Introduction – Why
This Lesson:
Last week we saw the numerous commands and demands that God
put on Joshua with respect to His law.
·
If Joshua obeyed, spoke, and meditated on the
law, he would succeed in securing the promise land.
·
These verses make it appear that Joshua’s
relationship with God was based on Joshua’s works.
o
And of course, so does much of the Pentateuch.
Some Scriptural examples:
·
Deuteronomy 10:12–13 (ESV) — 12 “And now,
Israel, what does the Lord your God require
of you, but to fear the Lord
your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes
of the Lord, which I am commanding
you today for your good?
·
Deuteronomy 30:8–10 (ESV) — 8 And you
shall again obey the voice of the Lord
and keep
all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly
prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the
fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in
prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when
you obey the voice of the Lord
your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this
Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
But we can’t help but wonder where the Gospel of grace is in
this relationship.
·
And in our Joshua text we came to the end of
verse 9 – “…for the Lord your God is
with you wherever you go.”
o
What is
God’s presence supposed to mean in the context of all this law?
o
Skeptically,
God’s presence could be construed as bad news for Joshua.
But on the other hand, God’s presence could just as likely
point us to the Gospel of grace in the OT.
·
But why
might we see an OT Gospel of grace in God’s presence?
·
What is
the OT Gospel anyway?
·
And how
do we square the Law with this OT Gospel?
Misconceptions:
Not knowing the basics on these issues gives way to some
serious misconceptions about the OT.
·
Michael Horton puts the misconceptions like
this:
·
“Many of us were raised not knowing what to do
with that first half of our Bible. The idea was, Israel in the Old Testament
was under the law and Christians in the New Testament are under grace. This
means that the Old Testament equals works-righteousness and the New Testament
equals the gospel of grace” – Michael Horton.
·
This view couldn’t be more wrong.
And these misconceptions are understandable.
·
The OT seems to suggest that God’s law can be
kept.
·
“The general assumption of the OT is that the
law can be kept, although occasionally another note is struck (see 24:19, Ps. 143:2)”
– Marten Woudstra.
Leading to Bad Teaching:
But what’s worse is that our misconceptions lead to terrible
teaching.
·
The idea of “works-righteousness” begins to
crowd out the “gospel of grace”.
·
It is simply easier to understand and to teach law
rather than grace.
·
And doing so mistakenly puts humanity in a
position where they think they can mediate their relationship to God through
their behavior.
o
Do works = Be righteous
o
Religion formula 101
Sally Lloyd-Jones frames this problem in context of teaching
our children:
·
“When we drill a [OT] Bible story down into a
moral lesson, we make it about us. But the Bible isn’t mainly about us, and
what we are supposed to be doing—it’s about God, and what he has done. Children
don’t need to be told to try harder, believe more, or do it better. That just
leaves them in despair. The moral code always leaves us in despair. We can
never live up to it” – Sally Lloyd-Jones.
·
This results in the development of an overly
pious, moralistic, and legalistic relationship with God and His word.
·
Not the more desired and accurate Guilt-Grace-Gratitude
progression.
Michael Horton is even more adamant about this flaw in
teaching.
·
“David really lived in history. And the usefulness
of that life, measured by the fact that the Bible records great segments of it,
is not determined by how many instructive lessons we can learn from character
studies, for there were greater men and women of character, no doubt, who never
made it into the Bible. David’s inclusion into the canon of Holy Scripture is
defined by the place he had in redemptive history—not only as a precursor of
Christ, the Son of David, but as someone to whom the gospel promise came, in
spite of all his failures and unfaithfulness” – Michael Horton.
Review Summary:
So to answer the questions we have raised and put aside our
OT misconceptions, we need to dive a little deeper into a number of issues.
·
We need to know what the OT Law is.
·
We need to know what the OT Gospel is.
·
And we need to know how they relate to each
other.
We need to be aware of some obvious basics as we go forward.
·
Yes, God commands, demands and expects
obedience, as we saw with Joshua.
·
And yes, obedience led to blessings –
disobedience led to curses
·
But…obedience to God’s law did not save Joshua,
Moses, or anyone else.
o
Salvation was not a blessing arising out
of an act of obedience to the Law
o
Galatians 3:21b (ESV) — 21b For if a law
had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the
law.
o
“Since we are unable to achieve righteousness by
adhering strictly to the law, the role of the law is not to justify…” – Millard
Erickson.
