Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 10:6

"But the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:)" — Romans 10:6 (ASV)

But the righteousness.—In opposition to this righteousness of works, so laborious and so impracticable, the Apostle cites another quotation to show that the righteousness which depends on faith is much easier and simpler.

The original quotation has, indeed, a quite different application. It referred to that very law which the Apostle is criticizing. Moses had described the Law as something quite easy and accessible; but history had shown that, especially in the development in which the Law was familiar to the Apostle, the words were really much more applicable to his doctrine of a righteousness which was based upon faith. He therefore regards them as spoken allegorically and typically concerning this.

The righteousness which is of faith speaketh.—This faith-righteousness is personified as if it were speaking for itself, because the language used is applicable to it.

That is, to bring Christ down from above.—The Apostle adds these interpretations to give a specially Christian meaning to the words of Moses. What these originally meant was that the Law was not remote in any direction. The Apostle, in the phrase “ascend into heaven,” at once sees an allusion to the ascended Saviour, and he interprets it as if it implied that the Christian must ascend to Him, or, what comes to the same thing, as if He must be brought down to the Christian.

Likewise, when descending into the abyss is mentioned, he sees in this an allusion to the descent of Christ into Hades. Again, he rejects the idea that the Christian is compelled to join Him there in literal bodily presence. A far easier and simpler thing is the faith of the gospel. All the Christian has to do is to listen to it when it is preached, and then to confess his own adherence to it.