This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:8-9
Q3: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
There is a proper order to this answer above. You cannot understand what your duty is unless you properly understand who your God is. John Calvin says, “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” This is what the Scriptures principally teach.
First, this means we must know God first and foremost. In today’s culture, we have reversed this. In a day where we are over-obsessed with personality tests and “knowing yourself”, we have mightily neglected John 17:3 which says, “This is eternal life that they may know you the One true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
What does this mean practically? In Joshua 1:8-9, we see the LORD tell Joshua to “meditate” on God’s Law. Who should be the “main character” when we meditate on Scripture? It should be God! Calvin again says, “Yet, however the knowledge of God and of ourselves may be mutually connected, the order of right teaching requires that we discuss the former first, then proceed afterward to treat the latter.”
Nevertheless, we cannot meditate on God on the Scriptures without connecting it with our duty. This is what it means to read the Bible “covenantally”. All people are in covenant with God. You are either in: The Covenant of Works, or The Covenant of Grace.
Your duty is determined by which covenant you are in. God’s Law demands righteousness from you. Will you work for it or will Christ for you? One makes you overly focused on yourself while the other makes you rightly focused on Christ. If you are in the Covenant of Grace, you do have duty towards God but your duty is graciously empowered by your union with Christ. Focus on Him!