·
Yes, salvation via an OT Gospel of Grace is
present in the OT.
o
A Gospel involving Faith–Grace–Done work of
God–etc.
1) THE LAW OF THE OT
What is the OT Law of
God?
·
Before we can get into the role, use and purpose
of the law and deal with our misconceptions, we need to get an idea of what the
OT law is.
Three Kinds of
Law:
Typically, the OT law is seen in three categories.
·
Ceremonial Law
·
Civil Law
·
Moral Law
Ceremonial Law:
These laws governed Israel’s religious life.
·
“There are the special feasts and fasts,
together with the elaborate sacrificial system and temple worship” – Michael
Horton.
·
These laws were given as part of the Mosaic
covenant on Sinai – a renewal of God’s covenant with Abraham – Calvin and
Sailhamer.
o
Sinai is often called a different “administration”
of the covenant of grace.
Importantly, these laws are no longer in effect post-Jesus:
·
“As we can see, especially from the book of
Hebrews, all of these types and shadows are fulfilled in Christ. They all
pointed to Him. He was the temple, so why go on with temple worship? He was the
sacrifice, so how could we offend God by thinking there was still a need for a
better or fuller sacrifice for sins? Therefore, the ceremonial laws vanish with
the coming of the one they were designed to foreshadow” – Michael Horton.
Civil Law:
Because Israel was a theocracy, civil laws were issued by
Yahweh to regulate how Israel was to operate as a society and nation.
·
This law included things related to the death
penalty, economic statutes, etc.
·
“Just as Israel’s ceremonial laws prefigured
Christ as the great prophet and priest, so her civil laws prefigured Christ as
the great king” – Michael Horton.
·
And like the ceremonial law, “so too we ought
not to seek to return to the Jewish theocracy when we have the fulfillment of
Christ’s kingdom in His spiritual reign through the proclamation of the gospel”
– Michael Horton.
·
These laws were also given on Sinai and were
part of the covenant renewal – a new administration of the covenant of grace.
A further word about the ceremonial and civil laws:
·
Calvin called the ceremonial and civil laws,
“supplements to aid in observing the moral law” – John Sailhamer.
·
These were not originally part of God’s law but
were added at Sinai.
Why were they added?
·
Both Paul and Jesus give us insight into this
question.
·
Galatians 3:19 (ESV) — 19 Why then the
law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to
whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an
intermediary.
·
“…the law is not laid down for the just but for
the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners” – 1 Timothy
1:9.
o
“because of transgressions” of the “lawless
and disobedient”
·
“Jesus also said that the law (of divorce) was
given ‘because of the hardness’ of Israel’s heart” – John Sailhamer.
o
“because of your hardness of heart” –
Matthew 19:8
·
Both of these reasons are exemplified by
Israel’s making of the golden calf at Sinai.
Why have they been
abrogated?
·
As already alluded to, in the new covenant of
grace mediated through Jesus, the old administration of the covenant of grace
“passed away, [therefore] so did the law that had become a part of it (cf. Heb
7: 12: “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a
change in the law as well”) – John Sailhamer.
·
And “In the New Testament, we not only do not
find explicit calls to obey various ceremonial or civil laws of the Old
Testament, we find it expressly forbidden, as a return to shadows after the
reality has come. However, the New Testament does reiterate the moral laws of
the Old Testament, giving them fuller explanation and a particular New
Testament application” – Michael Horton.
·
So what
of the “moral laws of the OT”?
·
The moral law is the third type of law and is
still in effect post-Jesus.
What is an important
implication of this abrogation?
·
In the OT, an adulterer could be stoned.
·
In the OT, an old man collected fire wood on the
Sabbath and was put to death.
·
In the OT, God’s people were to not eat certain
foods.
·
In the OT, God’s people were not to wear clothes
made of different materials.
·
So why
don’t Christians stone adulterers or refrain from eating certain foods, etc.?
Tim Keller puts the answer as follows:
·
“One way to respond to the charge of
inconsistency may be to ask a counter-question— ‘Are you asking me to deny the
very heart of my Christian beliefs?’ If you are asked, ‘Why do you say that?’
you could respond, ‘If I believe Jesus is the resurrected Son of God, I can’t follow
all the ‘clean laws’ of diet and practice, and I can’t offer animal sacrifices.
