In Your Mouth and In Your Heart

Paul's use of Deuteronomy 30 in Romans 10 has puzzled interpreters and led to many divergent readings.

In this book, Smothers argues that 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.

By quoting Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10 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.