“Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.” Deuteronomy 30:11

God’s word—the Bible—is widely available to us today. We need to open it and read it and study it, that we might know God and obey Him. That’s essentially what Moses was saying to the Israelites way back in Deuteronomy 30 as noted in the verse above. Of course, the Bible then was limited to just the Mosaic law; the full revelation of scripture was yet to be given.

But the point Moses was making applies today, just as it did then. Consider the next few verses, Deuteronomy 30:12-14: “It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” He was saying God’s word and his revelation through his word were not mysterious or too hard to understand, nor were they far off or inaccessible. They were right there ready to be applied to life.

In Romans 10:5-8 the apostle Paul quotes these verses and sheds light on the fuller meaning of Moses’ words, applying them to Christ as the culmination of the law. God’s commands given through Moses were not burdensome or difficult to understand. But God knew the people would fail to keep them, so he made provisions for repentance and forgiveness through the sacrificial system. The sacrifices pointed to Christ, the once for all sacrifice for sin. “…Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

That’s the message of the Bible. Obedience to God begins with faith in Christ, the only one who fully kept the whole law of God. It is faith that saves us, and that faith should create in-us an intense desire to obey God and to live for him.