The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, director of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 20, 1983. The title is, The Word is Near You, and the scripture reference is Romans chapter 10, verses 5 through 13. 

I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Romans, turn to chapter 10, the passage we had read just a moment ago. I need to do a little bit of Bible study this morning with you. Because this is a key passage for understanding the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The way the Old Testament works in relationship to the New, it's a very key passage, and yet I'm afraid that most of the time it's completely misunderstood. understood. Romans chapter 10 and verse 5, we read, Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it.

But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say into your heart who will ascend into heaven and so on. That's near you, it's in your heart, it's on your lips, and it's usually read as a contrast between the righteousness based on the law, which is impossibly difficult, and a righteousness based on faith, which is very, very easy. It's right here at hand.

That's the way that's usually interpreted. Supposing that the righteousness based on the law, that is the Old Testament, is impossibly difficult to attain, futile to even try. Its only purpose was to show us the impossibility of attaining such a high standard.

The righteousness based on faith, the New Testament, is the gift of God and we simply receive it by faith. That's close. But it really misses.

It really does miss. The passage is usually read then something like this. Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness that is based on the law shall live by it.

We know, of course, that such righteousness is not really possible. Still, if that's your choice, you've made your bed, you sleep in it. If you've chosen the righteousness based on law, you're stuck with it.

Now live with that. That's the way it's usually read. You think you'll get to heaven by doing good deeds?

You go ahead and try. Try all the harder. You'll find it's like Sisyphus pushing his rock up the mountain.

It keeps rolling back on top of you. Now, in contrast to that, the righteousness based on faith is right here at hand. You don't even have to search for it.

Right? Does that sound familiar? So that Old Testament is law and rigor and condemnation.

New Testament is grace and gift and mercy and faith and we just receive it joyfully. And that's the great distinction. Now the problem with that is that behind this passage that Mary Carlin read to us, Moses is paraphrasing one passage and he's quoting another from the Old Testament and both of them are making exactly the opposite point.

Exactly the opposite point. So if you'd like to hold your finger here for a second and turn all the way back to Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus 18. This is God speaking to Moses.

Listen to what He says. Say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you dwelt, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you.

You're going to be different. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall do all My ordinances and keep My statutes and walk in them.

I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My ordinances by doing which a man shall live. He doesn't say the man who chooses the righteousness based on the law shall live by it.

He says he shall live. Do you catch the difference? Not you've chosen it, you're stuck with it.

This is the way to live. That's the message of the whole Old Testament. Do this and live.

I've given you my law to tell you how to live. God introduces the Ten Commandments by saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Do this and live.

The other passage is even more explicit. Deuteronomy chapter 30. That's to the right.

Two books over. Deuteronomy 30, starting with verse 11. Again, the Lord is speaking.

He says, For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say who will go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

But the Word, what Word? The Word of My commandment. Right?

My Word, the Word of My commandment, is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. Isn't that odd?

The very thing that Paul says about Jesus, almost exactly a quote, The Old Testament says about the law, rather than being a great contrast between this hard, impossibly difficult way of attaining righteousness, they're one and the same. Paul takes the words that God himself attributes to the law and applies them to Jesus. Do you follow me?

Everybody together? I know, it's a little early in the morning. Deuteronomy 30 belabors how easy it is.

to keep the commandments of God. They're not hard. They're not far away.

They're not difficult. They're right here at hand. And yet, that's the way this passage in Romans is usually interpreted.

There's a very famous commentary, probably the most well-known, most trusted commentary in American use, the Interpreter's Bible. There's a lot of good things in it, but every now and then, I really have to quarrel with it. Let me tell you what the Interpreter's Bible says about this passage.

It says, it is hard to see why Paul should have chosen a passage whose clear original meaning is almost exactly the opposite of the point he's trying to make. I think I can clear that up. That's not the point he's trying to make.

He is not contrasting a righteousness based on the law with a righteousness based on faith. that is not what he's doing. And virtually all of Protestantism has been schooled to think that that is what he's doing.

That is not what he's doing. What he's saying is that unless you understand that the righteousness which is based on law is itself based on faith, you will have missed the point. And most people have.

Should I say that again? The righteousness based on the law is itself based on faith. Let me give you an illustration.

