Introduction

This Lord’s Day is a special one in the life of our congregation. Forty-five years ago today, on July 26, 1981, God planted this church, which was then known as Cornerstone Bible Church. Over the years our name has changed—from Cornerstone Bible Church, to Cornerstone Baptist Church, to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church, and now Cornerstone Reformed Church. The church has grown and matured in numerous ways over the years. Our theology and worship has been reformed. Members have come and gone. Children have been born, baptized, raised, married, and now many are raising covenant children of their own. Through seasons of joy and seasons of trial, through times of growth and times of pruning, the Lord has remained faithful.

And yet, if we’ve learned anything over these forty-five years, it is this: the story of Cornerstone is not ultimately the story of Cornerstone. It is the story of Christ.

Our name has always pointed beyond ourselves. We are not called Cornerstone because this church is the cornerstone. We are not the foundation. Christ is. And that same Cornerstone is either the foundation upon which men build or the stone over which they stumble. Every generation must answer the same question: What will we do with Christ?

That is especially important for a church celebrating an anniversary. Israel had a long history. They had Abraham, Moses, David, the temple, the sacrifices, the covenants, and the Law. They had centuries of God’s covenant faithfulness. Yet Paul tells us they largely missed Christ because they looked at God’s gifts instead of through God’s gifts to God’s Son. Beloved, the same danger exists for us. Forty-five years of faithful ministry cannot save us. A rich history cannot save us. Sound doctrine cannot save us. Reformed theology cannot save us. The CREC cannot save us. Even the blessings God has graciously poured out upon this congregation cannot save us if they become ends in themselves rather than windows through which we behold Christ.

That’s exactly where Paul takes us today. Having told us that Christ is the telos—the goal, fulfillment, and culmination—of the Law, Paul now proves that Moses himself had been preaching Christ all along. The same Cornerstone upon whom this church must continue to build is the Cornerstone Moses proclaimed, the Cornerstone Paul preached, and the Cornerstone upon whom every generation must either build or stumble. So today, on our forty-fifth anniversary, let us not merely celebrate God’s gifts to this church. Let us look through every one of those gifts and behold the glorious Christ who has been faithful to Cornerstone every step of the way.

So with that in mind, look with me at Romans 10:5-10.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Context

Last week we saw that Israel’s great tragedy was not that they lacked zeal, knowledge, covenant privilege, or even the Law itself, but that they looked to all of those things instead of looking through them to Christ. They sought to establish their own righteousness rather than submit to the righteousness of God, even though Christ had been the goal, substance, and fulfillment of the Law all along. The Law was never given as a ladder by which sinners might climb their way into God’s favor. It was given within the covenant of grace, to a people God had already redeemed, and it always pointed beyond itself to the faithful Son who would fulfill every righteous demand and give His righteousness to everyone who believes. Israel kept looking at Israel, but the Law was always calling them to look to Christ.

And now, in our passage today, Paul proves that point from Moses himself. He does not set Moses against Christ, or Law against grace, as though the Old Testament taught salvation by works and the New Testament introduced salvation by faith. Instead, Paul shows that Moses speaks both of the righteous life God requires from His redeemed people and of the gracious Word God brings near to be received by faith. The contrast, therefore, is not between Moses and Jesus, but between two ways of approaching the same covenant Word: unbelief takes God’s Law, abstracts it from Christ, and turns it into a means of self-establishment; faith sees Christ throughout the Law, rests in His finished work, confesses Him as Lord, and then walks in the obedience that flows from grace. The same Christ is either the cornerstone upon whom we build and live, or the stone over which the self-righteous stumble. Last week we saw that Christ is the goal of the Law. This week Paul shows us why: because Christ has always been its subject.

