But the righteousness of faith speaks thus Do not say in thine heart, Who shall ascend to the heavens? that is, to bring Christ down;
Here two kinds of righteousness speak for themselves. Righteousness by faith gets its own voice, and the first thing it does is forbid a question.
The verse works by contrast. Law speaks one way about being right with God. Faith answers in a different tone, and with a different actor at the centre.
Here I find it stated that the righteousness which is of the law speaks one language, and the righteousness which is of faith speaks another. The passage says this plainly, and one detail confirms it. When the righteousness of faith speaks of Christ, it says nothing of His life or His keeping of the law. It speaks of His death and resurrection. Notice also that in this righteousness of faith, man does not do or act. He believes, and God acts. He has raised Christ from the dead. I believe in what God has done.
The ban is not on curiosity but on unbelief. To ask who will go up and fetch Christ is to speak as though He had never arrived.
Faith does not say, "Who will ascend into heaven?" We do not have to go up to heaven to ask God to come and help us. That would be a denial that Christ has come from heaven. Faith does not say, "Who will descend into the abyss?" either. That would be a denial that Christ has been into death and has risen from the dead. Israel clung to their own works and ignored the mighty facts of the gospel.
Both journeys the question imagines are already behind us.
A man does not have to go up to heaven to bring Christ down from above. He has come down, even to death. A man does not have to go down into the deep to bring Christ up from the dead. He has risen: God has raised Him. A Christ who died and rose again displays God's righteousness. That stands in direct contrast to human righteousness, which would be keeping the law.
Paul draws his words from Deuteronomy, and the setting there is the point. Moses is speaking to a people who have already lost everything through disobedience.
He quotes a part of Deuteronomy with an unusual feature. Moses addressed it to Israel as a resource for the day when everything would be lost under the law. Israel might then be in exile, far from the altars of the Lord, suffering the consequence of their sins... Because of their rebellions, and under the Lord's discipline, Israel were to be carried away. Then there was no altar left, and so no way to gain righteousness by law... So when every hope of legal righteousness is overturned and gone, a new principle comes in.
Commentators differ on how much Paul has added to Moses. Some see him supplying meaning that the older words did not carry on their surface.
He puts into his words clearly what is not in Moses; and the language of Deuteronomy the thirtieth, which he uses, unquestionably speaks of the law itself... Yet, in principle at least, the apostle seems to find the gospel in this. Can it be implied, where not expressed?
Others insist nothing has been forced, because Christ was always the hidden substance of what Moses wrote.
I do not agree with those who think that the apostle has put the smallest strain on this quotation... Moses is setting two things before Israel. One is the consequence of their unfaithfulness. The other is the divine mercy that meets them in their ruin, when their heart turns to Him in spite of the broken law. Christ truly lies under the law, however veiled He is... So the righteousness of faith did not throw the repentant Jew back on his own efforts, however great those efforts might be.
If either errand were possible, it would still be the wrong answer — because salvation would then rest on human capacity.
Man could do neither. Had it been possible, neither would have suited the glory of God. He in grace meets man. It was the Father who sent His Son into the world. It was by the glory of the Father that He was raised from the dead... The blessing is at the doors. Christ is given and preached. It is for man to name Him with his mouth and to believe with his heart. There is no question of heights to be scaled or depths to be sounded, which would put honour upon human earnestness and ability.
The practical result is that faith is never left searching for a Saviour it must still obtain.
All the "doing" required by the law has been accomplished by Jesus Christ, and everything that is required now from men is to believe what Christ has done. Christ has neither to be brought down from heaven, nor to be raised again from the dead; everything has been accomplished, and all that is left is to accept in trustful thankfulness. Faith has not to acquire or win a Saviour, but to accept One who has already accomplished the work of redemption. God's righteousness is not distant and difficult, but near and easy.
- Two speakers. Law describes what a man must do; faith describes what God has done — man does not act, he believes.
- Two errands. Bringing Christ down from heaven and raising Him from the dead were what salvation needed, and God has done both.
