Romans 10:5

"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means."

Our Pastor at River City Christian fellowship gave a sermon "Righteousness Based on the Law" on Romans 10:5 "For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them." This sermon discusses the beauty of God's Torah and uses Psalm 119 to dispel the idea that the Law was ever something burdensome or less than perfect, holy, and good. The message is whoever does the commandments will have life. Rashi, a prominent sage, is quoted in the Sefaria to say that this means living in the world to come (eternal life). After all, everyone dies so it can't just mean in this world.

I think the confusion about this scripture comes in the verses that follow.

"but" is the wrong word here.

Romans 10:5-9

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘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). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

In the Greek for this portion of Scripture, the word used for but, meaning a change in thinking, was not used. When this verse is translated this way makes it seem as though the righteousness based on faith is in direct opposition to the law. That is not what is going on here. Paul is quoting Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and according to Stern's commentary on the New Testament, what Paul is getting at is that those who trust in God and His commands will also see that those commands point to Christ. The law does not contradict Christ, because Christ is the Word made flesh.

God has always wanted man to have circumcised hearts.

When one comes to follow the Word made flesh, you are accepting that Word, or Torah, as God's Word that brings eternal life. This is what you want to be imprinted on you and anything that is not of God to be cut away from you. Anything that is not of the Word of God.

Jesus, after all, kept the law perfectly. Don't we want to emulate Christ?

This isn't about going crazy and overdosing on all the commands in the Old Testament. We should be reading it though, this is the description of our Savior. Christ, after all, kept the law perfectly. Don't we want to emulate Christ and live how he lived? Paul explains in Philippians 3:12-15 that to become perfect in Christ is a process, something to strive for because we love God. This means that we should be praying for discernment and reading our Bibles.

May God bless you.