New Testament Explanation of Deuteronomy 30: Part 5
Deuteronomy 30:10-15 in the Light of the New Testament
DEUTERONOMY 30:10
Deuteronomy 30:10 says, “if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul…”
The first part of Deuteronomy 30:10 is God’s call for His people to repent. Turning to God is the same truth whether in the New or Old Testament. It is as appropriate to the Gospel presentation as it is to the Law dispensation (Romans 10:5-10).
The second part of Deuteronomy 30:10 is God’s command that we must believe and obey the Gospel.
We know this because Romans 10:8 refers to Deuteronomy 30:8, using the word of the Gospel as the “commandment” of Deuteronomy 30:10.
God is simply saying that He has made His word, whether of Law or of the Gospel readily available to you. Neither is too difficult or beyond your reach.
Our Lord Jesus, who was the only one who ever perfectly obeyed the Law of Moses, would have said the followings:
Jesus: “I see that My Father has made His Law readily available to Me.”
Jesus: “His Law is in the words of the Old Testament. It is in nature, and it is in my conscience as well.”
Jesus: “So, I have no excuse if I do not obey it.”
Jesus: “I will obey My Father’s entire Law.”
Jesus: “God designated me as the Priest who would represent His believing people” Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6; 9:26).
TABULAR VIEW COMPARING DEUTERONOMY 30:11 WITH ROMANS 10:4-5
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Deuteronomy 30:11 “For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. |
Romans 10:4 “For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.” |
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In the New Testament Paul understands the word “commandment” as the commandment Jesus fulfilled.” |
Christ fulfilled the law and by that, He created a human righteousness, which had not existed until His resurrection. |
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Deuteronomy 30:11 cannot be about the unfulfilled Law Commandment since no sinful man could ever obey all the commandments of the Law. And Deuteronomy 30:11 says “…this commandment … is not too difficult for you…” |
By fulfilling the Law, Christ ended the Law as a covenant that condemns [for His people]. And, by fulfilling it, He established the Gospel of righteousness by faith. (1) And our Lord promised that His commandments were easy, and His burden was light, He made the Laws of Moses much easier than unfulfilled ones (Matthew 11:28-30(2); 1 John 5:3). |
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Deuteronomy 30:11 must be about the Gospel since it proclaims righteousness for believers in Christ. See Romans 10:3-4. |
Romans 10:5 “Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” (3) |
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Unbelievers still think that their own righteousness will satisfy God and cancel their sin. |
The “doer of the Law” is the one who tries to keep the law and thinks his own record of successful law keeping will appease God. But when there is even one sin in the record, it outweighs all the works of righteousness on God’s scales of justice(4). Man is too sinful to gain eternal life by obedience to God (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10).(5) |
DEUTERONOMY 30:11
Deuteronomy 30:11 says, “For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”
Paul treated the word “commandment” of Deuteronomy 30:11 as if it meant “fulfilled commandment.”
Only a personal 100% record of successful fulfillment of the Law fulfills the Law.
To an unsaved Jew in Old Testament times the word “commandment” meant an “unfulfilled commandment.”
Jesus and the writers of the New Testament teach it as a “fulfilled commandment.”
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, it was a “fulfilled commandment.” Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the legal Law. It was impossible for the grave to keep Jesus (Acts 2:24).
Acts 2:24 says, “But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.”
Jesus, having fulfilled the Law, earned His resurrection life. He had never sinned, whether in thought, word, or deed (Hebrews 7:27).
Hebrews 7:27 says, “Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.”
JESUS’ OBEDIENCE TO HIS FATHER
God appointed His only begotten Son to be the Messiah.
Everything that our Lord Jesus did when he lived on earth counted for those He came to save.
His righteousness counted for them. And His death counted for them.
So, having fulfilled the Law, God acquitted Him of all the sins of those His Father had given to Him.
And that righteousness of Jesus is the righteousness of God.
That is why the commandment of the Law became the fulfilled commandment after Jesus obeyed His Father.
And it is why God imputes and imparts the righteousness of the Law to those who believe.
Now let us contrast Deuteronomy 30:11 with Romans 10:8:
ROMANS 10:8 QUOTES DEUTERONOMY 30:11 AS FOLLOWS:
“Romans 10:8 says, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
Romans 10:8 anticipates what an unbeliever might say.
He might say that “the Word of God is too far away for him to know God’s will.” “It is inaccessible.”
But God sent His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is good news. And He brought the good news.
