on this side of the cross.  But in fact Romans 10 will go on to reference other Old Testament passages to this call to faith.  For now let us be reminded that Paul referred in Romans 4 to Abraham (before the law was given) and David (after the law) as men of faith.  In other words they did not seek righteousness by law-keeping but by faith.  We saw in the previous devotional how there would always be a remnant who would be saved.  These would be people who submitted to the righteousness of God.

The hardest thing is to come to Christ empty-handed.  There is always the thought that we must bring something to God that shows we deserve a right standing with Him.  To do this is to stumble over Christ, the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  Come to Christ by faith alone today.