God’s thought at creation was that man should be happy. Not only was he upright, but he was made in the image of God. With the rest of creation, he was pronounced to be “very good.” He was distinguished, however, from other creatures in a way most remarkable, for “The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Thus He, who only hath immortality, gave to man an immortal soul. Besides all this, God blessed him. Male and female created He them, and God blessed them, and set them in dominion over other creatures. Thus man in the beginning was happy and honored. He was set by his Creator in the position of superiority and enjoyment.
But man soon sinned, and then death came; and judgment too, for God “drove out the man.” Then man, when driven out, only proved himself to be evil, and that continually; and, after God’s repeated interference in judgment, instead of turning toward God with repentance, he made gods of his own, and honored and served the creature more than the Creator. In this state of things, God called out one man, Abram, for Himself, saying, “I will bless thee;” and, when he believed, God counted his faith for righteousness, and promised that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be Messed. Thus we see that God’s mind was that man who had to do with Him should be happy.
In process of time, Abram’s seed, the children of Israel, were brought out of Egypt in virtue of the blood of the Lamb, and by the mighty power of God. Thus delivered from misery and bondage, they, though a people in the flesh, were brought into a relationship of nearness to Jehovah. Again, God showed that it was His mind that man should be happy, for not only did He bless them in a marvelous way, but again and again called upon them to rejoice. “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.” (See Deut. 12:7, 12, 187And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. (Deuteronomy 12:7)
12And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. (Deuteronomy 12:12)
18But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. (Deuteronomy 12:18); Lev. 23:4040And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. (Leviticus 23:40).)
And so now, only in a higher and an eternal sense, it is clearly the Lord’s mind that those who are His children should be happy. Not only has He given us remission of sins, and created us in Christ Jesus, but He has shed abroad His love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, and “has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (See Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5); Eph. 1:3, 73Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3)
7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7).) Being thus brought into nearness and relationship to God, and having the Holy Ghost in us, we are brought into fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; and thus our minds, in our measure, can run in the current of God’s thoughts, and our hearts can dwell in the circle of His love. The Lord Himself now becomes the proper object of our affections, and the source of all our blessings. Our eternal life and prospects are all bound up with Him. His personal glory, His infinite worth, His excellences and perfections—His accomplished work on the cross, with the Various official glories He sustains, and His coming again, now engage and cheer our souls. We are therefore enjoined to “Rejoice evermore,” to “rejoice in the Lord always,” yea to “joy [or boast] in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation.”
Our Lord instructs us as to the joy there is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. When the shepherd found his lost sheep, he took it home upon his shoulders rejoicing, and called his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him. The father rejoiced because he had received his lost son safe and sound. Thus we are informed that the Father and the Son in heaven rejoice, when a sinner is really brought to God. After this, our Lord so instructed His own disciples who were clean through the word which He had spoken to them, that He added “These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be fall.” (John 15:1111These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11).) Thus we clearly see that it is the Lord’s mind that believers should be happy. Early Christians knew well the precious reality or it. When Jesus, after His resurrection, presented Himself in the midst of His sorrowing disciples, who were shut in for fear of the Jews, and showed them His hands and His side, and said “Peace be unto you;” we are told, “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” At the close too of Luke’s gospel, when Jesus was parted from them and carried up into heaven, lie left them so happy that “they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.” Happy people because wholly taken up with their crucified and ascended Savior!
Again, in Pentecostal times, we find believers in such a happy state, that we read “they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness or heart praising God.” After this, in a solitary corner of the earth, no sooner was the Ethiopian eunuch brought to a true knowledge of his eternal salvation by Christ alone than he went on his way rejoicing. The Philippian jailor, too, who only a little before, amid the distressing circumstances of his position., would have rashly put an end to his existence, even this man, as soon as he could cast himself on Christ alone for salvation according to the word of His faithful servants, “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”
Elsewhere we are taught in the word that “the kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” and we certainly do well to lay this scripture solemnly to heart, for we read of disciples in a former time who were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. (Rom. 14:1717For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17); Acts 13:2222And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. (Acts 13:22).) Paul prayed that saints might be filled with all joy and peace in believing. John says in his first Epistle, “These things write we unto you that your joy might be full;” and Peter speaks of others whose joy in the Lord was so abundant, that they “rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” How sweet and comforting it is to know then that it is the will of God that believers should even now be unspeakably happy!