Romans 10:5-10

In verse 5 Paul says, “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.” Here he’s referring to Leviticus 18, where the Lord speaks to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”

So the context to what Paul is quoting from Moses is the Exodus—Israel being saved from bondage by God’s grace. And God is telling Moses and the people that they are not to be like Egypt, whom they were delivered from, nor are they to be like Canaan, where God was delivering them to. But notice that they are delivered by God’s grace. They are redeemed and saved before God gives them the Law. So in context, when Leviticus 18:5 says that if a person does the Law he shall live by them, it can’t mean that obedience to the Law is a means by which a person can save themselves, or earn or enter into life themselves. God does that by His grace.

So what is being spoken of here when God’s Word speaks of the righteousness that is based on the Law, and living by the commandments? Well the church, especially since the Reformation, has typically understood there to be a threefold division of God’s Law: God’s Moral Law, God’s Ceremonial Law, and God’s Judicial Law… Which is just a way of breaking down God’s commandments into categories based on the types of things they address. God’s Moral Law strictly speaking is the Ten Commandments, summarized with loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as our selves… But the Ceremonial and Judicial are essentially what tell us how to rightly love God and how to rightly love people. The Moral Law flows from the God who is moral, from His morality, from His nature and character. And the Ceremonial and Judicial act as case laws and the like that walk us through how to rightly apply and keep the Ten Commandments and thus rightly love God and people in any given situation and circumstance. To be sure, some of these laws were designed strictly for Israel in a certain place and time, but the general equity, their general principles and the like still apply. And even the Ceremonial Law, that teaches us how to worship God rightly and thus love God rightly, hasn’t been done away with, but has now been brought from shadow to substance in Christ.

So all of three of these—Moral, Ceremonial, and Judicial—are behind the term Law here. But not only has the church seen a threefold division of the Law, but as John Calvin brings out in his Institutes, there’s also a threefold application, or three uses of the Law. The Law acts as a mirror, showing us God’s righteousness, our sinfulness, and our desperate need for a Savior. This is often referred to as the pedagogical use of the Law. But the Law also acts as a shield that restrains evil and promotes righteousness in the world. This is usually referred to as the civil use of the Law. And lastly is the normative use of God’s Law, where the Law acts as a compass that guides the sanctification of God’s born again people, showing us what Christ-likeness and a life pleasing to God looks like. This threefold division and threefold use are found in the teachings of the reformers and the puritans, as well as in the historic confessions.

With all of that said, it seems that Leviticus 18 has in mind the normative use of the Law, the Law as a compass. God saves His people by His grace, and then directs their lives by His Law. And when we trust and obey the Lord, and submit to His ways, seeking to live in joyful submission to His Law, it is there that we find life as it was meant to be lived. To be sure, we are made alive by God’s saving grace in and through the power of the Spirit, and enabled to live in line with God’s righteous requirements… But then we must do it. We must trust and obey. And when we do we truly live.

Consider the familiar words of Proverbs 3:5-8: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” Walking in God’s paths, in God’s ways, doing His will and not our own according to our flesh, is what brings healing and refreshment. In other words, God’s ways are not our ways. And His ways are infinitely better, and better for us.

So you see, when Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the Law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them, God is speaking through him in a covenantal context to a covenantal people who have already been saved by grace. He’s telling them something very similar to what Paul will say later in Romans 12:2, to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The good, acceptable, perfect will of God is laid out in His Law-Word. And Romans 12:2 follows Romans 12:1, where Paul says we are to do this by the mercies of God. In other words, we don’t obey to get saved, we obey because we are saved.

As I pointed out last week, in Romans 1:5 Paul said his mission as an apostle was to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations. The obedience of faith is not faith plus works; it is the obedience that grows out of living faith. Christ is not only the ground of our acceptance before God, He is also the source of our covenant faithfulness. We don’t work for righteousness; we work from righteousness. We don’t obey in order to become sons. We obey because, united to the faithful Son, we already are sons. That’s true in the New Covenant, but it was true in the Old as well.

