You CAN Do What God Says

Don't believe the lie that doing what God wants is impossible. So often people want to say obedience is impossible to justify their disobedience. But God put it writing for His people so that they could bank on His promise - YOU CAN DO WHAT HE SAYS!

Look at Deuteronomy 30:
Deuteronomy 30:11–14 (ESV) “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 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?’ 13 Neither is it 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?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

Before we go any further, please do not take this to mean you will be sinless. All have sinned. All have fallen short. There is no one who does good except Christ! But the words of this book are not mean to destroy your will, they are meant to empower your life with Him.

Secondly, do not take this to mean that your salvation is predicated on your ability to obey the Word of God. NEVER! Your salvation is a gift of God's grace. Just as Israel was SAVED out of Egypt and then given the law, so too the Christian is saved from sin and given the Holy Spirit to obey. Now having been saved, you can walk in obedience because God has made it possible for His people to live according to His plan.

God said to Israel the commandment is "not too hard for you." Then notice the additional qualifier: "neither is it far off." It was the wonderful privilege of God's people to have the revealed written Word of God given to them clearly. While other nations had to guess what their "gods" demanded, Israel had firm assurance this was His way.

Yet we know that Israel did not follow God's word fully. Israel proved even what Paul knew - that simply knowing what God requires is not enough to do what God requires.

Romans 7:10 (ESV) The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

What Paul knew and Israel experienced is that we needed rescue from our inability. And God was prophetically speaking through Moses here in Deuteronomy 30 to point us to His Son.

The fulfillment of this text is Jesus Christ - the full revelation of God! Paul will use these verses in Romans 10 to talk about our life of faith saying,
Romans 10:5–9 (ESV) For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, 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.

Moses was writing about Jesus in Deuteronomy 30. He is the one who makes it utterly possible for God's people to obey Him. For as we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord - that is He is in charge of our lives empowering our obedience AND as we believe in our hearts God raised Him from the dead so we know He can raise our spiritual lives once dead in trespasses and sins to living obediently before Him.

Philippians 2:13 (ESV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

You see, because of Jesus, we have access to the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and giving us a new heart leading to obedience of the truth. It is also quite interesting that Israel celebrated the giving of the law on the feast of Pentecost, but in the final Pentecost, God poured out His Spirit! What Israel proved to us is the way to live, though they were unable to follow it, God has empowered His people today to perform through the work of the Spirit. Praise be to God!