Romans 10:4-10: "Faith in Christ"

Paul had just finished exposing the Jewish people for their pursuit of self righteousness. He had just reproved them for pursuing their own righteousness apart from Christ. He had recognized their inability to accept Christ for who He was and what He came to do, as he exclaims "seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God". He now will show them again that it is only faith in Christ that will ever bring true righteousness. He begins, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes". Paul understood the way of the Pharisees, for he was one himself. He said, "a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; . . . as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless" (Phil. 3:5-6). Paul had given his life to obeying the Law in order to attain righteousness and favor with God. However, in looking back on his pursuit he could now say, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death". Paul understood the self righteousness he sought as a Pharisee was worthless rubbish and damning. He now pleads with his brethren to realize the same thing. MacArthur writes, "Paul is saying that belief in Christ as Savior and Lord brings to an end the sinner's futile quest for righteousness through his own imperfect attempts to fulfill the law". He was begging them to understand that they could never fulfill the perfect law God had given them. The whole point of it was to point them to God and rely on Him, understanding they could never attain, trusting in Him in faith. However, Jews set out to make their own standards that were quite inferior to be able to attain self-righteousness.

It was clear that the Jews relied on works for their righteousness and Paul will now reiterate the point that they must understand salvation comes through faith in Christ. As Paul so often does, he points back to Old Testament history to show that salvation has always been by faith. He begins, "For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness". Paul is explaining to them that anyone who seeks to be justified by the law, will be held accountable for all the law requires. MacArthur writes, "Whoever relies on his own obedience to the law is held accountable for everything that the law requires. Quoting again from Deuteronomy, Paul testifies that "as many as are the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them' (Gal. 3:10). The law asks for absolute perfection, and as we all know we will never be able to meet that requirement. James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all". In other words, the second we transgress the law, we are held culpable for breaking every single one. Therefore, we know that "all have sinned and fall short" and the "wages of sin is death", we can then understand that every man apart from the righteousness of Christ will die in their sins. MacArthur points out another problem Paul was facing, "Because of the countless rabbinical traditions that had been developed over the previous several hundred years, the Jews of Paul's time had so lowered and replaced with tradition God's divine standard of righteousness that many Jews actually believed they lived satisfactory obedience to the Law". Paul was trying to get them to see their righteousness was nothing more than "filthy rags".

Paul now personifies righteousness that is based on faith, and say it would "speak thus, 'Do not say in your hear, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is to bring Christ down), or 'Who will descend into the abyss?; (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)". MacArthur explains, "Paul's point in Romans 10:6-7 is that, even if such things were possible, men could not come to salvation by searching for Christ in heaven, . . . to bring [Him] down, or by descending into the abyss, the depths of the earth or of the oceans, to raise Him up from the dead. The righteousness of faith does not require some mystical, esoteric, and impossible journey through the universe to find Christ. No matter what form it takes, 'righteousness which is based on law' (v.5) denies Christ's incarnation and denies His resurrection". Anything we try to do to attain righteousness will fall short. It is amazing how hard we will try to create some sort of works based righteousness to give ourselves some credit. When someone is truly saved, they will find every possible way to take themselves out of the equation and give all honor and glory to God.

Paul continues, "But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart'". By it, Paul is referring to the personified righteousness by faith. He is saying righteousness by faith has always been around. It has been in the word, it has been implanted in your heart, the prophets have testified, and everything in the Old Testament points to salvation by faith. To clarify he reiterates, "that is, the word of faith which we are preaching". The word Paul is currently speaking to them is what has been all the time, and they must adhere to it in order to be saved. In fact to summarize, Paul tells us that in order to receive salvation you must "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead". Here we can see the two pillars of the Christian faith: 1) We must confess and be bold before men with the fact that Jesus is Lord. This means he is Lord of our life, we attest to His deity and control over our life. We submit our will and lives to Him in obedience. 2) We must believe in the facts of the crucifixion and resurrection. We must believe Christ was killed on the cross for our sin, however, he was miraculously raised from the dead in order to conquer death and signify the new life we can have in Him. There is no way around the resurrection. Those who do not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ cannot be saved. Paul sums up for us, "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" (I Cor. 15:14-19). Christ had to raise from the dead, otherwise, He could not be who He claimed to be: God.

Paul concludes with, "For with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation". We can see Paul using the opposite order in this last verse compared to the previous verse. He speaks first of believing and then confessing. Paul explains that when we believe it is with our hearts. MacArthur writes, "The Hebrews considered the heart to be the core of personhood and the residence of the soul, the deepest, innermost part of man - where thought, will, and motive are generated". Our innermost beliefs will be evident in our hearts, and with this in mind, Paul tells us that if we believe in our hearts in Jesus Christ, the result is we receive His righteousness. This is not self-righteousness or a false man-made righteousness, but the true righteousness of Christ that saves us from our sins. Therefore, the minute we believe in our hearts that all who Jesus claimed to be, and all He did was true, we are immediately made righteous. In turn, when man confesses with their mouth what they believe in their heart, namely Christ as Lord, the result is salvation. MacArthur summarizes, "It is with the mouth that man confesses, Paul says. Homologeo (confess) has the root meaning of speaking the same thing, of being in agreement and accord with someone. The person who confesses Jesus as Lord (v.9) agrees with God the Father, and that confession mixed with genuine trust brings salvation".