We need a Savior, and it is only by His grace that we can live for the glory of God. Today, W. Robert Godfrey looks to the book of Deuteronomy to help us grasp the relationship between faith and obedience in the Christian life. Get W. Robert Godfrey’s teaching series Discovering Deuteronomy on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3605/discovering-deuteronomy Meet Today’s Teacher: W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God’s Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Paul is saying, Moses teaches us that we are saved by faith, which leads to love, which leads to obedience, which leads us to see that we're still a sinful people and that we need a Savior.
I remember believing as a new Christian that people in the Old Testament were saved by their obedience to God's law, and that now in the new covenant, that's done away with, and we're saved by grace through faith. So as we consider the warnings of Moses in Deuteronomy, was he teaching salvation by works? You're listening to the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. This week, the chairman of Ligonier Ministries, W. Robert Godfrey, has been teaching us about the warnings that Moses gave the Israelites at the end of Deuteronomy. But that means we jumped ahead to chapter 26. So I encourage you to request the complete 21-message series, Discovering Deuteronomy, so Dr. Godfrey can take you through the entire book.
Request your copy when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, but be quick as this offer ends at midnight. Well, here's Dr. Godfrey to consider the words and warnings of Moses and their relationship with what Paul teaches in Romans 9 and 10.
Well, we're continuing to look at this section of warnings in which Moses is sort of pulling out all the stops to try to get the people to see the seriousness of the issues that are before them and to lead them to obedience and blessing rather than disobedience and curse.
And as he reviews the history of God's dealings with them to remind them of the mercies of God, the blessings of God that have attended them regularly as they left Egypt and came through the wilderness and are now on the verge of the Promised Land, But then there's a very interesting verse, verse 4.
Not that all verses aren't interesting, but some are a little more interesting to me than to others. And verse 4 says, as Moses is looking back over the history of God's relationship with this people, "...but to this day God has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear."
This reminds us that there is a delicate interplay between God's sovereign purpose and plan and between human responsibility. We'll come back to look at that a little more later on. But you notice here God calls the people to faithfulness and obedience and then He reminds them that He's not given them a heart to be obedient yet.
And that reminds us that God's sovereign blessings are necessary for good to come But if He doesn't provide that blessing, it doesn't make us any less responsible. He needs to change us if we'll be better, but if we're not changed and not better, it's still our responsibility. We're the ones who plunged ourselves into sin. And some people will say, well, that doesn't make sense.
And maybe it doesn't entirely make sense, but it's what God has revealed. And that should be our guide. I always find it an irony that some people accuse Calvinism of being a kind of logic-driven religion. And nothing could be farther from the truth. Calvinism is a Bible-driven religion. The Bible says we're responsible for our sins, and God must change us to escape from sin.
And that maybe isn't entirely logical, but it's clearly what the Bible says over and over again. We'll come back to that to see it again even in a little more detail later. But then at verse 9, Moses says, therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may prosper in all you do. There's the great call. Be faithful to the covenant.
And then warnings about what happens if you're not faithful. And one of those warnings I think is particularly intriguing down in verse 9. where he says to the people, "...beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit." Beware of letting grow up in your heart a rebellion against God that is poisonous and bitter.
A poisonous fruit, a bitter fruit is going to be destructive, isn't it? It's going to lead to death. And then he goes on in verse 19, "...one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart." There's a really serious warning.
that some people deceive themselves into thinking that they're safe even while they're stubborn. And God said, that's not true. That's not true. So beware lest there be a poisonous and bitter fruit. That bring anything to mind? I'm thinking of a verse, Hebrews chapter 12, where this verse is quoted and We start down in Hebrews 12 at verse 12.
He's speaking to Christians here who've been discouraged, who've gone through a time of weakness. Stand up. implicitly stop complaining. Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. This is an appeal in Hebrews 12 to covenant faithfulness, and it's covenant faithfulness that is the same as what we're finding in Deuteronomy 29 that the Lord appeals to. And so, the great warning again, verse 24, about idolatry, Deuteronomy 29, 24.
When the curse comes upon you, all the nations will say, why has the Lord done this to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger? Then the people will say, it is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and went and served other gods and worshiped them.
See, right back to worship as the focal point, faithfulness to God, devotion to God, waiting on God. And then we come to that famous verse at the end, one of the verses that John Calvin liked in particular, "'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.'"
This verse may mean a wide variety of things, but in this context, what it specifically means is don't try to read the future, don't try to divine the future, don't try to understand the secret things of God and His eternal plan. Look at what He's revealed in His Word. That's what you're to do. And what He's revealed in His Word is that you're to be a people of faith and love and obedience.
That's what you should focus on. That's what you should concentrate on. and leave the rest to God. And he goes on then in this next chapter to really talk about how these things will come about. Remember we'd said there's some difficulty in knowing where he moves from the possibility of curse to the prophecy of curse.
