I recently read the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the new kid’s Bible storybook I’ve been promoting. In that story I read these words:
Then God made his people a promise. “I will always be with you…. If you do what I say, your lives in the new land will be happy and everything will go well.”
So Joshua gathered his army together…. They were ready to fight. But the plan wasn’t about fighting; it was about trusting and doing what God said. (emphasis added, quote from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones)
Canaan as a Type
These words spurred me to think about the battle of Jericho as it relates to the battle of our own personal sanctification. Christians for centuries have interpreted the story of Israel’s redemption and exodus form Egypt, their wandering in the desert, and their conquering the promised land in some kind of a spiritual sense. Scripture certainly presents Jesus as the archetypal Passover Lamb. The misadventures of Israel in the wilderness teach us spiritual lessons (1 Cor. 10). And the promised land is a type of Abraham’s “better” and “heavenly” country which he sought (Heb. 11). Numerous hymns have also equated crossing the Jordan with entering our eternal rest.
Certainly a redemptive historical hermeneutic finds great significance in the story of the Israelites conquering the promised land. As my friend Nathan Pitchford has so clearly shown, the land of promise is intimately connected to fellowship with God. The land was to be the place where God would be Israel’s God and they would be His people. Fellowship was the goal of the land promise, even as later with David, God chose Jerusalem to be the city where His name would be. The OT covenants and promises became increasingly particularized and focused on the heir of David to be ultimately fulfilled with Christ.
All that is to say the possession of Canaan by the people of God was important because this land was to provide a restoration, in part, of Eden. It was to be a place where God communed with man in intimate fellowship. Such a place clearly typifies the abundant Christian life of a believer. A believer experiences fellowship with God which is truly a foretaste of heaven. Just as the land of Canaan ultimately points forward to the New Jerusalem and the New Earth (see Rev. 21), so the believer’s experience of life in Christ is the foretaste of the true essence of eternal life.
The Battle to Win Canaan
Now that we have established the typical significance of the land of Canaan, we are prepared to see how the battle of Jericho wonderfully instructs us. (And I grant I have not truly established it, rather I explained it. This post is not a full-fledged defense of the redemptive historical hermeneutic.) Before the Israelites could possess their inheritance, they had to conquer their foes. The battle of Jericho was the first fight to win the promised land, and it sets up what proves to be a pattern. The Israelites trust in God’s power to win each battle for them.
I hope you can see how this applies to us. In order for us to reach our inheritance — the ultimate promised land of heaven, we must trust in God to win our battles. In Jesus (the Captain of the Lord’s hosts) must be our trust. So with ultimate salvation, we must trust in God to undertake for us and win the battle.
But this applies to our sanctification as well. For us to enjoy the abundant life in Christ, we must fight the flesh and engage our besetting sins. We must mortify sin (see John Owen’s excellent work On the Mortification of Sin, which is an exposition of Rom. 8:13). And how do we win the battles of sanctification? By trusting in God to win our battles for us, of course. We follow in Joshua’s footsteps.
The Point of this Post
What most blessed me in thinking through all of this was an observation. Joshua and the army of Israel did not sit around on their hands and wait for the walls to fall down. They obeyed. Scripture repeatedly tells us that good works are the inevitable, even the required fruit of believers. (See my post Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!) If we are not obeying, we have good reason to be doubting our salvation.
Today, there are many who so stress the necessity of good works that they have redefined justification. They claim justification is based on our good works, yet they claim such works are only done through the Spirit, and so this position still qualifies as justification by faith.
Against the backdrop of this whole debate, the example of Jericho becomes all the more clear. If the Israelites had not obeyed by marching around the city, God would not have given them th evictory. Obedience is necessary. But obedience does not earn or obtain anything. It is only God’s grace which would topple the walls of Jericho. And certainly marching around the city did not do anything to earn the victory. God throwing the walls down earned the victory.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as we face the struggles of personal sanctification, let us take heart. God is fighting our battles for us. We do need to be faithful and march around the walls of the sins in our life. But ultimately God is the one who tears down those walls and gives us spiritual victory after spiritual victory. Just like it took many years for the Israelites to conquer all of Canaan, our own struggle for sanctification is a slow process. And like the Israelites, we will never expel all of our sins. We can, however, win a victory and live a life of victory (see Josh. 21:43-45). And when we do, it is not our obedience which has won anything. It is all by God’s grace and His fighting for us. The battle is indeed the Lord’s.
So let us seek to trust our Great Captain, and follow His lead in fighting our sin. To God be the glory, great things He has done, and will do!
(For similar posts, see My 219 Epiphany, parts 1 and 2; Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!; and Bitterness and Desire.)
FYI, my next KJVO debate post will hopefully be done by tomorrow. I’ve been sidetracked with other things, so I apologize it was not done on Monday.
Bob,
Good article. Do you have any books to recommend on sanctification (preferably from a Reformed, Calvinistic point of view)? It’s in preparation for my Soteriology class that I’m starting (and by finishing, I will have my M.A. in Theological Studies) right now.
P.S.– the package is on the way to you!
Larry,
I am going to read your paper sometime soon, by the way.
Now, on sanctification, the book by Owen, that I mentioned, is key. He also has a book on indwelling sin, and one on triumph over temptation. R.C. Sproul has a classic book entitled The Holiness of God. Also, my pastor, John Piper has a great book entitled When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, as well as his book Future Grace. The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney is also helpful too. I’m sure others might be able to recommend some more good books. I know there is one edited by Tom Schreiner and someone else on the whole perseverance question.
Hope this helps.
Larry,
The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, by Walter Marshall (a Puritan) is available at the Monergism bookstore. It is a phenomenally helpful and practical treatise on sanctification, recommended by John Murray as the most important book ever written on sanctification. Also, A.W. Pink wrote a book on sanctification, also available at Monergism, which is very helpful.
Nathan
Thanks, Nathan, for the additional recommendations.
God bless.
Thank you gentlemen! Just as an aside, I probably won’t be getting any of these books soon since I’ve been given permission to write my Soteriology paper on a defense of the Limited Atonement (the original requirement for this paper was to defend the unlimited atonement, which doesn’t sit well with me at all). I can add these books to my reading ‘wish list’, although I do need to read a book or several articles on sanctification for my Soteriology class. BTW, I am a student at Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary of Lansdale, PA (not know for being Calvinist, but I’m in strong agreement with their dispensational and cessationist stance, as well as being Baptist).
A co-worker of mine had been agonizing over the key to winning the battle with sin. We’ve been talking for a while about it and the Lord has given me the privilege to introduce to him many truths on sanctification and assurance. I’ll be sure he also hears about the correspondence between our grace-reliant efforts as typified by the battles to conquer Canaan. Until now, it hadn’t come up. But it will soon!
Thanks, John.