Hymn book, right? Bible. Bible.

What's holding the hymn book up? Are you sure? I'm holding the hymn book up.

Got it? Oh, yeah, the Bible is supporting the hymn book, and I hope that's true. I hope that our hymns are based on the Bible.

The Bible is supporting the hymn book, but you see, I'm holding the Bible up. God supports His Word. All right?

But let's just let this represent the righteousness, our righteousness which is based on the law. Okay? Properly understood, That is based on faith.

Okay? You get it? Glenn Swan is shaking his head no. I don't get it.

Alright, Glenn, I'll try it another way. Look, I don't try to do nice things for my wife in order to earn the right to be her husband. I couldn't earn the right to be her husband.

That's her gift to me. The gift of her love and her grace. We've entered into a covenant.

But because I'm the recipient of her love, I want to try to do nice things for her. Sometimes I even ask her, Honey, would you give me a list of things that I could do? And as I have time, I'll get to them.

I got that idea from Jim Whitaker. And you may know that he bought a computer recently to keep track. How long is the list, Jim? I don't know.

You see what I'm saying? The ancient Israelites were called to be a covenant people. To have a love affair with God.

They didn't earn that. It was God's free gift. I've chosen you to be My particular people.

Now, let me give you some things that will express how that love affair is to be worked out. Their right standing with God, which is all that the word righteousness means, right standing with God, is not based upon doing all those things. It's based upon the love affair beneath them.

If the love affair is there, if they are a covenant people, then that needs to be expressed. And here are some of the ways that we can look for it to be expressed. But the problem is that along the way, many, many people, undoubtedly the majority of the people, really got that all kind of confused and forgot where they were coming from.

And began to think that if I just do all these laws, then I will have earned my status with God. That's what's at stake. if you don't see that if you don't understand that you're going to end up with either of two really terrible conclusions number one you're going to think that the whole Old Testament was simply wrong in giving all those laws and ordinances and statutes and so on we've got to shut the book on that and move on that's for the past no, it's simply a misunderstanding of what those are about or else even more obnoxious you're going to end up thinking that the New Testament is saying we just come to Jesus by faith and don't have to worry about our conduct.

Can you imagine, I mean, can you really imagine coming into a love relationship with God and not having it affect your conduct? The God who is holy, holy, holy and not having it affect your conduct? How are old and new related?

Jesus said, don't think I've come to abolish. the old, I've come to what? Fulfill it.

Fulfill it. And He wants to go on fulfilling it in and through us. So that rather than that being an external law that we just smash ourselves against it, we find it becoming a second nature to us on the inside.

It's no longer all that hard. It's no longer all that difficult to do the things because we want to please God and were drawing on His life and strength and power to do them. Of course you can't keep the law of God unless God Himself is at the center of your life.

But what if He is? Then it ought to be flowing from within you. Of course you come to Christ through faith.

You receive His grace as a gift from God. but can you imagine a right standing before Him that doesn't begin to affect the way you live? You see what I'm saying?

What was wrong for most of the Jews of Paul's day was not that they were seeking to be righteous. That's fine. But that they completely misunderstood the role of faith in being righteous.

Turn back just a page. Romans 9 pulls it together. Verse 30, he says, What shall we say then?

That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith, but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on the law did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith.

Do you see that? They didn't succeed in fulfilling it because they didn't pursue it through faith. It has always been faith.

It's never been anything but faith. How did Abraham become righteous before God? He believed God.

He said he believed God and God attributed that to him as righteousness. That was before the law was ever given. He took God at His Word.

That's the basis for covenant. It was centuries later that then God began to spell out some regulations, some rules, some statutes, some ordinances. Say, now this is how you express it.

It's not faith versus the law, but faith as the key to the law. You support the Bible and you'll support the hymn book. Take the Bible away and the hymn book falls.

Take the faith away and the law falls. Do you follow me now? And so Paul says, the Word is near you, it's on your lips, and it's in your heart.

What Word? The Word of God. When is it near you?

When is it on your lips? When you've hidden it in your heart. See, when you've believed that, when you've taken that as God's Word to you, when you've joyed in it, when you've believed it by faith, when you confess it with your lips, then you'll find that you do it in your life.

David put it this way. He said, How shall a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy Word.