But chapter 30 reminds us that there certainly is a prophecy of curse because it begins, and when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse. So Israel will live in the land of promise for centuries, experiencing many blessings. And then the curse will come upon them, and there will be exile and loss. And what will happen after the exile?
Well, the glorious prophecy here is not just possibility, but prophecy here is that the Lord will bring them back. The Lord will restore them, which we know He does. There is a post-exilic period in Israel's history. It isn't all they'd hoped for because they ought to be looking forward to the new heaven and the new earth, but there is this promise fulfilled.
And there we find at verse 6 this matter of the heart again. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring. So the Lord hadn't changed the hearts often in history, but he promises he will change the heart in the future.
And again, it doesn't relieve them of responsibility because in Deuteronomy 10, 16, you all remember that the Lord said, circumcise your own hearts. You have a responsibility to do what's right. But ultimately, that'll happen only when the Lord does it, when the Lord comes in power to do it. And that's what he stresses here. Now,
We come then to a really intriguing part of this chapter and of Deuteronomy as a whole, and a key point of trying to figure out how we understand the Mosaic economy. And we read there in chapter 30, verse 11, "'For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.'"
It is not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? Neither it is beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? But the Word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it.
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. Does that ring bells? This is Romans 10. This is what Romans 10 quotes, and it introduces that question of how do we understand Moses? Moses here says, here I've said before you, life and death, choose life. So what does he mean there? Well, is Moses an Arminian? Is our Moses saying, exercise your free will?
No, I can assure you that Moses is not an Arminian. But what does it mean? Does it mean choose life and merit it? No, it doesn't mean that either, although if we look at Romans 10, some people have suggested that Moses really is teaching an economy that is driven by works, and they appeal to
to Romans 10 verse 5, where we read, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. So, have we been wrong in our whole approach? Maybe we have to start this whole series over and re-record it. What is Paul saying here? Or something somewhat parallel in Galatians 3 verse 12 where Paul says, the law is not of faith.
The law is not of faith. The law that was added 430 years after the promise to Abraham is not of faith. what is going on here? And this is why I said the theological issues can become a little complex and have been interpreted somewhat differently by different people, and it's good to know that, and it's even better to be here and be told what Paul really says and what Moses really means.
I say that in all humility. what's really going on here? And I think, again, we have to see what Paul is saying in context in Romans 9 and 10. In Romans 8, Paul has listed some of the great promises that we find anywhere in Scripture, right? We return again and again to Romans 8, to promises that encourage us and direct us and surround us.
And then it's as if Paul ponders and says, but somebody might think Are these promises in Romans 8 really reliable? Because didn't God make promises to Israel, and then didn't those promises to Israel fail? And if the promises to Israel failed, then might not the promises to the Christians fail?
And that's really, I think, the big question Paul is answering in Romans 9 through 11, and his point is made very clear in Romans 9 verse 6, but it is not as though the Word of God has failed. Because what happened to Israel was prophesied, is his basic answer. And it was always prophesied in the Old Testament that not all Israel are Israel. That is, not all physical Israel are spiritual Israel.
Not all who are ethnic Israel are spiritually reborn as the people of God. That's Paul's broad answer. Then he, down at verse 30 of chapter 9, says, having talked about how the Gentiles will be included and some of Israel is not really Israel, he then asks the question, what shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is a righteousness that is by faith.
That is, God sovereignly came to them when they weren't looking for Him or for righteousness, and He gives them righteousness which they receive by faith. But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. So, Israel is pursuing a law that would lead to righteousness, and Paul says, why did they not succeed?
Because they did not pursue it by faith. You see, his argument is they should have pursued it by faith. They were called to pursue it by faith, but they misinterpreted the law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. That's the crucial interpretive verse, I think. But as if it were based on works.
Paul is saying, Israel turned the covenant, which was a covenant of grace and of faith that leads on to love and obedience, into a covenant of merit and works righteousness. That's not what Moses taught. That's not what Moses intended. And it was a perversion. of what God had given to Israel. They turned it in to a works righteousness law.
They acted as if it were based on works, and they have stumbled therefore over the stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him, believes in him, will not be put to shame. They ought to have seen that the law was given to faith, and particularly to faith in a coming Messiah who would save them.
And Paul explains why all of this is true when he says, why was the law added? We have the promised Abraham, so why was the law added? And he answers that very clearly. He says it was added to teach us sin. It was added to teach us how sinful we are. But Israel, instead of learning the right lesson that we're sinful and need a Savior,
learned the wrong lesson, namely that they thought they could save themselves by their righteousness, which was not what the law was given to teach them. And going on into chapter 10, "'Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved, for I bear witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.'"
So he says, "'I know Israel's working really hard at pursuing something.'" But they're not really pursuing God because they don't understand His covenant. They haven't correctly understood His law. For being ignorant, verse 3, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
There's God's righteousness revealed in the whole Scripture, which is always a righteousness that comes through faith. that recognizes sin, that looks for a Messiah, and then there's their own righteousness that they're trying to establish. And this is the irony of life, isn't it?
