In Your Mouth and in Your Heart: A Study of Deuteronomy 30:12–14 in Paul’s Letter to the Romans in Canonical Context

Abstract

By quoting Deuteronomy 30:12–14 as the content of the message of the righteousness of faith over against Leviticus 18:5 and the righteousness of the law in Romans 10:5–8, Paul proclaims a promise fulfilled in accord with the original meaning of the text written by Moses in Deuteronomy. More precisely, Paul reads Deuteronomy 30:11–14 as an extension of the reality foretold in Deuteronomy 30:1–10, which points forward to the new covenant experience of faith-empowered obedience, or heart circumcision, which includes the internalization of the word of God—the eschatological torah—by the Spirit of God. What Paul has found in Deuteronomy 30:11–14 is a prophetic promise of righteousness which he declares fulfilled in the gospel of the Lord Jesus, the message of the righteousness of faith.