Now having said that, look where Paul goes next. In verses 6-8 he says, “6 But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ’ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 ‘or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)…”

Some explain these verses by saying Paul is contrasting the way of the Old Covenant with the way of the New Covenant, and by that they mean salvation or righteousness by works in contrast with salvation or righteousness by faith. But that has never been how salvation or true righteousness was attained. Justification has always been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And we can see that in our passage as Paul here quotes the passage we read earlier from Deuteronomy 30:11-20. And he quotes God speaking to and through Moses, just as He was in Leviticus 18:5.

So I don’t think it’s right to say that Paul is giving us an Old vs. New contrast here, because in both places he’s quoting God speaking to and through Moses. God doesn’t contradict Himself. And in both these places He’s speaking to and through Moses in the context of the Old Covenant. And in Deuteronomy 30, right after the verses that Paul quotes He says, “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” And that sounds an awful lot like Leviticus 18:5: the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

So these passages are saying basically the same thing in the same context to and through the same people. But in Deuteronomy 30 God also says that His people are not to say, “Who will ascend into heaven?” And Paul says that’s because that is seeking to bring Christ down… Nor are God’s people to ask, “Who will descend into the abyss?” Because Paul says that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. So Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:14 that says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” And he explains, “that is, the word of faith that we proclaim…” And the word of faith is the gospel—the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

So beloved, don’t miss the breathtaking beauty of what Paul is doing here. He isn’t merely borrowing Moses’ language to make a theological point. He’s showing us that Moses had been preaching Christ all along. The Word that Moses said was “very near” has now become flesh and dwelt among us. But He was the Rock that was with them, and the pillars that led them. So the One whom Israel met in shadow and promise has now come in person.

The Law was never merely a collection of commandments; it was always a witness to the living Word who would one day walk among His people. Christ is the true Torah in the flesh. He is the faithful Israel who perfectly obeyed where Israel failed. He is the true Joshua who leads His people into their inheritance. He is the true Passover Lamb, the true Bread from Heaven, the true Rock from which living water flows, the true Temple where God dwells with man, the true High Priest who brings us into the Father’s presence, and the true Sacrifice who takes away the sin of the world. Every page of Moses whispers His name, every sacrifice anticipates His cross, every promise finds its “Yes and Amen” in Him. Moses was never an end in himself. Like every faithful prophet, priest, and king, he spent his life pointing beyond himself to Jesus Christ.

That’s why Paul can say we do not need to ascend into heaven to bring Christ down or descend into the abyss to bring Him up again. Everything Moses anticipated has already happened. God has already come down. Christ has already taken on our flesh. Christ has already descended into death. Christ has already risen in victory. Christ has already ascended to the Father’s right hand. Redemption is not something we accomplish; it is something God has accomplished in His Son. Faith simply receives what Christ has already finished.

So what Paul is saying here, with the help of Moses, is that we don’t need to work our way up to heaven, or to find someone else who can for us, because God has promised such a Savior, and has kept that promise in and through Christ Jesus. And likewise, we don’t need to suffer death and hell to pay for our sins, or to find someone else to do it for us if we will trust that God has promised such a Savior, and has kept that promise in and through Christ Jesus. His Word has been brought near to the hearts of His people in and through the incarnate Word, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s how salvation worked in the Exodus and Leviticus, that’s how it worked in Deuteronomy, that’s how it works in Romans, and that’s how it works for us today.

Paul isn’t contrasting the Old Covenant with the New. On the one hand, you could say he’s contrasting a misunderstanding of the Old Covenant with the New… A legalistic understanding that some of the Judaizers and the like had, making being a Jew, circumcision, following aspects of the Law, and the like a necessity for salvation. And that kind of makes sense given that Paul has been talking about how so many of his kinsmen according to the flesh rejected Jesus because their hope was in their covenant privilege and pedigree—who they thought they were as the Jewish people. But of course, that missed the whole point of God’s covenant. But on the other hand, it seems to me that Paul is simply clarifying that there is a positional righteousness that we have based on faith, and there is a practical righteousness that we live out that is based on the law that flows from faith. We are counted righteous by looking to Jesus, our Cornerstone, by faith. And then we are to build upon that Cornerstone in faithfulness. And we see this all the more in what Paul says next.

