Round the Sphere Again: Word

Inscripturated Word and Incarnated Word
Kevin DeYoung says “we should approach the Scriptures with the same reverence we would have in approaching Christ.”

Word of Faith
I’m reading Romans 10 and I’ve been hung up over verses 5-8. Paul quotes from two Old Testament texts (Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:11-14) and says  that the first is what righteousness based on the law says and the second is what righteousness based on faith says. But when you go back to the OT context, it looks like the two texts are saying more or less the same thing. It’s easy to see that the Leviticus passage is about righteousness based on the law: “the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” But how does the Deuteronomy passage point us to righteousness based on faith?

I have two Romans commentaries and several study Bible, but none of them helped me a whole lot. The most helpful thing was this sermon by John Piper. He says that Paul sees the Deuteronomy passage as pointing to Christ as our righteousness. The key point in the Deuteronomy passage is that the law is doable, but we all know—Paul included—that no one but Christ has ever measured up to the law’s standards. Read the sermon to see Piper’s  four step answer to how Paul sees Deuteronomy 30:11-14 as pointing to Christ as our righteousness the way Romans 10:4 says it does.

Comments

[Markus]

I like that you're wrestling with these concepts, which are not easy. By way of help, I'd put forth a simple (though I don't believe simplistic) concept I heard from a preacher among the Brethren (not exactly of the Piper school, let's just say). Here's how he put it: the OT has very little to say (directly) about "faith;" but it has a lot to say about "fear" -- as in "the fear of the Lord." If one were to think of these terms interchangeably, it might provide some light. Basically, if the person who sought (inevitably imperfectly) to keep the Law, if he was doing so motivated by a sincere, reverential, holy fear of God, was in fact motivated by the same faith principle that is binding on us today. Law keeping for the sake of law keeping was never acceptable in God's sight if unaccompanied by a sense of God's righteousness, and thus there was faith on the part of those who sought to submit themselves to God's law.

[rebecca]

Markus,

Thanks for your comment. I do think the OT saints were saved by faith. What I'm wasn't sure of was why one of the OT passages quoted by Paul was "righteousness based on the law," and the other was "righteousness based on faith."

[Markus]

Maybe it's not righteousness by keeping the Law, but righteousness as contained within the Law? That is, the Law provides the basis for righteous living and for knowing about the truly Righteous One (as it contains many foreshadowings of Christ), but keeping it in and of itself (an impossibility, anyway) does not make one righteous.