Romans 10:6-8 “But the righteousness that is by faith says: ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart…”

The kind of righteousness that actually makes us acceptable to God does not have its source in the law. It has its source in Christ. Since this idea of doing something to be righteous and holy in God’s sight is so ingrained in us, it is natural that we think that there is something that we must do to get it from Christ. We still want to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to our relationship with God.

As a result, people think they must do something extraordinary to find Christ. They must search for his presence where he is giving away his grace and blessings. A person who didn’t know the gospel in Paul’s day might think, “We need to find a way to get up to heaven to bring God down to help us.” But God already came down himself, when Jesus became a man and lived here with us.

A person who knew a little more about the life of Christ might think, “We live after the time of Jesus. We need to go down to where the dead people are and bring Christ up to help us.” But Jesus rose from the dead. He is alive and well right now. Still, we can’t see Christ. If real righteousness, real forgiveness for sins, real love from God, real life comes from him, how are we going to get it?

Before we examine Paul’s answer, let’s note that the same dilemma has come up over and over again throughout Christian history. In the middle ages people felt they had to make pilgrimages to holy places to find God and his grace. More recently people have felt you have to find where the Spirit of God is moving in some revival or church movement. Throughout time some have thought that God must be present in mystical trances, emotional experiences, man-made rituals, a favorite styles of church music, or even the goodness of their own lives. They have worked hard to get or keep these things.

People may find Christ with his grace when they are looking in some or all of those places, but not for the reasons they go looking there. Paul reveals the true location where Christ and the righteousness that counts before God is found: “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming.”

We don’t have to make a pilgrimage to some spiritual Oz to get back home. We have been in “Kansas” all along. We don’t find our way to Christ by our efforts. He has always been here, present in his word! He came to us from heaven. He rose for us from the grave. In his word, he is still here for us with the blessings of his life, death, and resurrection. When you hear his Word preached, Christ is there! When you are washed by that Word together with water in Baptism, Christ is there! When you consume that Word together with bread and wine, Christ is there! If you have committed that Word to mind and heart, then wherever you take that Word with you, Christ is there!

Do you want to have Jesus with you, always making you holy, new, and righteous before his heavenly Father, woven into the very fabric of your lives? Take his word to heart. Get to know his word by heart. Believe that word with all your heart. Our hearts are never the source of the word that brings us Christ with his true righteousness and holiness. But they have become receptacles in which that word is kept. Real righteousness only comes to you and me in Christ.