By the time God calls his children to, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice”
(Philippians 4:4), he has already done a great work within us that is not only
cause for joy, but is the experience of his joy.
We rejoice in the Lord because Jesus has spoken the things
to us that will make his joy be in us, and our joy filled to the full (John 15:11).
We rejoice in the Lord because he has worked out a salvation
that completes our joy (I John 1:4).
We rejoice in the Lord, and in his kingdom, because his
kingdom is about “righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17), and so we look to the Holy
Spirit for our daily experience of joy.
This experience of joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s
presence (Galatians 5:22-23), and so we seek the most intimate and personal
fellowship with the Holy Spirit that is possible this side of heaven.
When we are called to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling (Philippians 2:12), and told that this includes rejoicing in the Lord
always, it is not a call to depressed, lonely, sad, brokenhearted, messed-up
people, to do some kind of legalistic work of rejoicing no matter how they
really feel.
Rather, it is a call to the people who have already
experienced peace with God through their justification by faith (Romans 5:1), who
have come to stand in the grace of God through their faith in Jesus Christ
(Romans 5:2), and so can “rejoice in hope
of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2), absolutely assured that we have every
reason to, “rejoice in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation”
(Romans 5:11).
However, not only do we have the experience of salvation
giving us joy and hope for eternal life, we also have the abiding presence of
the Holy Spirit who is constantly working in our lives for our joy. The reason
we can work out our salvation by rejoicing in the Lord always, is because God
is always working his joy in us, both to will and to work the rejoicing that is
for his good pleasure and our complete joy (Philippians 2:13).
As you consider the call of God on your life that you come
to him rejoicing in Jesus Christ his Son, do not think of this as the starting place
of the picture. Instead, look at all God has done to give you a salvation that
is filled with joy, to open your ears to the words of Jesus Christ that fill up
our joy with his joy, and to fill us with his own Holy Spirit whose fellowship
with us produces joy. It is out of the fullness of his joy that we rejoice.
After all, rejoicing in the Lord does not begin with
rejoicing (although the English sentence clearly does). This rejoicing begins
with “in the Lord.” When we first
come into the Lord Jesus Christ through the “good
news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10), we then
have every reason for rejoicing, and every provision as well.
© 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.)
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