"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,"that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming" (Romans 10:6-8)

We treat God like a mountain peak. We think that if we read enough, pray hard enough, feel something deeply enough, we'll eventually make it to the top and prove we deserve his presence. So we keep climbing, keep striving, keep wondering if we've done enough to close the distance.

Paul interrupts all of that: stop climbing. God already came down.

Trying to be good enough to reach God was always a losing game—not because the effort was insincere, but because no amount of effort could get you there. Isaiah saw what was coming, he writes, “He [God] saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him” (Isaiah 59:16). That's what the incarnation is. Jesus came down. He lived among us, died for us, and rose from the deep—and the work he did is finished. You don't have to locate God through spiritual achievement. He already crossed the distance.

And what Jesus accomplished doesn't just change your standing before God—it changes you from the inside. This is the beauty of the New Covenant. Jeremiah looked ahead to a day when God would say, "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts... I will remember their sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:33-34). That day has come. When you are in Christ, through the Spirit, God now lives in you. He's not a distant presence you're trying to conjure through the right spiritual disciplines. His word is near—in your mouth, in your heart, as Paul says (Romans 10:8).

There's something Paul does here that's easy to miss. He's actually echoing Moses, who stood before the people and told them God's word wasn't too difficult or too far away—it was right there with them (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Then Moses laid out the choice plainly: "I have set before you life and death... Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life" (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

The same invitation stands today. Choosing life isn't a dramatic spiritual achievement. It's holding onto Jesus. He's already near. The word of faith is already close. You don't have to hunt for God in some transcendent spiritual experience—you receive him with simple trust.

A Few Honest Questions:

1. Where are you still trying to climb to reach God instead of receiving what he's offered?

2. Are you chasing a feeling, or trusting his word?

3. What's one small way to hold fast to him today?