Joshua 1:8
7“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for theLord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua was saved in the same way I am saved-through justification by faith alone; under the Covenant of grace, through the sacrifice of Christ on the elects behalf. You agree? If so, why is God impressing upon His servant faithfulness to what was told to Moses in regards to keeping the law? We’re not under the law, but grace, right? Didn’t Paul say that? He did! Is that what Paul meant when he said that?
Lets look closer at what Paul writes:
“11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
Romans ch 6
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
“you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.”
What is this ‘pattern of teaching’ Paul is speaking of? Surely it is the law of God. He goes on to say, ‘that has now claimed your allegiance’. Get that? The law has ‘claimed’ your allegiance. God’s Holy Spirit, converting the mind that is at enmity with God’s law, transforms the mind into a creature that is now sworn to allegiance, supernaturally. We love the law.
Look at what Psalm 1 says:
“1Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
4Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.”
Do you ‘delight’ in the law of the Lord?