You don’t have to search far and wide, high and low, to be right with God.

Romans 10:6-8 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “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 which we are preaching,” We learned verse 5 what the law of righteousness speaks to us, but in this and the following verses we learn what the righteousness based on faith speaks to us. Let’s notice Paul didn’t say, “Moses wrote.” He’s drawing this Scriptural support from Deut. 30, which Moses wrote, but this time Paul said it was the righteousness of faith speaking. There’s not time in this podcast to fully unpack what Paul said in these verses. I direct you to Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones for a full explanation. I’ll just summarize it today for our encouragement. What the law of righteousness requires is impossible to reach. It’s impossible to obtain due to the weakness of the flesh and indwelling sin. In stark contrast, the righteousness based on faith doesn’t require that you need to search in the heavens or plunge into a deep discovery exercise or perform some stupendous endeavor to stand righteous in God’s sight. Don’t say that righteousness is an impossible feat or far away. Paul said to the Romans that the righteousness based on faith was as near as the words coming out of their mouths as they read his letter out loud to the congregation. It’s what he had written to them in this letter that they’ve been reading from the very first. They had been reading of this gospel good news that God has a righteousness to give through Jesus Christ, His Son. He is here. He has done it. It is available as they read and listen to it. And so it is this very moment as you are listening to this podcast. Salvation is as near as the words you are hearing. You don’t have to search far and wide, high and low, to be right with God, to know His love, and fulfill His Word. You don’t have to do the impossible. Jesus is here. He is alive. He lives to love you and live in you. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. As we love with Him, we are bringing the gospel near. The words we speak in love, telling them about His righteousness that enables us to love and pray for them, testify that Jesus and salvation are at hand. Indeed, the salvation of God is as near to those in our paths as we are to them. We have the privilege of simply telling them the good news as we love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com