It is absolutely impossible for a man to obtain the righteousness out of the law, because it requires him to be sinless in his thoughts, intentions, words, and behavior for every year, hour, minute, and second of his life from the time he was born. If he breaks any one item of the law, he transgresses the whole. For us, this is simply a hopeless proposition. Since we cannot have the righteousness out of the law, we need to have the righteousness out of faith. This righteousness, as we have mentioned, is the righteousness through which Christ was judged. Since Christ has suffered the punishment, we have this righteousness through faith. This righteousness has absolutely nothing to do with us. The Scriptures say, "'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." There is no need for us to do this. There is no need to ascend into heaven. This means that there is no need to ask Christ to come to the earth to die for us. There is also no need to descend into the abyss. This implies that the resurrection of Christ is now the basis of our justification. God has already caused the Lord Jesus to die and resurrect, and His resurrection has become the basis of our justification. All that remains for us to do is to believe.

Verse 8 says, "But what does it say?" "It" refers to Moses' word. Paul quoted Moses to show that even Moses preached justification by faith. This is quite amazing, inasmuch as Moses was the promoter of the law and its requirements. But Paul introduced Moses, saying that Moses also spoke concerning justification by faith when he said, "'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim." Paul maintained that Moses' words refer to justification by faith. To understand this quotation we need to go back to Deuteronomy 29 and 30 in the Old Testament. There Moses passed on all of God's law and commandments to the Israelites, telling them that if they failed to obey those commandments and keep the law, God would punish them by scattering them among the nations; and if their hearts would draw near to God in the dispersion, the word would be near them, even in their mouths and in their hearts. Moses was saying that God's judgment would be present whenever man breaks the law and transgresses. What shall man do then? He needs to receive a righteousness apart from the law, one which is in his mouth and in his heart. Such a grace outside of the law is a gift to us. When Deuteronomy was quoted in Romans 10, a word of explanation was added. "'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim." There is no thought of work here. The righteousness which is out of the law has been thoroughly transgressed against. When the people were scattered among the nations of the earth as predicted in Deuteronomy 30, they could no longer claim to have any work. The question of work was over. The only word which they had then was the word that was in their mouth and in their heart. Formerly it was a matter of works, and the result was dispersion. Now there are no more works. Hence it is of faith.