All that would be to deny the power of Christ’s death on the cross. And so
those who really believe in Christ must follow some Old
Testament texts and not others’” – Tim Keller.
Moral Law:
Formalized in the 10 Commandments, this law was “given to
regulate personal [moral] conduct for covenant members” – John Sailhamer.
·
This law has always been in existence.
·
Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua
all lived under the moral law of God.
·
“Every person—even the most perverted or
confused person—has the law written on his or her conscience” – Michael Horton.
J. Budzisewski says our knowledge of this law resides
specifically in our “deep conscience”:
·
Now, deep conscience "is the interior
witness to the foundational principles of moral law". In it resides
"the knowledge of basic goods, of formal norms, and of everyday moral
rules." It is not a feeling but an innate knowledge of morality. In
fact, it was "designed as a witness to moral truth" by God.
Therefore, it "cannot be erased, cannot be mistaken, and is the same in
every human being." And knowledge of moral truth obligates us with
duties to self, neighbor and God.
The apostle Paul
puts it like this:
·
Romans 1:19–21 & 32 (ESV) — 19 For
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For
although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened…32 Though they know God’s righteous decree
that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but
give approval to those who practice them.
BTW – This
means the 10 Commandments weren’t given because of “a lack of data” – Horton.
Both Jesus and the OT sum up the moral law in this way:
·
“Individuals are to love God with all of their
heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves” – Michael
Horton.
2) OT LAW AND ITS
USES
Now having a basic understanding of what OT law was, we need
to look at its purpose or use.
Three Uses of the
Law:
What was the purpose
of all this law?
·
Generally, three uses of the law have been
identified.
·
They have gone by a variety of terms.
·
Here I have tweaked these terms a bit for
simplicities sake.
o
Civil Use
o
Condemning Use
o
Conforming Use
Civil Use:
The “first use of the law is that of a deterrent in the
civil sphere” – Michael Horton.
·
How were
citizens of Israel to conduct themselves as citizens?
·
How were
they to handle the inheritance of assets, etc.?
·
God’s civil law answered these questions for the
people of Israel.
·
And importantly, this law is “part of God’s
common grace and is not a means of special grace” – John Sailhamer.
·
In other words, this use of the law is relevant
to the believer and unbeliever alike.
·
A nation’s laws are for the good of her people,
believer and non-believer alike – Romans 13:1-7.
Condemning Use:
Paul explains this use of the law as follows:
·
Galatians 3:24 (ESV) — 24 So then, the
law was our guardian [or tutor] until Christ came, in order that we might be
justified by faith.
·
“The function of the law is to bring men and
women under conviction of sin and of their inability to meet the demands of the
law” – John Sailhamer.
·
“Just
when we think we are not quite as bad as the guy down the street living with
so-and-so, the law puts us on trial and compares us—not to other fallen men and
women, but to God. This is meant to drive us to despair so that we seek our
shelter from God’s wrath…” – Michael Horton.
·
This use
of the law is also relevant to both believer and unbeliever alike.
o
The law
condemns all because, simply put, we can’t keep it.
Scripture is clear on this point – all are unrighteous.
·
Psalm 143:2 (ESV) — 2 Enter not into
judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before
you.
·
Jeremiah 17:9 (NTL) — 9 The human
heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.
·
Romans 3:23 (ESV) — 23 for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
·
John 2:24–25 (ESV) — 24 But Jesus on his
part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and
needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
It must be said, that the law is not the problem.
·
Romans 7:12 (ESV) — 12 So the law is
holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
·
The law
is “holy and righteous and good”.
The problem is that the sinful heart “employs the law for
its own purposes” – Alistair Begg.
·
Paul puts it like this –
·
Romans 7:9 (ESV) — 9 I was once alive
apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
·
Romans 7:11 (ESV) — 11 For sin, seizing
an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
The sinful heart corrupts the law in at least two ways.
·
(1) It purposely disobeys it and relishes the
rebellion.
·
(2) It creates a religion of works and works
righteousness.
But, when the
condemning use of the law comes into contact with a “circumcised heart” – a
heart given eyes to see and ears to hear – it has the following result.
·
Psalm 32:3–5 (ESV) — 3 For when I kept
silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day
and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat
of summer. 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
So, where the law solicits religion or rebellion from the
sinful heart, it solicits confession and repentance from the circumcised heart.
