OneLife Nashville: Rare but vital conversations about Jesus

In this episode we finish up our discussion of how Paul uses Deuteronomy 30:11-14 in Romans 10 to point his Jewish brothers and sisters to Christ as the finish line - the goal - of the law. Christ is the ultimate source of God's righteousness. In order for his Jewish brothers and sisters to reach the finish line and attain the righteousness they are looking for, they will have to submit to the righteousness of God by confessing Christ as Lord, and believing in their heart that God has raised him from the dead. It's not so much that Paul re-writes Deuteronomy 30:11-14 to suit his purposes. It's that Paul sees a pattern in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 that Christ has fully embodied in his incarnation, death, and resurrection.

The good news is that this power of God to make all things right is available to both Jews and Gentiles. Anyone who confesses Christ as Lord and believes in their heart God has raised him from the dead can access this wholistic healing - salvation - from God. It doesn't matter where you find yourself. God can reach down and pull you out of whatever pit you have landed in, even the lowest points of death and despair.

Key Passages:

Romans 10:6-13Deuteronomy 30:11-14

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In this episode we continue to look at the larger context of Romans 10:4-10 where Paul's quotes the passage of Deuteronomy 30:12-14, namely, Romans 10:1-5. Paul shares his heart for his Jewish brothers and sisters who have not been able to let go of their own strategy for becoming righteous and submit to the righteousness of God - Christ himself.

Using the race metaphor, Israel according to the flesh is like a car with a transmission going bad, but continues to think going through the car wash and getting tune ups will somehow ensure their vehicle get fixed and cross the finish line. Paul says Christ has already reached the finish line in his own vehicle - his own new humanity. If they are willing to pull over and lift up the hood of their car and trust Christ to work on their vehicle, he will start a deep, internal work of rebuilding their transmission from the inside out.

Key Passages:

Romans 10:1-5

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In this episode we continue to look at the larger context of Romans 10:4-10 where Paul's quotes the passage of Deuteronomy 30:12-14. In order to understand how Paul applies that passage in Deuteronomy to Christ and the gospel in Romans 10 we have to look at what Paul says in the surrounding verses leading up to that quotation, namely, Romans 9:30-33.

There, Paul not only uses a "foot race" metaphor to describe Jews and Gentiles "attaining" righteousness like one attains a reward for winning a race, but also seems to have the story of the foot race between Odysseus and Ajax in Homer's Ililad in mind as he speaks of Gentiles reaching the finish line and attaining "righteousness" before Israel does, with Israel "stumbling" on the stone that God laid in Zion - Christ himself. As Paul notes, Gentiles crossing the finish line before Israel is an ironic state of affairs considering Gentiles have never really saw themselves as even running after righteousness in the first place!

Key Passages:

Romans 9:30-33

Deuteronomy 30:11-14

Resources:

Translation of Homer's Iliad Book 23 The story of the foot race is in vs. 740-740. When reading this story it's hard to slip one's notice that Ajax "stumbles" on the dung from a sacrificed bull - a possible irony when seen in light of Paul's appeal to Israel to put their trust in the sacrifice of Christ.

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In this episode we look at a specific passage in Deuteronomy 30 where Moses wants Israel to know that the commandment to love God, walk in his ways, and remain faithful to him is not mysterious. It doesn't require someone to have a mystical experience to gain access to it. It doesn't require someone to journey to the ends of the earth to find it. It's in their mouth and in their hearts - it's already very close to them.

Paul references this same passage in Deuteronomy 30 in the context of Romans 10 as he explains the Gentile's relatiponship to the Mosaic law with the metaphor of running a race, with Christ being pictured as wining that race and crossing the finish line. But for Paul, the commandment of Deuteronomy 30 is spoken of as the gospel - which is in their mouths and in their hearts. This is our first of several episodes of looking into why Paul brings this up, and what it means for us.

Key Passages:

Deuteronomy 30:11-14

Romans 10:4-9

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In this episode we build on the previous episode of how Christ became a curse to make contact with those in a cursed condition, so that he could lead them out of - redeem them - from that curse into the blessing of the Spirit. In some ways, what Christ did by becoming a curse is similar to what a therapist does when they intentionally participate in what counselors call "transference". Psychology Today defines transference as "a phenomenon in which one seems to direct feelings or desires related to an important figure in one’s life—such as a parent—toward someone who is not that person." A therapist willingly allows and sometimes encourages their clients to do this in counseling sessions because they know that it helps their client, as well as the therapist, make contact with the condition the client needs to experience healing in.

The amazing thing is that we, too, can participate with Christ in this same kind of dynamic by meeting people in their broken condition and walking with them out of that condition - something Paul gives us explicit instruction in Galatians 6:1-2 on how to do.

Key Passages:

Galatians 3:13-4; 6:1-2

Jeremiah 24:0; 29:21-22; 44:8 - passages that speak of someone becoming a curse as that person becoming an example of what people do not want to happen to them.

