It makes a
huge difference whether we see God’s joy towards us as something we must cause
to happen, or something that is in him constantly seeking someone to benefit
from its gift.
Because God’s
joy is inherent to him,[1] we
do not need to create it, cause it, urge it, coerce it, or even encourage it. We
do not need to make God happy! God IS happy. God IS joyful. His joy is not
rooted in any experience whatsoever; therefore, we cannot picture him as rising
and falling in joy based on world events. He is fully satisfied in his own
will. He is doing what is according to his good pleasure. He is relating to us
out of his joy. He seeks to fill us with joy because he is the most joyful person.
His love compels him to share his joy.
One of the
things that has become a big part of my life is the practice of returning
children to joy. Many adults have unresolved childhood experiences because
there was no one to return them to joy after the event. They couldn’t handle
the trauma and grief of what they went through, so they bottled up the feelings
in hidden places where they just don’t need to think about it any longer. The
more we return children to joy after whatever heartaches they experience, the
less place they will give to storing up back-room experiences for future use in
all manner of self-protective behaviors.
What I
realized this morning is that Jesus has no unresolved “childhood” experiences
from his time on earth. He was always living in the joy of his Father. Even the
very worst, most traumatic thing that ever happened to him, dying the
excruciatingly painful death of crucifixion while bearing on himself the wrath
of God against our sin, is not something that haunts him as an unresolved
memory of his time on earth.
God’s book
describes Jesus’ experience of this horrifying event like this:
“looking to Jesus, 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.”[2]
Jesus “endured the cross,” with his mind set
on “the joy that was set before him.” This
means that, now that Jesus has completed his redemptive work on the cross, the
thing that was promised to him ahead of time is now his. Whatever joy was set
before him before he went to the cross is now his after the fact.
What was the
joy set before Jesus that gave him his “raison d'etre”[3]
in coming to earth? The joy that was set before Jesus was that he would fulfill
the divine plan of having a people in the image and likeness of God.[4] His
joy would be to bring before his Father the lost people he had saved,[5]
the lost sheep he had found,[6]
the prodigal sons he had brought home.[7]
What a
wonderful thing that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners because this
was the joy his Father had set before him. He endured the cross knowing that
this unique work would save sinners. He faced the wrath of God against sin because
this would deliver his brothers from their sin.[8]
What a
wonderful gift, that God the Father would return Jesus to joy after his
crucifixion, giving him the joy that was set before him before creation, that
he would have brothers in whom he is not ashamed.[9] The
Father would have sons in whom he rejoiced.[10]
Because of
what the Triune God accomplished in themselves, we who believe in Jesus Christ would
be these dust-based jars of clay[11]
that could bear such glory in ourselves, and so we would know that joy that flows
from the heart and throne of God.[12]
What settled
into my heart this morning was that the fact of God’s inherent joy means that
he is not an angry God who needs to be won over through our good works, but a
joyful God who wants to return his children to joy. The joy he intended for us
in the paradise of Eden,[13]
the joy we lost because of sin, he strategically presents before us, constantly
working in us both to will and to work that which is for his own good pleasure,[14] that
we could experience that joy that is “inexpressible
and filled with glory.”[15]
In promise of
Jesus coming to give us this joyful salvation, the prophet wrote: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout
aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous
and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal
of a donkey.”[16] Jesus
not only fulfilled that prophecy when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey’s
colt,[17]
but he continues to fulfill it every time he returns one of his brothers to the
joy of his salvation.
God promised
that, “With joy you will draw water from the
wells of salvation,”[18]and
then sent Jesus to lead us to springs of living water.[19] When
we fall into sin we can pray, “Restore to
me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”[20] When
we wake to the same troubling thoughts and feelings as before, we can call out
to God, “Satisfy us in the morning with
your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”[21]
Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my
joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”[22] Paul
described his ministry to the church as, “Not
that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you
stand firm in your faith.”[23]Let
us all feed our joy by spending time in the Scriptures that are given to us for
our joy.
Paul’s
exhortation to, “Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice,”[24] is
making more sense to my heart every day!
© 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]
Inherent means that it is part of God’s nature, and, therefore, it is a
permanent characteristic of his being.
[2]
Hebrews 12:2
[3]
raison d'etre: the most important reason or purpose for someone or something to
exist. I do not use this term as though it applies to Jesus’ whole existence,
for Jesus is who he is independent of his redemptive work. Rather, I speak of
this as Jesus’ most important purpose in his incarnation (coming into the
world). His death was no accident, but the plan of God determined before the
foundation of the world, before the beginning of time, to fulfill his purpose
of having a people in his own image and likeness.
[4]
Genesis 1:26-27 introduces us to God’s purpose in creating man, to have a creature
in his own image and likeness. Romans 8:28-30 assures us that God will bring a
whole brotherhood of believers to complete conformity to the image of his Son.
Philippians 1:6 promises us that God will bring this good work to completion. I
John 3:2 describes how we will finally be just like Jesus when we see him at
his return. And, II Corinthians 3:18 identifies that we are presently “being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another.” All that to say that what Jesus had set
before him in going to the cross was the completion of the divine plan to
conform us to the image and likeness of God just as purposed and planned before
the beginning of time (cf Ephesians 1:3-14).
[5]
Luke 19:10
[6]
Luke 15:1-7
[7]
Luke 15:11-32
[8]
Isaiah 53:12; I Peter 2:24; I Thessalonians 1:10, 5:9; show God’s work of
saving us from his coming wrath against sin. The use of the word “propitiation”
indicates one person removing someone’s wrath from another by bearing it on
themselves. Jesus bore God’s wrath against our sin so that we could be set free
from condemnation forever (Romans 8:1-2). Propitiation: Romans 3:25; Hebrews
2:17; I John 2:2, 4:10.
[9]
Hebrews 2:11
[10]
Zephaniah 3:17; all three parables in Luke 15 (lost sheep, lost coin, lost son)
show the Father rejoicing in the return of what was lost.
[11]
II Corinthians 4:7
[12]
I Peter 1:8-9
[13]
Genesis 2 expands on God’s work of creating man in his own image and likeness
(Genesis 1:26-27), showing how he made us both male and female, and set us into
the abundant provisions of a garden he planted for our joy and satisfaction. We
lost everything because of sin. God returns us to joy in salvation.
[14]
Philippians 2:12-13
[15]
I Peter 1:8-9
[16]
Zechariah 9:9
[17]
John 12:12-15
[18]
Isaiah 12:3
[19]
John 4:14; 7:37-39; Revelation 7:17
[20]
Psalm 51:12
[21]
Psalm 90:14
[22]
John 15:11
[23]
II Corinthians 1:24
[24]
Philippians 4:4
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