- One forbidden question. Asking who will go is not humility but denial — it treats the coming and the rising of Christ as still outstanding.
- One setting. Moses spoke these words to a people already scattered and ruined under law, when legal righteousness was no longer even possible.
- One result. Nothing is left for us to fetch or earn. God's righteousness is not distant and difficult but near, and we accept it with thanks.
or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring up Christ from among [the] dead.
This is the second of two questions faith never asks: one looks up to heaven, this one looks down into the depths. Paul is still contrasting righteousness by law with righteousness by faith, and here he rules out any need to bring Christ back from the dead.
Paul is quoting Moses. Those words were given to Israel for a day when everything under the law would be lost.
He quotes a passage from Deuteronomy with an unusual feature. Moses addressed it to Israel as a resource for the day when everything would be lost under the law. Israel might then be in exile, far from the altars of the Lord, suffering the consequence of their sins. For a Jew, righteousness meant keeping the law, with all its rules and ordinances. Those ordinances were tied to Israel settling in the land of Canaan, and they could only be kept in the country where God had set up His altar. But for their rebellions, and under the Lord's chastening, Israel were to be carried away. Then there was no more altar, and of course no more possibility of attaining righteousness by law. So when all hope of legal righteousness is overturned and gone, a new principle comes in.
Older translations put "the abyss" here as "the deep," and the writers quoted on this page use that older wording. Where Paul took the words from shows which depth he means.
In Romans 10:7 "the deep" probably refers to the deep sea. The quotation comes from Deuteronomy 30:13, which reads, "Who will go over the sea for us?" And elsewhere the sea is called "the deep," as in Isaiah 51:10 and Isaiah 63:13.
People still ask it: has anyone come back to tell us what lies beyond death?
Unbelief objects again: Christ has died. What use is spiritual testimony from One who has shared the fate of mankind and lies silent in the grave? This is the thought in verse 7 — "Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." So we hear the bold plea of unbelief that no one has ever come back from the dead to tell us what is beyond. But it is false. Faith knows that Christ is risen from the dead, and not by any ability of man to bring Him back. It has been God's work, accomplished fully once and for all.
To ask the question at all would be to treat the resurrection as though it had not happened.
Faith does not say, "Who will ascend into heaven?" We do not have to go up to heaven to ask God to come to our help. Asking that would deny that Christ has come from heaven. Nor does faith say, "Who will descend into the deep?" That would be a denial that Christ has been into death and is risen from the dead. Israel, clinging to their own works, ignored the mighty facts of the gospel — that Christ had come, had been into death, and was risen from the dead.
Both journeys have already been made. Each one shows something of God.
"Or who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." No, that will not do either, for He has already come up. He came down in love, went into death and annulled it, and He has come up from among the dead. Love and righteousness are the two things which appear in the gospel — the love of God and the righteousness of God. Love gave the Son of God and sent Him to earth to die in the sinner's place. Righteousness raised Him, because in dying for sin and for the sinner He had glorified God infinitely.
The word "abyss" raises a question: where did the Lord go when He died?
The New Testament gives no warrant whatever for such a thought as a descent of our Lord into the bottomless pit! Our Lord "descended into the lower parts of the earth." He was buried, and He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Neither journey is needed. So where is righteousness found?
"Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" That is not the language of faith — where is righteousness to be obtained? Where is it to be found? Where is it provided? Faith says, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" — that is, the word of the gospel preached, which faith receives.
- Setting. Moses spoke these words for the day when the law had already failed Israel. Paul uses them for a righteousness that begins where doing ends.
- Question. "Who will descend into the abyss?" is unbelief's claim that no one has returned from the dead to tell us what lies beyond.
- Denial. Asking it would deny the very facts of the gospel — that Christ came, went into death, and rose.
- Answer. Love brought Him down; righteousness raised Him up. Both journeys are finished, and God did them.
- Nearness. Nothing is left to fetch. So righteousness is not far off. It is in the word preached, near your mouth and heart.