It might seem
strange to think of people being afraid of joy. However, weird as it may seem,
it is far too common to ignore, especially when God’s book is full of
invitations to joy.
And, these
invitations are not calling us to some elitist experience of joy for a select
few who can attain it. The invitations to joy are for every child of God to
experience in their relationship with God, and (this is where it gets scary),
in their relationships with each other!
It all begins
with the fact that God consistently reveals his joy in his children. I don’t mean
that he has always been happy with his people when they turned to idols and
preferred sin. However, even in his redemptive work, and his constant calling
his people back to him, it is because of the joy that is his in the people he
made to be like him.
When we read
in God’s book that he created a man out of dirt, and then created his helper
out of his side, we discover that God’s assessment of all he had done in
creation was that it was “very good.”[1]
After man fell
into sin, we discover that God had a plan of redemption which included, “In love he predestined us for adoption as
sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise
of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”[2]
While the first two chapters of God’s book show what it looked like for God to
create man in his own image and likeness as both male and female, we discover
that a bigger plan had already accounted for man’s fall into sin, and secured
relationship with God through adoption.
When we
consider how God felt about his work of redemption, and how he felt about the
people he would redeem through the death and resurrection of his Son, we
discover that, when we look to Jesus we find, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God.”[3]
Jesus, the Son
of God, endured taking on human flesh, and suffering the death of the cross,
despising all the shame associated with both crucifixion, and becoming sin for
us, because there was this “joy that was
set before him.” He bore our sins, and all the judgment of God against our
sins, because there was such a joy set before him that he would not fail to be
our sinless Savior.
Just prior to Jesus’
suffering and death, he told his disciples this wonderful news: “These things I have spoken to you, that my
joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[4]
Only hours before his betrayal by Judas, arrest by his enemies, abandonment by
the disciples, disowning by Peter, flogging by the Romans, and crucifixion at
the demand of the religious leaders, Jesus declared that he had spoken things
to his disciples that would do two things for all who received and lived by
these words. For everyone who lived by faith in his words, his own joy would be
in them, and their joy would be filled to the full.
What we
discover of God’s joy in his people through the gospel is that this fulfilled
prophecy that told us far in advance what was true. The prophet Zephaniah
wrote, “The LORD your God is in your
midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he
will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”[5]
God’s
rejoicing, and gladness, and love, and exulting, and loud singing, are all in
the context that he is “a mighty one who
will save.” His joy is not based on the goodness of his people (that would
never work!), but on the goodness of his own heart. He is “the LORD,” the “I AM”
who is love, who never changes. He is the Father who welcomes home his prodigal
children with rejoicing.[6]
The reason
people fear the joy that is spoken of in the gospel, primarily when that joy is
as personal as Paul speaking to the Philippian Christians as “my joy,”[7]is
not that we are afraid of joy. It is that we are afraid of the pain that
regularly follows opening up our hearts to joy, or love, or fellowship.
God’s answer
to this fear is for us to listen to the words he has spoken that are certain to
fill us with his joy, and to fill our joy to the full. When our attention is on
the people who could be our joy, and the world, the flesh, and the devil remind
us of all the ways that people can hurt us, we will wither and die in our fear-based
world.
On the other
hand, when our attention is on the Savior who considered having us as brothers
as part of this wonderful joy that was set before him, and we consider that he
has spoken words guaranteed to bring us into fellowship with his joy, and to
fill our joy to the full, we can turn our attention to him. We can look to him.
We can consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so we will not
grow weary and lose heart.[8]
The fact is, it
is possible for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ to, “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” for
the simple and glorious reason that we are “obtaining
the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”[9]
If we fix our
eyes on Jesus, as Paul did, we can then open our hearts to God’s work in his people,[10]
and consider how we can be people of joy to one another in the church.
If nothing
else, we can keep reading the letters to the churches. As John said, “that which we have seen and heard we
proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”[11] And
then he adds this beautiful encouragement, “And
we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”[12]
We must accept
this, that the completeness of joy Jesus had spoken about, and the apostles
continued sharing, is when we have fellowship with the Triune God in the body
of Jesus Christ, the church. When people come together to live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God,[13]
the things that are written will complete our joy.
I emphasize
this, that not one of our bad experiences nullifies what Jesus can do through
faith after even decades of our living in fear. The God who is “able to do far more abundantly than all
that we can ask or think,”[14]
is able to fill us with joy through his words, just as he said.
Let us live by
faith in God’s words, and watch our heavenly Father return us to joy.
© 2015 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]
Genesis 1:31 (Genesis 1:1-31 gives the description of creation culminating with
God’s creation of man. Genesis 2:1-25 gives an elaboration of the way Jesus created
the man and the woman.)
[2]
Ephesians 1:4-6
[3]
Hebrews 12:2
[4]
John 15:11
[5]
Zephaniah 3:17
[6]
Luke 15:1-32 shows three parables of God’s rejoicing over sinners who repent
because they are his children coming home.
[7]
Philippians 4:1
[8]
Hebrews 12:3
[9]
I Peter 1:8-9
[10]
We are free to not get excited about things that are NOT his work in his
people!
[11]
I John 1:3
[12]
I John 1:4
[13]
Matthew 4:4
[14]
Ephesians 3:20
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