New Testament Explanation of Deuteronomy 30: Part 3

Deuteronomy 30:6-8 in the Light of the New Testament

DEUTERONOMY 30:6

Deuteronomy 30:6 says, “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

Notice that the cause of people loving God with all our hearts and souls is a work of God in which He circumcises our hearts. This is another Biblical way of explaining the New Birth (Romans 2:28-29; Colossians 2:11).

Deuteronomy 30:6 foretells the heart circumcision of the New Testament.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROPHECY OF DEUTERONOMY 30:6

PROPHECY OF DEUTERONOMY 30:6	FULFILLMENT OF DEUTERONOMY 30:6 IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants”	All born-again Jews and Gentiles have inward circumcision.  Colossians 2:11 “In Him you(1) were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.”
“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants”	Romans 2:28-29 fulfills Deuteronomy 30:6  Romans 2:28 “A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical.”
“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants”	Romans 2:29 “No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.…”
Deut. 30:6 “and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul”	1 John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.” KJV
Deut. 30:6 “so that you may live.”	1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.”

So, Deuteronomy 30:6 foretells the circumcision of the heart that God the Holy Spirit does.

Colossians 2:11 says, “In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.”

Sin in our hearts keeps us from loving God as we should. Our Lord Jesus performs a circumcision on our heart when He saves us. He cuts the sinful nature away from it according to Colossians 2:11. It is a spiritual circumcision “performed by Christ and not by human hands.”

The promise is to Israel, but the true Israel is our Lord Jesus (John 15:1). Spiritual circumcision lops off the part that pictures the sinful nature (Colossians 2:11).

Again, Colossians 2:11 says to Jewish and Gentile Christians(2), “In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.”

So, the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:6 is that our sinful nature died with Christ at the cross. 

God applies the work of Christ to us in stages. He already set us free from sin in our salvation. 

But He is continuing to free us in sanctification. And He will ultimately and completely free us from the vestiges of sin either at His second coming or at our death (whichever comes first.

The responsibility of the sinner is to circumcise his own heart by quitting sin and believing in our Lord Jesus Christ. But through turning from sin to Jesus, God performs the miracle of spiritual circumcision. 

Repentance and new birth are opposite sides of the same conversion coin. Repentance and faith are man’s responsibility. The new birth is what God does for us when He saves us in Christ.

Deuteronomy 30:6 foretells the fact that God has enrolled all members of the universal Church in Heaven (Hebrews 12:23).

Hebrews 12:22-23 says, “Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.”

So, believing Jews and Gentiles have come to heavenly Jerusalem. We have returned spiritually. 

After God circumcises our hearts in salvation, we love Him with all our hearts and souls, and we live eternally (Deuteronomy 30:6).

Conclude that our Lord Jesus fulfilled Deuteronomy 30:6 in His first coming, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension into Heaven, and in His ministry to Jewish and Gentille converts.

Old Testament people had to turn from sin to Yahweh. And New Testament persons must turn from sin to Yahweh Jesus. Jesus is Yahweh.

So, according to the New Testament our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled Deuteronomy 30:6.

We have thus far in this study of the context of Deuteronomy 30:5 seen that each of the first six verses of Deuteronomy chapter 30 foretells the New Testament. 

Thus, Deuteronomy 30:5 does not teach a future return of national Israel into a millennium as Dispensationalists teach.

DEUTERONOMY 30:7

Deuteronomy 30:7 says, “Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate and persecute you.”

The cursing upon your enemies in New Testament times is why our Lord spoke the words of Matthew 5:11-12.

Matthew 5:11 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

Matthew 5:12 says, “Rejoice and exult, because great is your reward in the heavens; for thus they persecuted the prophets before you.”

So, when others persecute us, there are two results:

First, God curses those who curse us [persecute us] (Deuteronomy 30:7).

Second, God rewards and blesses us when enemies of Christ persecute us for righteousness’ sake (Matthew 5:12). (3)

In Christ God blesses those whom He has already condemned (John 3:18, 19, 36).

This truth is the same as in Genesis 12:3, in which God told Abram that He would bless his cursers and curse his blessers. 

So, Matthew 5:12 fulfills Deuteronomy 30:7.

Abram was a believer. As such God had birthed him again spiritually. He had spiritual children just as the Apostles had them (Galatians 4:19).

Galatians 4:19 says, “My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”

Conclude that Deuteronomy 30:7 is about God promising to curse those who curse Christians.

DEUTERONOMY 30:8

DEUTERONOMY 30:8 says, “And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today.”

This verse foretells the new Covenant and the new Israel.

The word “again” in Deuteronomy 30:8 refers to the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in which all the true seed of Abraham and Isaac were believers.

The new Israel will be like the first Israel, which was the Patriarchs and their families who lived in the land. See Deuteronomy 30:20 for the identity of the “fathers.”

The new Israel is the true Church of the New Testament Dispensation.

The word “again” in Deuteronomy 30:8 looks back to the time of the Patriarchs, in which God had chosen and justified the only descendants of Abraham who could live in the land (Romans 9:6-12).

And the word “again” of Deuteronomy 30:8 also looks forward to the New Testament days of Messiah. It sees the New Covenant, which guarantees that “they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11b). 

Hebrews 8:11b says, “…because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

That is, none of those of the New Israel will be idolators. They will all know Yahweh Jesus.

So, when we examine Deuteronomy 30:8 in the light of the New Testament, we conclude that Deuteronomy 30:8 foretells the obedience of New Testament Christians (Hebrews 8:11b).

This obedience results from the new birth.

NOTES:

(1) The recipients of Colossians 2:11 were Jews and Gentiles of the Church at Colossae. So, the “you” in the verse refers to both Jewish and Gentile Christians.

(2)  The Church at Colossae was a mixed congregation. Jews and Gentiles worshipped God together in Christ.

(3) For the more detailed fulfillment of Genesis 12:3 please see https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/matthew5/jesus-says-his-kingdom-fulfills-daniels-kingdom-promise