·
If
grasped with a “circumcised heart”, this use of the law will lead one to “acknowledge” and “confess” and thus into the Gospel of
Grace.
·
Romans 7:24 (ESV) — 24 Wretched man that
I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
o
The words of a “circumcised heart” to be
sure.
Conforming Use:
This use of the law has effect only for believers.
·
The law is meant to conform believers to the
will and character of God.
·
It answers the question, what is God’s will for
my life as a believer.
CAUTION:
·
“Christians cannot conform perfectly to this
law, and they ought never to approach the law as though they could even come
close to its moral excellence. Rather, believers ought to approach the law as
the perfect standard God requires as the expression of His moral character and
live, not in order to meet God’s requirements (for that is achieved only in
Christ), but in order simply to obey God’s requirements. In the former approach,
one sets out to earn God’s favor by attaining His own righteousness; in the
latter, one sets out to obey a gracious heavenly Father simply because He has
already accepted him or her as righteous and holy” – Michael Horton.
This is the relationship King David had to God’s law; he
speaks of this use of the law as follows:
·
Psalm 19:7–11 (ESV) — 7 The
law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord
is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the
commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord
are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than
gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the
honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them
there is great reward.
·
“Revive” here means “to return”, “bring back”,
or “restore”, the very thing this use of the law is to do for the believer.
Only the Gospel of Grace can bring us into this relationship
with the law.
·
And as David’s words make clear, this
relationship did exist in the OT.
·
As we have said, the Gospel of Grace was in the
OT and we are headed there.
Blessings and
Curses of the Law:
In the OT, and especially in Deuteronomy, much is made of
the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience to the law.
·
Joshua, having replaced Moses and being tapped
by God to take the promise land, would have been well aware of the blessings
and curses.
·
And in Joshua 1:6-9 the blessings and curses
were no doubt part of the equation.
Curses:
All of Israel was subject to the curses of disobedience –
even those who were saved.
·
The bulk of the disobedience curses are outlined
in Deuteronomy 27:9ff and Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
·
Deuteronomy 28:15 (ESV) — 15 “But if you
will not obey the voice of the Lord
your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I
command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
Blessings:
Likewise, all of Israel could find blessings in obedience as
the covenant people of God – even those who were not saved.
·
The bulk of the obedience blessings are outlined
in Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
·
Deuteronomy 28:1–2 (ESV) — 1 “And if you
faithfully obey the voice of the Lord
your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today,
the Lord your God will set you
high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall
come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
But – and this is
a very big but – there was never a time in the OT where a blessing of obedience
is salvation.
·
We have already seen why this is.
·
The main blessing was always nation, people and
land – not salvation.
·
But it must be repeated to emphasize that the OT
does not contain a message of works righteousness.
·
Salvation is by the Gospel of Grace – which we
will get into soon.
Paul taught us this:
·
Galatians 3:10–11 (ESV) — 10 For all who
rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be
everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and
do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by
the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Summary of Law:
So it should be clear that the law of God was operating in
two contexts.
·
Although all of Israel was chosen by God - Deuteronomy
7:6 (ESV) — 6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord
your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all
the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
·
Not all of Israel was the elect – the remnant –
the saved.
·
And whereas the unbeliever of Israel had one
relationship to God’s law.
·
The believer had another relationship to God’s
law.
·
There were many similarities, but there were
some drastic differences.
·
The law could not conform an unbeliever to the
will and character of God.
·
And the law could not condemn a person who was
righteous by faith.
·
And though obedience would bring the blessings
of nation, people and land, it would never result in salvation.
And this finally leads back to the questions we had earlier.
·
What
saved the elect of Israel?
·
What was
the Gospel of the OT?
·
Why did
the writer of Joshua want to make the connection between Joshua’s obedience and
the presence of God?
·
We will find out next week.
Galatians 3:7–9 (ESV) — 7 Know then that it is those
of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to
Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
3) THE GOPSPEL OF THE
OT
Thus far we have seen that Joshua 1:6-9 clearly suggests
that Joshua’s success depends on his relationship with the law of God.
·
Because of the nature of his relationship to the
law, we proceeded to learn a few things about God’s law.
·
We saw three kinds of law – ceremonial, civil
and moral.
Interestingly, we saw that the ceremonial and civil laws
were added by God at Sinai because of what Paul calls the Israelite’s
transgressions.
