The Scandal of Accessible Righteousness Text: Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Introduction: The Excuse-Making Industry
We live in an age that has perfected the art of the excuse. The reason we are the way we are is because of our upbringing, our environment, our psychology, our sociology, our anything-ology except for our theology. And when modern Christians approach the demands of God, we often bring this entire excuse-making apparatus with us. We treat holiness as though it were a cryptic message from a distant star, requiring a special decoder ring that only a few mystics possess. We act as though obedience is a secret recipe locked in a vault on the far side of the moon. We do this for a very simple reason: if the standard is impossibly high and impossibly far away, then we cannot be faulted for not reaching it. It is a clever, self-serving, and damnable game.
We want a God who is near enough to comfort us but distant enough not to command us. We like the idea of a God who is "in our hearts" as a warm sentiment, but not "in our mouths" as a binding confession that requires us to actually do something. We have turned the Christian life into a grand quest for a secret feeling, a higher experience, or a deeper insight, when God has laid it all out on the table in plain speech.
Into this fog of pious excuses, Moses speaks with the force of a thunderclap. Standing on the plains of Moab, with the promised land in view, he delivers a message that dismantles the entire framework of our evasions. He tells Israel, and by extension he tells us, that the commandment of God is not some esoteric riddle. It is not difficult, it is not distant, it is not complicated. It is near. It is accessible. It is doable. This is a scandalous thought for those who have built their lives on the foundation of "I can't." What Moses establishes here is the foundational grammar of covenant life, a grammar that the apostle Paul will later pick up and show is fulfilled perfectly and gloriously in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This passage is a direct assault on two related errors: the error of legalism, which makes the law an impossible ladder to climb in our own strength, and the error of pietistic naval-gazing, which makes the law a mystical fog we can never quite grasp. Both end in the same place: disobedience. Moses will have none of it. God's word, he says, is right here, right now.
The Text
"For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-14 LSB)
No More Gnosticism (v. 11)
We begin with the direct, frontal assault on our excuses.
"For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far from you." (Deuteronomy 30:11)
First, what is "this commandment?" It is the sum of the covenant law, which is itself summarized in the great command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. It is the call to walk in His ways, to choose life. Moses says this way of life is not "too difficult." The Hebrew word means it is not too wonderful or extraordinary, beyond your grasp. Nor is it "far from you."
This is a direct refutation of any Gnostic tendency. Gnosticism, in all its forms ancient and modern, teaches that salvation comes through a secret, hidden knowledge, a gnosis, available only to the initiated. The common man can't get it. You need a guru, a spiritual master, a therapist with a new technique, a pastor with a seven-step secret. But God does not hide the ball. He puts His cards on the table. The covenant is not written in invisible ink. God spoke it out loud from a mountain.
Now, we must be careful. Is Moses preaching salvation by works? Is he saying that fallen man, in his own strength, can just buckle down and keep the law perfectly? Not at all. We must read this within its covenantal context. This is spoken to a people whom God has already redeemed from Egypt, a people with whom He has made a gracious covenant. The law is given as the shape of their grateful response to that grace. The ability to keep it is itself a gift of that grace. So when Moses says it is "not too difficult," he is not denying the necessity of God's enabling power; he is denying our pretense that the standard is unclear or unreachable for those within the covenant.
No More Spiritual Quests (v. 12-13)
Moses then uses two powerful metaphors to illustrate the point, cutting off our most common spiritual excuses at the knees.
"It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and make us hear it, that we may do it?’" (Deuteronomy 30:12-13 LSB)
This is the language of the professional excuse-maker. "Oh, if only I had a direct word from heaven! If an angel appeared to me, then I would obey." Or, "If only I could go on a great spiritual pilgrimage, to a faraway land, and find the secret from some holy man, then I would be righteous." We pretend that our problem is a lack of information or a lack of some dramatic, life-altering experience. We want a sign. We want a quest. We want anything other than the plain duty that is sitting right in front of our face.