In the last part of our passage, in verses 9-10 he says, “9 because, 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Now this can be abused and twisted just like the Law. Just because someone says Jesus is Lord does not mean they will for sure be saved. They must believe in the heart. And you see, that’s the issue with the Law as well. If we look at the Law as a way of salvation, as something we must do to climb up to heaven or bring heaven down, then it is clear that we are not seeing the Law by faith, with the eyes of our hearts.

Remember what I pointed out a few weeks ago about faith. Faith is not blind, it’s actually a pair of eyes designed to see Jesus, but not our actual eyes, the eyes of our heart. Hebrews 11:1 says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That is, not seen with our physical eyes, but in the core of our being, where convictions are formed and held… There we see, there we know, there we understand, and therefore we have assurance and hope. So though faith is a pair of eyes designed to look at Jesus, it is not our mere physical eyes. You see, faith is never merely about what we can see with our own two eyes, but about what our hearts perceive as we look through the things we see with our eyes.

Ancient Israel was to look through the Law, the sacrifices, and the like and see and savor Christ. They weren’t to seek to work their way up, or work to bring God down, they were to trust in Jesus. And that’s exactly what we are to do with God’s Word, baptism, communion, and all the rest. God’s Word, God’s promises, God’s Law, and even the creation itself, all of it is testifying to God’s glory and grace in Christ, and it’s meant to cause us to trust in and live for Jesus—to look to the Cornerstone and build upon Him. The point is always Christ. To help us know Him, love Him, and live for Him all the more, until we live with Him forevermore.

So Paul’s point in the last part of our passage is that true faith is a living obedient faith. When he speaks of believing in the heart he doesn’t mean some privatized, pietistic religion that doesn’t change the way you speak and live. He means you have true faith in the core of your being, and it’s a faith that truly believes not only that Jesus loves you and gave Himself for you, but that He lived, died, and rose again, and ascended to the right hand of the Father where He now intercedes for you, and rules and reigns as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

When he speaks of confessing that Jesus is Lord, think about that in a hostile environment. Consider the story of Polycarp, a pastor in Smyrna who was discipled by Saint John himself. Around 160 AD, Polycarp was arrested for being a Christian pastor, and told that unless he rejected Christ and confessed Caesar as lord, he would be burnt alive, that is being put to death by fire, by being burnt at the steak. But if he would apostatize he would be set free. But he looked his oppressors in the eyes and said, “86 years have I have served Him and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

He was raised in a Christian home, baptized as an infant, an even discipled by John. He had lived a long and full life for the glory of his King. And for 86 years he had seen God’s faithfulness and received God’s blessings in Christ. So with conviction in his heart he heldfast to Christ, and was prepared to come what may.

The Proconsul told him, “I have wild animals here, I will throw you to them if you do not repent.” “Call them,” Polycarp replied. “It is unthinkable for me to repent from what is good to turn to what is evil. I will be glad though to be changed from evil to righteousness.” The Proconsul told him, “If you despise the animals, I will have you burned.” And Polycarp said, “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and is then extinguished, but you know nothing of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. Why are you waiting? Bring on whatever you want.”

When they went to burn him, typically they would nail the accused to the steak, but Polycarp was so ready to play the man, so strong in his convictions that he told them there was no need. He had lived for His savior, and now he was ready to die for his Savior. So as they put him upon the boards to be burned he prayed for all to hear, saying, “O Lord God Almighty, the Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of you, the God of angels, powers and every creature, and of all the righteous who live before you, I give you thanks that you count me worthy to be numbered among your martyrs, sharing the cup of Christ and the resurrection to eternal life, both of soul and body, through the immortality of the Holy Spirit. May I be received this day as an acceptable sacrifice, as you, the true God, have predestined, revealed to me, and now fulfilled. I praise you for all these things, I bless you and glorify you, along with the everlasting Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. To you, with him, through the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and forever. Amen.”