·
“The laws are a sign of Israel’s failure. The
laws in the Pentateuch are a graphic picture of Israel’s failure to obey God” –
John Sailhamer.
Last week saw three uses of the law – civil, condemning and
conforming.
·
Importantly, the conforming use is in effect
only for the elect.
·
Only the elect/saved can be conformed to the
character of God.
o
Millard Erickson puts it as follows, the law was
“the standard God set for those people who would adhere to” the covenant of
Grace.
o
It condemned those not adhering to this
Covenant.
We also examined the concept of blessings from obedience and
curses from disobedience of God’s law.
·
All the Israelites had this blessings/curses
relationship with God’s law.
·
The saved and the unsaved alike.
·
But, the chief blessing of obedience related
only to people, nation and land.
·
Never is a blessing of obedience salvation in
the individual spiritual sense.
So understanding the law, we can now turn to salvation in
the OT.
·
We can finally answer the question how were OT
people saved.
·
What is
the Gospel in the OT?
·
And what
is the importance of the presence of God that the author of Joshua wanted us to
take notice of to this Gospel?
o
(refer back to first lesson on Joshua 1:6-9)
Some Preliminaries:
Like the concept of “life after death” and resurrection, the
concept of spiritual salvation gradually shows up in the OT.
·
“Although the OT begins to point [to spiritual
salvation], the majority of references to salvation speak of Yahweh granting
deliverance from real enemies and out of real catastrophies” – TWOT.
·
So as you read through the OT, just as you won’t
find much talk of either “life after death” or resurrection, you won’t find
much talk of “being saved”.
·
However, spiritual salvation is always under the
surface because of God’s covenant of grace with Abraham.
·
So, “the acts of salvation in the OT build
toward the final act of salvation which will include all people under its
possible blessing (Isa. 52:10)” – TWOT.
Scriptural Examples of Spiritual Salvation:
Allusions to
spiritual salvation:
·
Psalm 24:5 (ESV) — 5 He will receive
blessing from the Lord and
righteousness from the God of his salvation.
·
Psalm 51:14 (ESV) — 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your
righteousness.
·
Isaiah 46:13 (ESV) — 13 I bring near my
righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put
salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”
·
Isaiah 62:11 (ESV) — 11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the
earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his
reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
·
Ezekiel 37:23 (ESV) — 23 They shall not
defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with
any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in
which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and
I will be their God.
Now we can look at the Gospel of the OT as contained in:
·
(1) Covenant of Grace
·
(2) Faith
·
(3) God’s Presence as His Done Work, Future
Promises and the object of saving Faith.
(1) Covenant of
Grace:
The Covenant of Grace “is that arrangement whereby God planned
to save man from the just consequences of his sin; namely, immorality, misery,
death, and damnation” – Calvin Knox.
·
“The covenant of grace is the progressive
historical account of the administration of the Gospel in the history of
redemption” – R. Scott Clark.
Adam and Eve:
“The first Gospel promise in Genesis 3:15 announces the
covenant of grace, i.e. redemption of the elect by the Mediator” – R. Scott
Clark.
·
Genesis 3:15 (ESV) — 15 I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
·
“God manifested his grace here in two ways.
First, he would make Adam and Eve enemies of Satan and therefore friends of
God. Second, through the promised Redeemer God would break the power of Satan
over men. When Christ died on Calvary's cross, Satan's power was broken.
Wherever the gospel of the crucified One is preached with the blessing of the
Spirit, Satan is powerless to enslave” – Calvin Knox.
This expression of the Covenant of Grace in Jesus is
immediately followed by a present reality for Adam and Eve.
·
Genesis 3:21 (ESV) — 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife
garments of skins and clothed them.
·
God
apparently killed an animal (a sacrifice) and used its skin to symbolically
“cover” their sin.
Noah:
In spite of man’s depravity and evil heart, God
changed/modified/relented in the Adamic curse on the land (many scholars
argue).
·
Genesis 8:21–22 (ESV) — 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never
again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil
from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as
I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and
heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Abraham:
“The Abrahamic covenant is a renewal of the…covenant/promise
made to Adam (Genesis 3:15; 17). In the history of redemption, the covenant of
grace was renewed in Abraham such that he is the father of all who believe
(Romans 4:11; John 8:56)” – R. Scott Clark.