Moses is saying that the quest is over. The revelation has been given. God has already come down to the mountain. He has already spoken. You don't need to send an emissary to heaven, because God has sent His word down to you.
And this is precisely where the Apostle Paul plugs in the high-voltage cable of the gospel in Romans 10. Paul quotes this very passage and tells us what it really means in light of the finished work of Christ. He writes, "But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, 'Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?"' (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, '"Who will descend into the abyss?"' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)."
Paul's inspired commentary is breathtaking. The reason you don't have to go on a quest to heaven is that Christ has already come down in the incarnation. The Word was made flesh. And the reason you don't have to cross the sea or descend into the deep is that Christ has already gone into the grave and has been raised from the dead. The great quest has been undertaken for us, by Him. The work is finished. The word of righteousness is not something we must achieve or discover; it is something that has been brought to us, accomplished for us, and is now freely offered.
The Radical Nearness of the Word (v. 14)
Having demolished the excuses of distance and difficulty, Moses states the positive truth with beautiful simplicity.
"But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." (Deuteronomy 30:14 LSB)
The word is not just near; it is "very near." Where is it? It is in two places: your mouth and your heart. This is not sentimental poetry. It is precise covenant theology.
"In your mouth" refers to the public, spoken, confessed word. This is the Shema, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." It is the law that they were to teach their children, to speak of when they sat in their house and when they walked by the way. It is the objective, corporate truth that defines them as a people. It is the word on your lips.
"In your heart" refers to the internal appropriation of that word. It is to be believed, cherished, and loved. Moses is pointing forward to the promise of the New Covenant, when God would write His law not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of human hearts (Jer. 31:33). The goal has always been heart-deep obedience, not just external compliance.
And once again, Paul shows us the ultimate fulfillment. What does he say immediately after quoting Moses? "But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
The word in the mouth is the confession that Jesus is Lord. The word in the heart is the belief that the Father raised Him from the dead. This is the word of faith. It is as near as your next breath and your next heartbeat.
That You May Do It
But notice how Moses ends the sentence. The nearness of the word, its presence in mouth and heart, is for a stated purpose: "that you may do it."
This is where so much modern evangelism tragically stops short. We are told to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths, and that is the end of the transaction. But for both Moses and Paul, this is the beginning. The goal of this radical nearness of God's grace is a transformed life of joyful obedience. Grace does not abolish the law; it establishes it. Faith is not a substitute for obedience; it is the root from which all true obedience grows.
The gospel is not a "get out of jail free" card that leaves us sitting in the pigsty. It is a "get out of jail and be adopted by the King" reality that calls us to learn to live as sons and daughters in His household. The word is near so that you may do it. The Spirit is given so that you may walk in His statutes. Christ has come down from heaven and up from the grave so that you might be freed from sin's dominion and enabled to live righteously.
Therefore, all our excuses are stripped away. We cannot say the standard is unclear. We cannot say the power is unavailable. We cannot say the word is distant. In Christ, the word has come as close as it is possible to get. He is Immanuel, God with us. And through His Spirit, He is God in us.
The Christian life is therefore not a desperate search for a far-off God. It is a moment-by-moment walk of faith and repentance with a God who is very near. Is there sin in your life? You do not need to journey to a distant shrine to deal with it. The word of forgiveness is near you, in your mouth to confess it, and in your heart to believe in the one who paid for it. Is there a command you must obey? You do not need to wait for a heavenly vision. The word of guidance is near you, in the Scriptures you can read, in your mouth to affirm it, and in your heart to trust the God who commands it.
"...that you may do it." (Deuteronomy 30:14 LSB)
This is the great challenge and the great comfort. The accessibility of God's word leaves us without excuse for our disobedience, but it also provides us with every reason for confidence. God has not given us a task and then hidden the instruction manual. He has not called us to a life and then withheld the power to live it. The word is near. Christ is near. Therefore, choose life. Take up the word that is in your mouth and in your heart, and by His grace, do it.