Perhaps someone will say, “You would not speak so confidently of the Christian’s happiness, if you knew what I have to contend with in myself.” But who ever heard of self being the source of true happiness? On the contrary, “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” Besides, are we not assured by the unerring word of the living God, that our old man is crucified with Christ? so that we arc enjoined to “Reckon ourselves to have died indeed unto sin (which means not to reckon ourselves to be living) but dead, done with at the cross—there seen in Christ our Substitute under the judgment of God, dead upon the cross. Thus are we freed, judicially freed from our old man—our Adam standing, and are enjoined to think of ourselves as “alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Happy those who thus reckon as God would have them, and always know they are seen by God as in Christ Jesus in heavenly places! Such only have done with self.
But others may be ready to say, “If my circumstances were altered, I should indeed be happy;” or “If I were only delivered from this pressing trial, I should then rejoice.” Not so, my reader. If your present joy is dependent on your circumstances, it is precisely what much of the worldling’s joy consists of, and needs neither grace nor faith. That we should look carefully into all our matters in order that we may honor God in them, is true enough, but circumstances, however prosperous, should never be the spring of a Christian’s joy however much they may be the occasion of present thanksgiving to God. On the contrary, it is often in the deepest waters of affliction, that the Christian knows the greatest joy in the Lord. It was so with the saints in 1 Pet. 1:88Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8). They were in manifold trials, in heaviness indeed—houseless, homeless, in a foreign clime, with all the sufferings connected with a persecuted and scattered, but harmless people; yet how full of joy they were! Is there anything in scripture that exceeds it? And so with Paul and Silas. Was it not when their backs were smarting with the lacerating scourge, and their feet made fast in the dungeon’s stocks, that they were so truly happy that they sang praises to God? Ο my christian reader, let us lay these things to heart, and ask ourselves why we are not more characterized as a happy, praising people?
Before closing these remarks, we would notice three points of instruction on this subject brought before us in the verse already quoted. “Whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet, believing, ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” (1 Pet. 1:88Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8).) We have here, first, the spring of the Christians happiness; secondly, the secret of its realization; and thirdly, its measure.
1. The spring of our happiness is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself—in whom, though now ye see Him not,.... ye rejoice. It is the man Christ Jesus in the glory whom we now see by faith. All our resources are in Him. It is vain to look elsewhere. All other streams are dry. He is the Rock which was smitten, and we have only now to speak to the Rock, and He will give forth His waters. He only is the fountain of life. He is before the face of God in glory for us; and we are complete in Him, in whom all fullness dwells, who is the Head of all principality and power. Let it then be a settled fact with our souls that Christ Himself—not friends, nor self, nor circumstances, but He Himself—is the alone source of our happiness.
“Earthly friends may fail or leave us,
One day soothe, the next day grieve us,
But this Friend will ne’er deceive us,
Ο how He loves!”
2. It is by the activity of faith in Him that we have present happiness. A person may be a true believer, and yet not be exercising faith in Him, not having our thoughts and hearts running in the channel of divine truth concerning Him. It is the soul having now to do with Him whom we have not seen, but who is revealed in the word, that we have present joy; not thinking of Him according to our poor thoughts, but as God has revealed Him to us in His word. Hence we read, “In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice.” Let us not expect to be happy, if we are brooding over our frames, feelings, circumstances or attainments. Soul-occupation with Him alone enables us to rise superior to these things. Then we can exultingly cry out:— “Oh for ten thousand tongues to praise My Savior, and my God!”
3. As to the measure of our joy, our Lord said, “That your joy might be full.” John, as we have noticed, so writes that our “joy might be full,” and here it is recorded of Christians of olden times, that they “rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” To dwell on the infinite fullness and perfections of the person, work, and offices of the Lord Jesus Christ is to dive into a boundless ocean of divine love. Then our thoughts are launched, as it were, into glory. We enter upon the boundlessness of the eternal and unchanging love and glory of God. Thanks for the rich, free, and unmerited love of God, that has “called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus!” Though now by faith we rejoice in Him, the next moment our Lord may come and take us there; then faith will be changed to sight, for we shall see His face, be with Him, and be like Him forever.
“Watching and ready may we be, As those who long their Lord to see.”