He went on to say, Thy Word I have hidden in my heart. Why? That I might not sin against thee.

He took the Word of God as the expression of the love relationship between them. And when he allowed it to take root in his heart, when he confessed it with his lips, when he obeyed it in his life, he walked in it to the glory of God. The perfect example of that is Jesus Himself.

Here He is in the wilderness. Satan comes repeatedly, do this, do this, do that. And Jesus says, no, I won't. Why?

Because it is written. And I, as the incarnate Son of God, freely, voluntarily bind myself to the Word of God written. We've looked at that many times before.

it's often said Jesus quoted Scripture to the devil that's not quite accurate what he really was doing was quoting Scripture to himself in the hearing of the devil no, I'm not going to change the stone into bread why? because it is written I as a man am not to live by bread alone nothing wrong with changing stone into bread it would be a jolly good thing except that my father hasn't told me to do that. I'm not to live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

My father hasn't told me to do that, therefore I'm not going to do it. Why? Because the word of God was in his heart and on his lips and therefore expressed in his life.

And it wasn't hard for him. Do you follow the picture? He confesses the Word of God.

The word confess comes from two Latin words which mean to say the same thing as. To say the same thing as. He says the same thing as God has said.

And therein is His victory. Satan flees. He can't stand that.

Do you see what's at stake here? The key to our victory in Christ is that we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Word of God. That we hide it in our hearts.

That we confess it with our lips and that we do it. Not in order to earn points with God. That we do it because therein is our relationship with God, which is a love affair and the gift of His grace.

We do it because therein is safety. Therein is protection. Therein is salvation.

How many of you know that the only safe place is in obedience to God? That's right. The only safe place is to be in the center of God's will.

All kinds of other things look attractive. They're very tempting, but there's no safety there. There's only danger there.

The only safe place is to be right in the center of God's will. and so the pattern is we take God at His Word not in order to earn some status with Him but because He has already given us the relationship of sons and daughters as a gift therefore we take Him at His Word and we allow that to set the boundaries for our lives we hide it in our hearts we confess it with our lips we do it Jesus says John says Peter says James says be not hearers of the word only but doers doers be ye doers of the word I've used this example before but it's been some time maybe some of you haven't heard it you can sort of see this in the little caterpillar crawls out into the garden you know and he begins to admire this beautiful bird, this robin that comes in. Begins to admire the beauty of the robin.

He says, oh, if only I could fly like you fly. The robin says, well, that's what you were made for. You were made to fly.

So the little caterpillar crawls up to the top of the asparagus stalk, shuts his eyes, takes a deep breath, and hurls himself off and crashes. tries again and tries again and crashes every single time he's trying to attain something external to himself he's smashing himself the harder he tries finally gives up withdraws inside himself goes into his little shell looks like he's dead but he's not dead it's a wonderful metamorphosis taking place inside of him suddenly he feels a stirring inside of him and he pushes out his little elbows feels that shell cracking comes out he doesn't even recognize himself the wind begins to blow across his back and he feels something stirring he looks over his shoulder what in the world is that? these gorgeous wings have appeared out of nowhere and he stretches them out and they stiffen in the wind and suddenly he finds himself airborne.

He who envied the robin now is infinitely more glorious than the robin ever dreamed of being and what previously was impossible to him now has become second nature. The law which was external has become internalized. Now it's not out there a law against which he smashes himself.

Now it's the law of his nature. It's inside him. If you see the law as something out there removed from you, of course you're never going to do it.

But when you understand that it's the gift of God, it's inside you. It transforms you from within. You become a new creature in Christ.

You have a new birth. You inherit a new nature. and what previously seemed so far away, now is fulfilled within you.

And you begin to soar. That's how the Old and the New Testament come together. Jesus Christ didn't come to abolish anything except our misunderstanding.

He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and He wants to go on fulfilling it in and through you and me. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, Your Word abideth and our footsteps guideth.

Thank You for giving us Your Word. Lord, let Your Word take deep root in the soil of our lives as we renew our trust and our faith and our love for You, especially during this Lenten season when many of us are renewing our habit of daily Bible reading. Lord, cause Your Word to grow up and to produce 30 and 60 and 100 fold for Your name's sake.

Amen. Amen.