With All Your Heart

Deuteronomy 30:1-3 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
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Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 
 
TODAY is the first day of Advent. “Advent” means arrival, expectation and appearance. You could include “revelation” as God reveals himself through the personal coming of the Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Even though we are at the end of our calendar year, it is the beginning of the new year in the church. Appropriately Advent is about beginning.
   As Bible passages around Jesus’ birth from Isaiah, Luke and Matthew are most commonly read during this time, you likely wonder how Deuteronomy and Romans would be appropriate for Advent scriptures. In truth, the entire Bible is about Advent. We live today and each day in an expectation that Jesus is coming. We do not need to expect he will come to Bethlehem. He already has. We do not need to expect he will come to begin his church. He already has. He is coming to establish the new heaven and earth. Our purpose then in the Advent season is to consider promises God has spoken and kept about his coming as the Son, who is Savior. Most importantly, it is to expect his coming again as Son of Man.
   This is the connection between Deuteronomy – a book of the law – and Romans – an epistle to declare grace has fulfilled the law. See Deuteronomy’s commands and promise in “take them (the law) to heart” and “when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul … then the Lord your God will … gather you again from all the nations.” Then compare with Romans’ words, “confess with your mouth” and “believe in your heart…you will be saved.” In the law and the gospel, God reveals he has graciously prepared a way for a lawless, sinful world to be with him in the faithful heart that loves God. The promise of Deuteronomy is fulfilled in Romans’ way of salvation. In Christ we are gathered to God.
   Moses wrote seven times in Deuteronomy to “Love the Lord your God.” Then he added this promise in Deuteronomy 30:20 For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The Jews were to obey God with a heart love. This was the way to the life God had planned for them.  
   Then Jesus graciously came because “God so loved the world” (John 3:16a). Through the gospel, the Lord God is revealing himself to his chosen people – the church. In the Spirit’s work hearts of stone become hearts of faith to confess Jesus is the Son of God. Deuteronomy is a promise that required the Jews’ heart love, so they could live with God in the Promised Land. Romans is the gracious promise fulfilled. God has come to Bethlehem. He has come to begin his eternal reign on earth, so you know a faithful heart is God’s way for you to enter into the eternal Promised Land.
   God is Emmanuel. He has come to us through the law. He has come through the gospel. He is with us now in Spirit as we confess with our hearts we love and believe in him. Proclaim with your mouth and in your heart, “I am a sinner. Forgive me Lord. Jesus is risen from the grave and ascended to heaven. Jesus saves.” You will live in the land God has forever prepared for you.
 
Prayer: As we await your Second Coming, Lord Jesus, we pray we do so with our hearts full of love, that we may joyfully live in your commands. Amen.