“We joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." What does the world know of this? Yet is it the blessed privilege of all believers now, and in the fullest degree will be the consummation of their every blessing, and the sweetest note in their heavenly song throughout eternity, when God is “all in all.” Even now, this joy is ours, though passing through “the valley of the shadow of death,” for it is, or should be, the direct result of faith's acceptance of the sevenfold blessing which belongs to every believer, as unfolded in Rom. 5:1-11, and which may thus be summed up—(1) peace with God; (2) standing in God's grace, or favor; (3) rejoicing in hope of God's glory; (4) God's love shed abroad in our hearts, through (5) God's indwelling Spirit; (6) reconciled to God, through the death of His Son; and (7) saved by His life.
Thus God Himself, the God to whom we are brought without a cloud between, becomes in Himself the supreme object, both of our joy and of our worship. All this untold wealth of blessing, however, flows to us only through Christ, the One in whom the Father finds His ceaseless joy and eternal delight. Where it is the blessed result of God's Spirit's work within, joy naturally follows peace; but where it appears to precede it, the joy is only transient, as the Lord's divine teaching clearly shows in the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soil. Where the seed falls on the rock, the Master's words are, “They on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these having no root, for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” The conscience having never been reached, settled peace with God is unknown, and this superficial joy does not last. But where God is personally known and trusted, the apostle could truly pray, as he did for the Roman saints, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Here joy and peace are sweetly linked together, and in their cementing union produce in the soul a deepening confidence in God Himself, and that confidence abounds yet more and more under the mighty power of the indwelling Spirit. Though God is never called the God of joy, yet Scripture fully proves how deep is His delight in His well-beloved Son. In the long eternal past, the voice of the Son Himself reveals this glorious fact, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.... Then was I by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.”
More than seven hundred years before “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” the Father's voice announced, through the prophet's pen, the same unchanging joy: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him.” And this was fully confirmed when, baptized by John and entering upon His public ministry as the obedient Servant and Son, that same voice again was heard. “For lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saving, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This same testimony from the Father's lips was again repeated on the mount of transfiguration when the Savior's face shone like the sun, but with the addition of these all-important words, “Hear ye him.”
Yes, the Father did not leave Him alone, for He did always the things that pleased Him. That perfect Servant was ever found in the path of unswerving obedience, which even death itself could not stop; and true joy is only found in that path. Did He not say to His own, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Obedience begets fellowship, and fellowship deepens joy; and the apostle John declares in a later day, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.”
This joy lifts the heart above all circumstances so that we can “rejoice in the Lord always"; and, like the psalmist, can prove the truth of the words, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Thus “the joy of the Lord is our strength,” and though in our service we may go forth weeping, yet, if bearing precious seed, we shall doubtless come again with joy bringing our sheaves with us; for they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Well, we may say that all this is true to faith, and, God being the object, we reach the living spring and divine source of all our joy; but there is also the divine side. If we, in our tiny measure, have found our joy in God, what is it when compared with God's joy in His Son, and their common joy in us? This carries our thoughts back to the beginning of His ways with us, as guilty sinners, ruined by the fall. Luke 15 is the starting-point that proves this. “Rejoice with me,” is the cry of the Good Shepherd (Christ), “for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Such, too, is the language of the Spirit (typified by the woman), who when, after diligent search, she had found the lost piece of silver, calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.”
Further, there is the joy of the Father who, when the prodigal “was yet a great way off,” ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him. The best robe, the ring, and the royal sandals, were the precious and fitting answer to the true confession, “Father, I have sinned"; and the killing of the fatted calf was the sweet expression of the intense joy of that father's heart, as he exclaims, “Let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Such is the joy of the Trinity in the salvation of souls once far from God and in their sins.
It was “for the joy that was set before him” that the lowly Nazarene “endured the cross despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That joy sustained Him in all His pilgrim path, and, though He had, as the Sin-Bearer, to taste the “exceeding sorrow” and bitterness of death, as well as the awful storm of divine judgment at Calvary's cross, yet the day is not far distant when He shall present us “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” Yes, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” But this is not all—the marriage of the Lamb is yet to come; and when, on that bright, cloudless day, His eyes gaze upon His glorious bride, heaven's courts shall ring with ceaseless “Hallelujahs,” as He presents her to Himself without “spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” “Arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,” the Lamb's wife shall then behold the King in His beauty. But whose joy shall be the deeper, hers or His?
“Oh! day of wondrous promise,
The Bridegroom and the bride
Are seen in glory ever;
Oh! God, how satisfied!*
All heaven will be in ecstasy as that glorious anthem rings out from countless millions. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him,” for in all things He alone, as Lord of heaven and earth, must have the pre-eminence. Yet still a further joy awaits God's Holy One, for after the marriage is consummated heaven's door will open for the last time, and He who rules in the armies of heaven, and whose names are “Faithful and True,” “the Word of God,” and “King of kings and Lord of lords,” will come forth as the returning Conqueror to assert His rights, and establish His kingdom, on the very earth that has been the scene of His murder, and that still rejects Him. “Kings shall fall down before him,” and “His enemies shall lick the dust” in that coming day, when God shall set His King upon His holy hill of Zion.
Then shall that promise be fulfilled, when the Father says to the Son, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” “In that day shall the daughter of Zion sing, and Israel shout for joy; yea, the daughter of Jerusalem shall be glad and rejoice with all her heart.” Then, too, shall these words be fulfilled, “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments; he hath cast out thine enemy; the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest (or, be silent), in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
“Hosannas glad, Thou Prince of peace,
Thy welcome shall proclaim;
And all creation shall rejoice
In Thy beloved Name.”
Thus both heaven and earth alike shall witness God's joy in His own; and our joy shall be full, and that forever.
S. T.