That either Israel was completely indifferent to obedience and became disobedient, or they were so eager to be obedient but turned their obedience into self-righteousness. And it's a good thing that never happens to the church, right? No, regrettably, it does happen to the church.
In the history of the church, often we see people who are just disobedient, don't care about righteousness, and then people, on the other hand, who become self-righteous and hope to establish and merit their standing with God. And Paul's saying here, that misses everything. That messes everything up.
And then he goes on to say, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. Now, Christ is the end of the law in a variety of ways, isn't he? He's the end and fulfillment of the symbols of the Mosaic economy so that we're not bound by lots of them. But He's certainly not the end of the law as a moral guide for us to holy living.
But what Paul is particularly saying here is Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of the law, the perfection of the law for everyone who looks away from merit and believes in Him. In other words, he's saying to the Jews, let Christ be the end of your self-righteousness. Let Christ be the end of your self-righteous use of the law, because He's the Savior of everyone who believes.
And Paul is expressing there his passion for the salvation of Israel. And then I think… We have to interpret verse 5 as Paul saying, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. I think how we have to interpret that is that Paul is saying, for Moses writes as they suppose, as they misunderstand.
And it's not just because of what Paul has said above in Romans 9.32 that we have to read verse 5 that way, but I think we also have to read verse 5 that way because of what Paul goes on to say, because he goes on immediately, but the righteousness based on faith, the righteousness based on faith, not this legalistic righteousness the Jews have been pursuing, the righteousness based on faith says, and there's a quotation there,
Where's the quotation? From Deuteronomy 30. So Paul has said, they think Moses says, but now let me tell you what Moses really says. Now you might say, well, couldn't you have made it a little clearer? Well, maybe you could have made it a little clearer. I don't want to criticize the Apostle Paul. I don't think you should either. So I think it really is pretty clear if you read it in context.
The trouble with some theologians is they like to take verses out of context, and verses out of context can be made to say a variety of things. The 16th century Protestant commentators always used to say, we mustn't make of the Scripture a wax nose. I think kids used to play with wax and make noses. You can make a big nose. You can make a crooked nose. And Scripture is not a wax nose.
You can't make out of it anything you want. And so Paul says, what Moses really says is, do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven. That is to bring Christ down. Christ has ascended. Christ is raised. Christ is victorious in heaven. Don't bring Him down by unbelief. or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. Don't minimize the death of Christ.
Don't fail to see the significance of the death of Christ for you. That would be to bring him up from the abyss. But what does it say? Now, what does it say? He's going to quote who? Moses. So this is what Moses really says. What Moses really says, the word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. And then Paul says, which is the word of faith we proclaim? What Moses said is what I'm saying.
There's no distance there. There's no separation there. And he goes on to say, if you confess with your mouth… that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And that's just what Moses had been talking about in chapter 30.
So here we see how concerned the apostle was that we understand Moses correctly, that we avoid the Jewish misinterpretation of Moses that makes Moses a teacher of meritorious works. And that's not true, Paul says. I think Paul says it really pretty clearly. But since other people don't see it that way, I'm a little nervous, but arrogant enough to teach you anyway.
I really think it's pretty clear that Paul is saying, Moses teaches us that we are saved by faith, which leads to love, which leads to obedience, which leads us to see that we're still a sinful people and that we need a Savior.
That's the great point here, so that the Word draws us to Christ, the Christ who went down into the abyss for us in His death and is now gloriously raised into heaven for us, but has left His Word near to us. And that Word says, believe. That word says, trust me and you will be saved.
So Deuteronomy really is very important, not just as a renewal of covenant to the people of Israel, but to help us understand the work of Christ, to help us understand what salvation is really all about, what the covenant of God is about, and to get it right, to see that the law is important, But it was added 430 years, as Paul says in Galatians 3, after the promise. So the promise is primary.
And the promise never goes away. And the promise is supported by the adding of the law because the law helps us see our sinfulness. Paul says in Romans 7, doesn't he, I really wouldn't have understood coveting if the law hadn't told me.
It's not that the sin of coveting might not have been in his heart, but he wouldn't have understood it without the law as a mirror reflecting back to him his sinfulness. But the function of that is not so we'll become meritoriously obedient.
The function of that is that we might believe that we need a Savior, and only in the power of the Savior will our hearts be circumcised and we'll live for God.
That was W. Robert Godfrey from his series Discovering Deuteronomy on this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Today we were helped as Dr. Godfrey explained what the Apostle Paul was teaching as he quoted Moses from Deuteronomy. And all through this 21-message series, he points out the relationship between what we learn in Deuteronomy and the Christian life.
You can take your study even deeper when you use the companion study guide. We'll give you digital access to that study guide, all the messages, and send you the series on DVD when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.
Renewing Your Mind