·
Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your
country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show
you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless
those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Other OT Mentions:
Throughout Israel’s history, God revealed more and more
about how he would ultimately fulfill His covenant.
·
Hosea 2:19–20 (ESV) — 19 And I will
betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in
justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in
faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
·
Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV) — 33 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares
the Lord: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.
·
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV) — 26 And I will
give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove
the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be
careful to obey my rules.
Summary of Covenant of Grace:
·
“In the covenant of grace God promised eternal
life to those who put their trust in the promised redeemer. At different times
and within distinct contexts, the covenant of grace was administered in a
variety of ways. God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai was one way in which
the covenant of grace was administered. The new covenant that Christ initiated
by his death and resurrection is another distinct administration of the one
covenant of grace. The Sinai covenant and the new covenant are thus the same
covenant with different administrations” – John Sailhamer.
(2) Faith in the
OT:
(1) Faith Connected to Righteousness of God
·
Just as in the NT, salvation in the OT involves
the righteousness of God.
·
And as in the NT, in the OT this happens “through
faith”.
·
Genesis 15:4–6 (ESV) — 4 And behold, the
word of the Lord came to him:
“This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars,
if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring
be.” 6 And he believed the Lord,
and he counted it to him as righteousness.
·
Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV) — 4 “Behold, his soul
is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live
by his faith.
And looking at the OT spiritual salvation texts we just
cited one sees clearly the connection made between spiritual salvation and
righteousness.
·
Psalm 24:5 puts it so clearly when it speaks of
a “righteousness
from the God of salvation”.
·
This is the same idea when Ezekiel says that God
“will
cleanse them” from their sin – Ezekiel 37:23.
·
And this is why David speaks of being delivered
from “bloodguiltiness” and praising God’s “righteousness” in Psalm
24:5.
Paul puts this relationship of faith and righteousness as
follows:
·
Philippians 3:9 (ESV) — 9 and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God
that depends on faith—
·
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — 21 For our
sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
(2) Faith Connected to Law Fulfillment
·
Faith’s relationship to righteousness also
carries with it another NT parallel.
·
In the NT, believers are seen by the Father as
having perfectly met the requirements of the law.
o
Because of our union with Christ, we participate
fully in the benefits of Christ’s perfect obedience.
o
His works are seen as our works.
·
This perfect obedience of Christ is the basis
for the imputation of God’s righteousness to us.
Interestingly, the same is said of Abraham.
·
Genesis 26:3–5 (ESV) — 3 Sojourn in this
land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your
offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I
swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the
stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your
offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because
Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and
my laws.”
Now, it must be
noted that the law as referenced by Moses in verse 5 did not exist yet.
·
So Moses
has done either one of two things:
o (1) He has committed an anachronistic error.
o (2) He is teaching us something about the
nature of the righteousness that is by faith.
·
The
answer is of course, the second.
·
Moses is
showing us the relationship between faith and law fulfillment.
·
“Abraham
could not have ‘kept the Sinai law’ in a literal sense, as it had not been
given until the time of Moses (cf. Ex 15: 25b). Abraham lived a life of
faith, and God counted that to him as his ‘keeping the law’ (cf. Gen 15: 6)”
– John Sailhamer.
Now we can move on to
the significance of the presence of God to the OT Gospel.
(3) Presence of
God – Done Work, Future Promises and the Object of Saving Faith:
We saw in our handling of Joshua 1:6-9 that God’s presence
provides the foundation and context for Joshua’s conquest historically of the promise land.
·
We saw via the connection to Deuteronomy that
the author of Joshua wants us to make God’s presence of utmost importance to
Joshua’s success.
·
Being strong and courageous; knowing, talking
about, meditating on and obeying God’s law; and not being afraid or dismayed
are all possible because of the presence of Yahweh.
So how does the
presence of God relate to the Gospel of the OT?
·
A question we asked in our Joshua 1:6-9 lesson.
·
The answer is that the presence of God, as we
are about to define it, is the object of saving faith.
·
And because it is the object, not the faith,
that does the saving; God as the object of faith is foundational to both the
Gospel of the OT and the NT.
What is the presence
of God?
·
Very simply, it is the self-revelation of God in
history.
o
Certainly, not just this – His covenant
faithfulness, holiness, eternity, etc and so much more.
·
It therefore includes His word spoken into
and His active involvement in history.
