Now shall we return, as it were, to the land of Canaan, the land of fruit and fight?  When the Israelites entered that land, that blessed land of obedience, was it not already theirs by inheritance?  In the self-same way believers have been given "all spiritual blessings" in Christ.  But to us, as to Joshua, comes the promise, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you." Joshua must plant his foot upon the necks of his enemies.  And believers today must mortify their members, .mortify the deeds of the body."

But did God hold Israel responsible for taking the whole of that land at once?  Decidedly, no.  In fact, he said: "I will not drive them out before you in one year. . . . By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land" (Exod. 23:29, 30).  Even so with us.  We are to be all our days taking new territory, first in our own lives and then in "the regions beyond." Again, Israel faced "seven nations greater and mightier" than herself.  How could she ever overcome but by the Almighty.  Even so with us.  The old life is too strong for us. But the promise is, "If by the Spirit you are doing to death (observe the present tense; the process is a continuing one), the practices, the stratagems, the machinations of the body, you will live" (Moule).  God says to Israel and to us that in this way we shall possess our possessions.

But let us proceed.  The first impossible fortress to face Israel was Jericho.  But "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down," and Joshua "utterly destroyed all that was in the city." Now the question is appropriate, Was Israel to fight and take Jericho every other day? Nay, verily.  "Having overcome all," they were "to stand." They were simply to "abide" in the victory already won.  In that particular and to that degree they "sinned not."

In a similar manner we should take definite fortresses (such as laziness, covetousness, selfishness and self-ease and self-indulgence--perhaps long entrenched), and having planted the Cross there on that bit of the old life, "stand." That is taken; therein abide.  It is only compromise and false leagues of peace with the cursed Canaanites that make it necessary to fight and retake (and perhaps never take?) certain "high places" where Satan holds sway with his "chariots of iron."

Mount Jebus once defied and mocked David and his men.  That fortress had stood out for some four hundred years against Israel.  "Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion." It became his capital city.  From that point, he reigned over all.  Is there some one point in the reader's life that defies entrance?  By the greater Son of David, scale that height, cast out the foe, and see how you will "reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." John says the same, "For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world" (I John 5:4, A.S.V.). What is the next place in your world to overcome?  Whatsoever in your life's territory "is begotten" overcomes.

Daily the believer faces the Cross.  Through that death-resurrection process, he "is begotten" into newness of life, both for fruit and for fight.  As he walks in the light, overcomes at each new crisis of obedience, and there learns "to stand," to that degree (all that God requires for fellowship at the moment) he is assured by Paul as well as John, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not [in no wise) fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).

Beloved, can we imagine disobedient Israel boasting, while bleaching her bones in the wilderness, that she had everything up in Canaan?  What glory then is it for the double-minded believer, wandering in the wilderness of a divided affection, to boast continually that he has everything "in the heavenly places in Christ?"--all the while taking no territory for Christ, experiencing no milk and honey and grapes, and grappling with no foes for his Redeemer.  Any "stale-mate" conception of the two natures will not stand the test of Scripture.  You are no Adam-Christ believer.  Do you believe in suppression?  God did not say to put Canaanites to tribute, to keep them tied up. They were to be put, not to tribute, but to death.  Are you an eradicationist with all fruit and no fight?  Your position is contrary to Scripture and to your own experience.  Both positions are untenable.  The Cross has the solution.  We have been crucified with Christ--have "put off" the old man.  Now put him out, i.e., 'mortify" his deeds.  Apply His death.  Let the Cross shame and crucify you out of any position of unholy duplicity.  "Purify your hearts, ye double minded." The Cross condemns us to live like saints.  Hallelujah!  Let us go up at once and possess.  We be well able "through the Spirit."

A word of encouragement for those who have slipped--and who has not?  The only remedy is to confess your sins at once.  The propitiation is ours.  Remember also that the Blood avails for the sins of ignorance, and the failures many.  But let our attitude be forever that of John's: "that we sin not."