What
settled in my heart this morning was that I want to leave behind a trail of
relationships that have experienced joy in Jesus Christ. In fact, I want to
join God’s work of bringing people into Jesus’ joy to such an extent that these
people of joy are leading others into the same experience of joy in God as they
have known for themselves.
As
I ponder the message of joy the Bible reveals, I find that God is clear in his
determination to bring his children into the same joy as he has in himself. God
describes his reality of joy like this: “…in
your presence there is fullness
of joy; at your right hand are
pleasures forevermore.”[1]
Conclusion: God has “fullness of joy”.
Even
if the Bible did not mention God’s deliberate work of bringing us into his joy,
the fact that Jesus made us in his own image and likeness[2] is
enough to declare that God wants us to have the same experience of joy as he
enjoys, so to speak. Since the good news of the gospel is all about bringing us
back to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ,[3] we
have the full assurance that our sin-problem has been solved so wonderfully
that we can once again expect to know the joy of God, just as originally
designed.
While
we could hold on to this hope of fully experiencing the joy of God simply
because Scripture says that we are created, and recreated, in the image and
likeness of Jesus Christ, God’s word does not leave us to argue such things
through deductions alone. Clear declarations are even better, and so we have
God’s own revelations that he wants us to know joy the way he knows joy.
The
Bible, what we call the “Scriptures” (the written “script” of God’s words),
tells us what God has spoken to his people so we can know him. In a beautiful
combination of the written word revealing the spoken words of God, we have this
declaration of Jesus’ desire for our joy. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[4]
What Jesus spoke, and what John wrote down, are for this dual purpose of Jesus’
joy being in us, and our own joy rising up to the full. This declaration
certainly confirms the deduction that God created us in his image and likeness
so that we could have the same experience of joy in him as he enjoys in
himself.
The
same man who heard Jesus speak these words, gave his own testimony of
presenting words as a clear declaration of God’s desire for our joy. In one of
his letters to the churches he testified, “And
we are writing these things so that our joy
may be complete.”[5]
This
is actually a wonderful picture of the reproductive nature of God’s joy. Jesus
spoke things to his disciples so that his joy would be in them, and their joy
would be filled up to the full, and then the disciples went about speaking and
writing things so that they could share the experience of “complete” joy with
the rest of the church.
Since
it is easy to deduce from God’s purposes in creation and redemption that God
himself wants us to know joy as he knows joy, and since the clear declarations
of Scripture testify that God wants our joy to be filled to the full in his
joy, setting out to leave a legacy of living, reproducing joy in people around us
is a very hopeful aim in life.
Joining
God in such a life’s work gives the expectation that we will repeatedly,
perhaps continually,[6]
give testimony of God’s work in his church that can only be described as, “you have increased its joy”.[7]
And, since such increase towards fullness of joy is possible, let us join God
in his work of giving people the fullness of joy he planned for them from
before the beginning of time.[8]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] Psalm 16:11
[2] “So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male
and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
[3] “And
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18); “Beloved, we are God's
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when
he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (I
John 3:2)
[4] John 15:11
[5] I John 1:4
[6] “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
(Philippians 4:4); “Rejoice always,” (I Thessalonians 5:16)
[7] Isaiah 9:3
[8] Ephesians 1:3-14 shows
how God’s work in us predates time. Romans 8:29 shows that God’s pre-time
purpose was to make us in his own image and likeness: “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.” Jesus’ joy as the firstborn son is the right of all God’s
adopted sons.
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