·
In the beginning, God acted and created (in
history) and made Himself known to Adam and Eve with His words, “And
God said…”
·
The God we love and trust is the God whom has
revealed Himself to us – His revelation of Himself in history.
o
Or what we can infer about Him from the things
He has revealed.
A couple more examples of presence of God as Revelation:
·
Exodus 20:2 (ESV) — 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
o
God then goes on to present the 10 commandments.
o
He created; He brought them out; He has the authority
to command.
·
Ezekiel 36:27 (ESV) — 27 And I
will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and
be careful to obey my rules.
·
John 1:14 (ESV) — 14 And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as
of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Two Aspects of Our Faith in God as He Has Revealed Himself
to Us:
It is God as He has revealed Himself that is the object
of our saving faith.
·
And in this respect, faith is “cumulative” or
“progressive”.
·
As God reveals more, faith will trust the
“more”.
And in the OT, as in the NT, faith in God has two aspects.
·
(1) Faith in the Done Work of God in
history.
o
Faith is to trust that God has done what He has
said He has done and then submit to the implications of this.
·
(2) Faith in the Future Work of God in
history – His Promises.
o
Faith is to trust that God will do what He has
said He will do and then submit to the implications of this.
John gets at (1),
the Done Work of God in history when he says:
·
John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life.
The writer of
Hebrews speaks of (2), the Future Work of God when he says:
·
Hebrews 11: 1–2 (ESV) — 1 Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction [evidence] of things not
seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation [the
approval/attestation of God].
o
Commendation means, in contrast to John 2:24,
that Christ did entrust Himself to them.
·
The
things hoped for are the promises of God.
·
Two
examples:
o
For
Abraham an example would be the offspring
o
For us an
example would be resurrection
This is not blind
faith – it is grounded in the Done Work of God.
·
If God created
everything and brought Abraham out of Ur – a “done work” of God – then Abraham
has every rational reason to trust that God will do in the future what He has
promised.
·
This is why
Abraham can have assurance of his “offspring”.
Likewise, if Joshua
trusted that God brought them out of Egypt, then he also has every rational
reason to trust in God’s future promises.
·
Specifically,
he can have every reason to trust that God will deliver the promise land.
·
In the
same way, given the Done Work of God through Christ’s incarnation, death,
burial and resurrection, we have every reason to trust in our own resurrection.
All of these are the
“assurance of things hoped for”
– the Future Promises of God – grounded in the Done Work of God.
·
Offspring
·
Promise
Land
·
Resurrection
Quick Summary:
So the Gospel of the OT should be taking shape now within:
·
(1) Covenant of Grace
·
(2) Faith and Righteousness
·
(3) Presence of God – Done Work and Future Promises
·
BTW – there are obviously more aspects to the
Gospel of the OT.
Our response should be Faith and Trust which involves
submitting to all the implications of the God’s Done Work and Future Promises.
·
Our response should not be religious – works
righteousness!
A Final Question:
What about the
necessity of Jesus in Salvation?
·
How are
the faithful of the OT “connected” to Christ, whom they did not know?
The simple answer is that the OT Gospel looked forward to
the Done Work of the Messiah.
·
We know this to be true because the NT tells us.
·
Hebrews 11:13 (ESV) — 13 These all died
in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen
them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were
strangers and exiles on the earth.
·
This
means that OT faith in both the Done Work and Future Promises of God is ultimately
faith in Christ.
Paul also addresses this concept we he talks about the
forbearance of God in dealing with the sin of the OT believer.
·
Romans 3:25 (ESV) — 25 whom God put
forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to
show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had
passed over former sins.
·
God’s forbearance is “a ‘truce with the sinner’,
awaiting the final revelation and redemption in Christ (Acts 17:30)” – NBD.
·
“In the Old Testament, God gave his people a
forbearance until Christ could come and pay their sin-debt for them. In this
way they could avoid the punishment for their sins, even though Christ had not
yet died for them” – Greg Johnson.
o
What does this say about OT sacrifice?
Final Summary of OT Gospel:
“The believing Jew, therefore, whether he understood what he
was doing or not, was committing himself to the God of the promises, the God
who had faithfully formed the nation of Israel and brought her out of Egypt and
into the land, and the God who had revealed all along that sin could be atoned
for by means of blood sacrifice…The person who committed himself in faith to
that God, and all that He had revealed about His saving and keeping power, was
saved” – John Feinberg.