He ascended to Heaven and sent the Apostles and preachers with the good news on earth.
So, the truth of the Gospel was everywhere. No one could say that he could not find it. See Colossians 1:6 and Romans 10:18.
Colossians 1:6 says, “that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God.”
And Romans 10:18 quotes Psalm 19:4 as follows, “But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed, they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Thus, the Apostle quotes another Old Testament verse in Romans chapter 10, showing that our Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Deuteronomy 30:11 by sending the Gospel to the whole world.
Deuteronomy 30:11 says that the whole world would be able to hear the Gospel in the days of Messiah.
This fulfillment was not in a future millennium. It was in the time following our Lord Messiah’s ascension to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33).
Conclude that when the New Testament quotes Deuteronomy 30:11, it shows that the “commandment” in Deuteronomy 30:11 is the fulfilled commandment that our Lord Jesus fulfilled. And the fulfilled commandment is what Paul uses as the righteousness of Christ.
Further, God intended that His Only Begotten Son would fulfill the word “commandment” in Deuteronomy 30:11 in His earthly and heavenly ministries.
So, Jesus fulfilled Deuteronomy 30:11, as the Apostle Paul taught in Romans 10:5-6. God did this by fulfilling His commandment of Deuteronomy 30:11 by His Son Jesus Christ.
Pause to reflect on the fact that our Lord Jesus fulfilled every verse in Deuteronomy chapter 30.
In prophecy, the natural mind gives credit to Israel as the object of the prophecies. But the mind taught by the New Testament believes that Deuteronomy chapter 30 foretells the person and work of Christ.
For further study on our Lord’s interpretation of the Law of the Old Testament, please follow the links below:
https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/matthew5/axm0uwlonwhspk7k8hcfrp7gg9enfd
DEUTERONOMY 30:12
Deuteronomy 30:12 says, “It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’”
No one had to travel to Heaven to get either the Law’s commandments or the Gospel of righteousness.
They were both very accessible on earth.
Our Lord Jesus brought the Gospel to this earth.(6)
The Gospel (good news) is that our Lord Jesus obeyed the Law of Moses, thus creating the human righteousness that He imputes and imparts to His people.
The Apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:12 in Romans 10:6 as follows, “But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven’ to acquire and bring the righteousness of God to us?”
Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 30:12. But instead of using Deuteronomy 30:12 as a teaching about a law commandment, Paul shows that it is a teaching about the commandments our Lord Jesus fulfilled. It is righteousness by faith. It is the Gospel of the righteousness that God imputes to us and imparts to us by faith. Thus, it is the righteousness of God of Romans 10:3-4.
Romans 10:3 says, “Because they [unbelieving Jews] were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
Romans 10:4 says, “For Christ is the end of the law(7), to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.”
That righteousness is Christ’s righteous fulfillment of the law. So, believers in Him receive the righteousness of Christ. Since Jesus is God, His righteousness is the righteousness of God.
So, the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:12 is by our Lord according to Romans 10:3-8. Since it is by our Lord, we must give the glory of the fulfillment to Him and not to Israel of the flesh.
DEUTERONOMY 30:13
Deuteronomy 30:13 says, “And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’”
Neither the Law of Moses nor the Gospel of righteousness requires a long voyage to acquire it.
Romans 10:7a says, “or ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?
Putting Romans 10:7 together with Deuteronomy 30:13 we conclude that the point is, “Do not ask ‘who will descend to the sea to cross it and find the righteousness of God in a foreign place and then bring it back to us?’”
Romans 10:7b says, “(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”
So, if we, in unbelief ask the question, “Who will descend into the Abyss?” our unbelieving heart is saying that Jesus did not rise from the dead and is still in the grave.
But Jesus already resurrected from the dead. Such a question presumes that it is necessary for Him to rise from the dead to acquire the righteousness of God.
The fact is, by resurrecting He already proved that He had no sin.
If He had ever sinned, God would have left Him in the grave (Romans 4:25).
Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.”
Our justification results from God’s justification(8) of our Lord (1 Timothy 3:16).
1 Timothy 3:16 says, “…God was manifested in the flesh; Justified in the Spirit; Seen by angels; Preached among the Gentiles; Believed on in the world; Received up in glory.” NKJV
And this righteousness of God came by our Lord Jesus rather than by anyone going a long distance to acquire it.
So, the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:13 is by our Lord Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 4:25; 10:7b). He, not the Jews, brought this righteousness to us.