Then the flames were lit, but it was as if God kept them from utterly consuming him. So eventually they had to put him to death by stabbing him with a dagger. And it’s said that blood and water flowed from him as it did from Christ, so much so that it extinguished the flames.

Now that’s an extreme example. But that’s exactly the idea behind confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. It’s not merely claiming to be a Christian, it’s not merely going to church, reading your Bible, or praying… It’s an entire life that flows from true convictions. It’s a reformed life that flows from a transformed heart.

With the eyes of the heart we have true faith in Christ, and by faith we are justified because we are united to Christ and all that He is and all that He has done is counted to us because we are in right covenant union with Him. But a heart with true faith shows itself in the fruit of our lips and our lives. Jesus said what comes out of the mouth flows from the heart. And when the gospel takes root in our hearts God’s Law directs our lives… We bring our lives into joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ. And that life of daily dying to self, picking up our cross and following Christ is how we are sanctified, and eventually glorified… it’s how we grow in Christ, work for the glory of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom, and holdfast to Christ until we make it home to Christ. And that’s been Paul’s point all along—there is a positional righteousness that we have based on faith (we are justified by faith, by a believing heart), and there is a practical righteousness that we live out that is based on the Law that flows from faith (we are fully and finally saved, meaning not just justified, but sanctified and glorified as we live and die in the obedience of faith).

Conclusion

Beloved, forty-five years from now, very few of us will still be here. Some of us will have gone to be with the Lord. If I’m still around, I will be like Polycarp was at his death—86 years old. By that time new children will have been born. New families will have joined this congregation. There will be new elders, new deacons, and likely another pastor will be standing in this pulpit. Buildings may change. Programs may change. Even our name could change again. But there is one thing that must never change: Jesus Christ must remain the Cornerstone of this church.

That’s Paul’s burden in Romans 10. Don’t stop with Moses. Don’t stop with the Law. Don’t stop with the covenant signs. Don’t stop with church history. Don’t stop with sound theology. Don’t stop with faithful liturgy. Don’t stop with baptism or the Lord’s Supper. Don’t stop with Reformed theology or the CREC. All of those are glorious gifts from God—but every one of them is meant to lead us beyond itself to Christ. The gifts are not the destination. Christ is. And when we get that, when we get Him, He transforms our entire lives.

So let us be the kind of church that Moses was calling Israel to be. A church that reads every page of Scripture looking for Christ. A church that receives God’s Word with believing hearts and confesses Christ with faithful lips and lives. A church that obeys God’s Law, not to establish our own righteousness, but because we have already received Christ’s righteousness. A church that builds faithful marriages, raises covenant children, plants churches, starts businesses, serves neighbors, pursues justice, and disciples the nations—not to make a name for ourselves, but because King Jesus has already made His name great.

And let every one of us ask ourselves the question Paul has been pressing upon us: Am I looking at Christ, or merely at the things that point to Christ? It is possible to know theology and miss Christ. It is possible to love tradition and miss Christ. It is possible to be baptized, to take Communion, to belong to a faithful church, and still miss Christ if our hearts never truly trust Him. But it is equally true that the weakest believer who looks to Christ by faith possesses everything, because Christ Himself is everything.

So, Cornerstone, in light of forty-five years of God’s faithfulness, let us determine by His grace that our greatest days are not behind us. Not because we trust ourselves, but because we trust the One who said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He was the Cornerstone in 1981. He is the Cornerstone today. And if the Lord tarries, He will still be the Cornerstone when this church celebrates its hundredth anniversary. Therefore, let us keep believing Him, keep confessing Him, keep obeying Him, keep building upon Him, and keep proclaiming Him until faith becomes sight. May we live by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Amen.