I've never heard anyone put it quite like that before!
Leave it to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundblad, Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching Emerita, at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Barbara is a preaching mentor for Michal and me. One year we attended a wonderful course with her and the Rev. Dr. James Forbes at Union Seminary. We also visited the congregation where Barbara was Pastor, Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church in Manhattan. We were immensely blessed by her sermon and by the baptism of a child that morning.
The Reverend Professor Lundblad helps her hearers understand biblical texts in unexpected ways. In reflection on "the little book," chapters 9 through 11 of Paul's Letter to the Romans, she writes: "Paul begins this book-within-a-book declaring, 'I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying...'(9.1a).
"Paul struggles with the reality that some Israelites (his usual word for the Jews) have not come to believe in Christ. This is painful for Paul, for as he says, they are 'my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.' Paul is a Jew who has come to believe that Jesus Christ is the closeness of God.
"Paul picks up two key phrases in Deuteronomy 30: 'on your lips' and 'in your heart'.... Heart (kardia) and lips/mouth (stoma) are connected. Heart is internal; lips and mouth are external. There must be congruence between the two. What we say with our lips should come from what we believe in our hearts.
"In Luke's temptation story Jesus does what Paul does in Romans; he quotes Deuteronomy. In Jesus' case the words of Deuteronomy provide his defense against every temptation of the devil (Luke 4:1-12). Jesus says nothing on his own, but trusts that God's word is near him, in his heart and on his lips.
"It is as though Jesus reaches up and touches an invisible mezuzah with the text of Deuteronomy inside.
"The devil also quotes Scripture.... but the devil's lips do not match what is in his heart. Jesus and Paul, both Jews, trust that God's word is near, in their hearts and on their lips."(p. 32)
Trust in God's closeness is what carries Jesus through the devil's temptations.
Dr. Lundblad's reflections can be found in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary, 2018, Year C, Volume 2, pages 31-32.