Willis, I have to leave for work in a few minutes, but I promise I will get back to you this afternoon (Lord willing).
But I'll leave you with this verse;
Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Willis, does God give us the choice whether we will serve and love him, or does he irresistibly CAUSE us to love him?
That is the whole ball of wax right there.
Are people in bondage able to really make a choice? We, as sinners, we in bondage to sin, a bondage that only Jesus Christ can break. IOW, we can't break it ourselves. No slave can make a "choice" to be free. Just ask any slave pre-emmancipation proclamation if they had a "choice" to get loose from their slavery. Only Christ can break that bondage. If we choose to break that bonadage and then make a choice to either choose or reject Him, where does it leave us? In a state where we really didn't need Him?
In sin, we were in bondage, slaves to sin, entangled, immersed, saturated, and loved it. We, left to our own devices, had no desire to come out of sin.....I said left to ourself. We loved ourself too much, and loved sin too much to even think about God. Then, when Christ comes and frees us from this bondage, we are then free to make the choice to serve Him. Christ, as the last Adam, came to undo what the first Adam did. Adam sold us unto sin, into bondage, and Christ bought, and brought, us out of it. By Him doing this, we are sanctified first and foremost, then justified(this is where the gift of faith from God comes in...and you know I have always stated that faith is a gift of God), then repentance, salvation, and at the end of it all, glorified when He returns.
Good response, Convicted1.
However, the emphasis that Winman would have you place on the verse is upon the word "choose" and not "serve."
God had already CHOSEN the Israelite folks to separate unto Himself for His purpose.
They didn't have to choose God.
Joshua was stating the
SERVICE, the duty, the obligation, ... to follow God's law and principles of the torah.
Joshua was not calling the Israeli to "accept God as their savior" but to
SERVE God by their actions.
The two are completely different. Joshua was calling the people to be different than the world standard around them.
This is similar to Jame's letter on what demonstrates real believer's faith.
It is also not unlike Paul's message to the church members. Encouraging them to lay aside the worldly and establish upon the foundation that which is a worthy building.
Because the Israeli people of Joshua's day (as the heathen people are in our day) were NOT given the Holy Spirit to indwell them, there was no new created nature but only that fallen nature to which failure would come and God's rebuke resulting.
Consider this as a typical modern day evangelist who can "pump up" a crowd to garner support for some theme, and folks may loudly proclaim agreement, however, it doesn't guarantee that there is true change or long lasting embracing of what was "pumped up."
The chapter that Winman selected ends with the death of Joshua, and the slide into bondage. As long as the evangelist and those that served with the evangelist were there to guide, instruct, encourage... the folks, they lived by the laws of the Torah. When the evangelist left, because there was no real life in them, they returned to the demands of the true human nature.
NOTE: NO one is made righteous by the "deeds of the law." One can keep the law from their youth to old age and still be hell bound at death.
That is the state of the Israeli in Joshua's day as it is in our day.
The service of the law is to point to the promise of a messiah. Belief without serving is fake; serving without belief is fake; belief that serves is true faith.
Example: Look at the old man's statements and what he was doing when he saw, and held the infant baby Jesus? (Luke 2:25... note the "Holy Spirit was upon him)
