The Salvation Pattern and the Promised Land

Entering into Canaan behind Joshua was the final act in the physical enactment of the Salvation Pattern. From this moment on, this pattern is operating spiritually, on the minds of God’s people. The Law of Moses is the “letter” of God’s commandments regarding how he wants people in his Kingdom to behave. It was given for them to discover and adopt the guiding “spirit” within it.

Synthesis: On the Promised Land
The following brief excerpt is from my recent exegetical study on the Promised Land.

The Salvation Pattern: Abraham
Abraham’s faithful response to the call of God established the scriptural pattern of salvation for God’s people:

    (1) Called > (2) Follow God by faith > (3) Covenant with promises of seed, land, redemption >
    (4) Faith trial > (5) Delivery (Salvation) of the faithful into the Promised Land.

The Salvation Pattern: Moses
This pattern is re-presented in the Exodus story with the children of Abraham (Israel), where a significant element is appended to the pattern.

(1)  “Lost” in the Kingdom of Darkness (Egypt), they are called to follow Moses (God’s prophet), which
(2)  they do, getting right up to the border of the Promised (to Abraham) Land (Canaan). There the Mosaic
(3)  Covenant is established, and they undergo
(4)  a trial of their faith (40 years of wandering in the wilderness), then the
(5)  genuinely faithful (true sons of Abraham) are delivered into the land, an eternal, Edenic paradise¹
   (“land flowing with milk and honey”),
(6)  by Joshua (“Jesus”²).

The Salvation Pattern: Joshua
Entering into Canaan following Joshua was the final act in the physical enactment of the Salvation Pattern. From this moment on, this pattern is operating spiritually, that is, on the development of the hearts (“minds, inner beings”) of God’s people. The Law of Moses is the “letter” of God’s commandments regarding how he wants people in his Kingdom to behave. This Law was given as a means for them to develop their understanding of the principles underlying the Law, that is, the “spirit” of the Law (see 2Co 3:5-6). Thus, their agreement of the physical Mosaic Covenant becomes the start of their (2) following the (1) call of the New (3) Covenant. After many (4) faith trials during their following the call, (6) Jesus shows up to (5) deliver the genuinely faithful sons of Abraham into the spiritual Promised Land, eternal life.

So, in the Gospels, the righteous are “Abraham’s children … doing the works Abraham did” (Jn 8:39 ESV) that is, having the same faith as Abraham, and therefore able to recognise that Jesus is the Messiah, “[telling] the truth that [he] heard from God” (v. 40). As genuine children of Abraham, they are God’s children, evidenced by their love for Jesus, as opposed to the unrighteous, who do not have genuine faith, and can’t hear God’s truth in Jesus’ words, and are therefore seeking to kill him, rather than love him, like their “father the devil … the father of lies,” and liars (vv. 42–47).

The Salvation Pattern: Christ
For post-Resurrection New Covenant saints, however, the “sheep and goat” analogy does not apply – nor do all the other parabolic contrasting characterisations, such as the “the guests with wedding garments (the called and chosen), and guests without wedding garments (the called but not chosen)” (Mt 22:11–14), the “faithful and wicked servants” (Mt 24:45–51; 25:14–30), the “wise and foolish virgins” (Mt 25:1–13). That is because the six steps of the spiritualised Salvation Pattern are compressed into a single operation of God, through the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

This is what our “being in Christ” means: In the moment we become aware of our belief in (6) Jesus, he entered us into his New (3) Covenant (giving us our new hearts, with the Law of God written on them), we were at once (1) called by God, faithful (2) followers, (4) tried and passed (evidenced by our instant guilt and repentance at our revealed state as sinners), declared genuinely (5) faithful (righteous/justified) and delivered (saved/glorified). This is what Paul is explaining in what theologians call “the Golden Chain of Redemption:”

Romans 8:28–30
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1.  The word “paradise” (paradeisos), found in Luke 23:43, is the Greek transliteration of “a Persian word meaning ‘garden, park’, [which] was used in the [Septuagint] for the garden of Eden (Gn. 2:8; et al.) and in secular contexts. It then became a type of the future bliss for God’s people in Is. 51:3, and received a technical sense in T. Levi 18:10f. The future paradise was identified with the garden of Eden, thus leading to the view that it existed in between the creation and the final age in hidden form.” I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978), 872–3.
2.  “Ἰησοῦς [Iēsous, “Jesus”] is the Greek form for the Hebrew name Joshua (Yēšûaʿ). In popular etymology this was related to yšʿ (‘save’) and yêšûʿâ (‘salvation’). While salvation language is not nearly as important to Matthew as to Luke, the verb [σῴζειν, “to save”] is used to cast Jesus in a saving role in a number of places.” John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2005), 98.