DEUTERONOMY 30:14
Deuteronomy 30:14 says, “But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.”
Please note that the Apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:6-8.
So, the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10:6-8 that the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 is by Jesus Christ and is a reality as he writes Romans at about 58 AD.
This fulfillment is not in a millennium of our future.
DEUTERONOMY 30:15
Deuteronomy 30:15 says, “See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster.”
Deuteronomy 30:15 is more relevant to those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ than to those who try to obey the Law of Moses with their own righteousness.
It is exactly what we have in the Gospel. God promises us eternal life for repentance and faith. And death and disaster follow rejection of Jesus the Messiah.
Romans 10:3-4 says, “Because they [Jews] were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Those Old Testament Jews who were believers like Abraham and David, knew that God did not save them by their own righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Psalm 32:2).
Genesis 15:6 says, “Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Commenting on this in Romans 4:2-3 Paul says the following:
“If Abraham was indeed justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
So, God refused to credit Abraham’s own righteousness to him. Rather, He imputed the righteousness of Christ to Abraham.
The righteousness of Christ is Gods righteousness that our Lord Jesus humanized for those He represented.
So, Abraham has no right to boast to God that he is a righteous man. And, on that basis he can fellowship with God.
God can have no fellowship with those who depend upon their own righteousness.
Psalm 32:2 says, “Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
So, David knew that God had blessed him in that God had not counted his sin with Bathsheba against him. This was because God saw him in the righteousness of Christ.
Though what David did with Uriah’s wife was wrong, and God caused him to reap what he sowed, God did not impute that sin to him.
It was not like Adam’s sin, which God did impute to him (Romans 5:19).
Romans 5:19 says, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
By His obedience, our Lord Jesus made many, not all, to be righteous before God. And David was one of those many. The imputed righteousness of Christ was the main reason that God did not impute sin to David.
The fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:15 is by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus died, was buried, arose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. On that basis, He offers us eternal life. When we refuse this offer, we choose death. When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, He gives us eternal life.
So, Romans 4:2-3 and 6:23 fulfill Deuteronomy 30:15.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It is clear that the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30:15 is in Jesus Christ and not in a future millennium by Jews.
NOTES:
(1) This Gospel of righteousness by faith existed in the Old Testament but only as a “prophesied righteousness.” Since God calls those things that are not as though they are, it was a real righteousness. Thus it existed in Old Testament times. Genesis 15:6 says that Abram believed God and He counted it to Abraham for righteousness.” And David said in Psalm 32:2 “Blessed is the man unto whom God does not impute iniquity.
(2) Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:29 says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Matthew 11:30 says, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
(3) “The person who does these things” is the person who tries to make his obedience to the Law to be his salvation. “Shall live by them” means “shall gain eternal life by living by the laws.” So, the only Person who ever gained His resurrection life and ascension into Heaven by obedience to the Law of Moses was our Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) We must remember that God cursed Adam and the entire world due to just one sin (Romans 5:18). Romans 5:18 says, “So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.”
(5) James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”
(6) “Neither the Law Commandment nor the Gospel were inaccessible on earth.” The commandment to turn from sin to God was the same commandment in the Law as it was in the Good News of Christ. In both cases it was necessary to turn away from sin to God. However, there was a difference between God’s use of the word “commandment” in Deuteronomy 30 and the Holy Spirit’s use of it in Romans 10. In Moses’ writing the commandment was yet unfulfilled. But our Lord had already fulfilled it at the time Paul wrote Romans. Therefore, in Paul’s letter the commandment was after our Lord fulfilled the law commandment. The Holy Spirit, in Romans chapter 10 intended us to understand that the fulfilled commandment was the righteousness of God, which came to Christians via faith in Christ. There was no other way for the righteousness of God to come to earth than for Jesus to bring it, So, if we say that we cannot get God’s righteousness because it is inaccessible to us in Heaven, we are saying that Christ would now have to come down with it again. In the words of Romans 10:6b, that would be the same thing as demanding that Christ come down with the Gospel again. It would be to “bring Christ down.”
(7) The Law prophesies that Messiah will come and fulfill it. Matthew 11:13 says, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” The reason for the existence of the Law is that the Son of God would fulfill it.
(8) “Justification” simply means to declare that one is righteous. It does not presume that our Lord was a sinner prior to His justification. But the fact that God justified Him proves that God’s justification of believers is part of His justification of Jesus Christ. It is one of those blessings that we inherit from our Lord Jesus.
