And Old Testament Verses
— Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
— Deuteronomy 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 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?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
I think I learned a simple base-line truth about righteousness when I was highlighting the Romans verses. Righteousness that is based on the law…does AND righteousness based on faith says…For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
In between those …’s is the mysterious truth about righteousness. There are rules and how you keep them impacts everything about your life. The Lord says so! “The design of the law was to lead people to Christ. The moral law was but for the searching of the wound, the ceremonial law for the shadowing forth of the remedy; but Christ is the end of both.”[a]
— My heart heart knows when my mind choses to obey God’s statutes as if they’re a bandaid that can cover the accusation that it’s my behavior that will strengthen my heavenly image here on earth instead of Christ.
— My heart knows when my mind relies on the phony satisfaction of good intentions and moral righteousness as if they’re a good excuse for not opening my mouth to say they were the result of Christ resurrecting my life so I actually had something to rely on.
The simple base-line truth about righteousness
for my life and yours is:
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…
The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, so that
YOU CAN DO IT!
[a] Matthew Henry
Read and Ponder - Faith in Daily Life 