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On this episode we continue to look at how Paul uses certain passages in Deuteronomy to explain what Christ has done for both Jews and Gentiles. In Galatians 3:13 Paul says that Christ became a curse so that he could redeem those who were under the curse of the law. We define who "us" refers to, what it means to be "redeemed", why "for us" doesn't mean "instead of us", and why Paul intentionally refuses to cite part of the passage he alludes to in Deuteronomy 21:23.

It's important to get clarity about what Paul is arguing for in this passage because it reveals a beautiful picture of the gospel - the price Christ was willing to pay in order to meet his Jewish people in the cursed condition they were in so that he could make contact with them and bring them out of that cursed condition and into the life-giving blessing of Abraham - the Spirit of God.

Galatians 3:13-14

Deuteronomy 21:23

1 Kings 21 - the story of Ahab, Jezebell, and Naboth's vineyard

For access to articles about why God did not curse Jesus on the cross, you can contact us here

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In this episode we continue to work through Galatians 3 as a commentary on passages in Deuteronomy. As a way of convincing his audience that they cannot be justified/made righteous under the Mosaic law, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 which says there is a curse on all who do not continue to do everything written in the law. Essentially, Paul's argument is that whoever comes under the Mosaic covenant in order to be justified/made right is actually coming under a curse, because a curse is on everyone who does not continue to keep everything written in the law - which automatically means everyone under the law. The way to be justified/made right is by placing one's trust in the justified/righteous one - Christ.

Paul is laying out two paths for us to choose from. One path trusts in our "works of the law" to be justified/made right with God. The other path trusts in the work already accomplished in Christ Jesus to be justified/made right with God.

Key Passages:

Galatians 3:10-12

Deuteronomy 27:26

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In this episode we continue our journey through Deuteronomy, but we jump up into Galatians 3 to give us some context for how certain passages in Deuteronomy will be used. In Galatians, Paul is trying to convince his readers that they do not have to perform "works of the law" in order to receive the blessing of Abraham. In short, they don't have to be circumcised like Abraham. They only have to have the same kind of faith that Abraham had - which would make them sons of Abraham.

This approach to being the "sons" of Abraham becomes really important for Paul's argument because he wants to outline for his readers what it takes to receive the blessing of Abraham, which is going to be different from what his readers have been told by others who have come in after Paul and preached a different gospel.

Key Passages:

Galatians 3:5-9

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In this episode we look at God's instruction for Israel to circumcise their own heart so they can remain sensitive and responsive to his voice and keep their covenant with him. Moses knew that Israel would go in cycles of circumcising their heart and keeping covenant, as well as not circumcising and breaking the covenant, so later in the book of Deuteronomy he outlines the blessings and curses that will come from those choices. The good news is that when Israel entered into the curses of the covenant and were subsequently scattered all over the world, God promised that if they would turn back to him and obey his voice, he would bring them back into the land and circumcise their heart so that they would love him with their whole heart and keep his covenant. In 1948, this promise started to be fulfilled with Israel coming back into the land. However, God's circumcising of their heart is still underway, and has yet to be completely fulfilled.

Paul, in Romans 2, lets us know that it is the circumcision of the heart that ultimately matters. The circumcision of the flesh is merely the outward symbol of the deeper circumcision God wanted to be performed on their heart. What's interesting is that Paul says this circumcision of the heart now takes place by the Spirit, which means we all are now called to participate with God in circumcising our hearts so that every part of our human nature that naturally wants to resist God's love and rebel against his authority can be cut out and removed. Ultimately Christ is the Israelite who partnered with God to obey Deuteronomy 10:16 to circumcise his own heart so that he could keep the covenant and love God with all his heart. Now, by the Spirit, we are brought to share in his new, circumcised heart so that we can go through the same developmental process that Christ himself has already completed in his own heart - fulfilling the law.

Key Passages:

Deuteronomy 30:1-6

Romans 2:25-29

Romans 8:4 - the Spirit guides us into fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law

Romans 13:8-10 - love fulfills the law

Key Resources:

Short article on where the name "Jew" comes from.

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In this episode we finish up the story of Jesus passing through the wilderness of temptation from the devil. It's absolutely critical that Jesus never deviates from God's developmental path. Jesus has come to keep, pioneer, and perfect a new humanity, and in order to do this he has to keep pace with God's developmental plans for him. If he were to fall behind it would amount to a form of immaturity and arrested development, relegating him to being in need of a savior, himself. The enemy knows this, which is why he is so strategic in the ways he approaches Jesus in the desert. His last temptation of Christ in this story is to tempt him with quick and easy access to power - the kind that comes without having to go through a developmental process. Jesus successfully resists the temptation by relying on the teaching from Deuteronomy 6:13, and his identity as the Son of the Father.

We, too, can resist the temptation to gain power or success by taking shortcuts. All true power and success is given to us by God as we become the kinds of people who can steward power and success according to God's will.

Key Passages:

Matthew 4:8-11

Deuteronomy 6:13

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