REASON FOR JOY

Have you ever noticed how glum and somber Christians can become? Without much provocation or cause, we who sing "Joy to the world!" can act as if we'd never heard the song. Sometimes we’re grim and determined, going through life with clenched teeth and a grimace. Occasionally, indeed far too often, we're downright grumpy. This is a tragedy for at least three reasons. First, we’ve got plenty of cause to be joyful: we don't have to grumpy. Second, God commands us to be joyful, and we ought to learn how to obey Him. Third, unjoyful Christians don’t attract non-Christians to Christ.

With this in mind, today I’m starting a series of articles on how Christians can cultivate a lifestyle of real, deeply-grounded joy. I'm not talking about becoming naive or vapid: this isn't a head-in-the-clouds approach to life. Nor am I referring to personality types and dispositions. I'm talking about world-conquering joy, the kind of firmly-rooted approach to life that Christ commanded and the Apostle Paul exemplified. Other than the Lord Jesus Himself, there never has been anyone with more trouble and responsibility than Paul. Yet, he exhibited a profound joy in everything. His letter to the Philippian Christians includes more references to joy than any other document in antiquity, and yet he wrote it from jail!

Think with me. If ever there was a man with ample reason to be grumpy, it was Paul: five times he was whipped; three times he was beaten; he was shipwrecked; he was stoned and left for dead; he was imprisoned several times. Beyond this, he had the concern of all those baby churches that God led him to start. And yet, he had joy. Where did he get it?

More to the point, where can you and I get joy?

The kind of joy Paul had is founded upon the undeserved miracle of salvation. Think with me about how God saves people.

Though God is the absolute King of the universe, and though He created us exclusively for His glory, we have attempted a coup. We've set up as rebels against His reign, and have sought to supplant Him from His rightful Lordship, not only over our own lives, but over all the affairs of human existence. The human theme song of "I Did it My Way" is the marshaling-cry of the rebellion.

Despite this, God grants us each and all His common grace: the occasional pleasures of human relationships, the warmth of family, and the simple delights of food, drink, shelter, work and rest. Indeed, every good gift of human existence is evidence of His common grace to each human being. But there's more.

He loves us, courts us, woos us to Himself. Through creation and the Gospel, He portrays to us both His law for our lives and His love for our souls. And yet, though He draws us by His grace, we have rebuffed His love and stiff-armed His embrace. To these personal insults we have added our willful rejection of His good law, and have tried instead to make humanity the measure of all things. Paul summarized our willful rebellion against God with these words: “although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him” (Romans 1:21). Thus, having renounced both His love and His law, we turned so fully from God that we lost our ability even to seek Him.

And so . . . He sought us! Down the dark alleys of our sin, as we flee from Him, He has pursued us. It’s amazing, but it’s true. Though we deserved to die under aggravated condemnation, He sent His Son to die in our stead, to take upon Himself all the Father’s righteous wrath. Indeed, it pleased the Father to crush Him. By virtue of this unmitigated and indescribable grace, and through His gracious gift of faith, God saves us from the just penalty of our sin and brings us into a state of peace and favor with Himself. Amazingly, by His own act of sacrifice, He has sought His very enemies, and having found them, made them His own dear children. Astounding!

And – here’s the reason for unrestrained joy! – we bring nothing to this transaction. No merit. No credit. No effort. Nothing. He saves us by His own initiative, simply because He wants to. We don’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is entirely a gift, motivated by the astonishing fact that He longs for us with an unchanging, unchangeable love.

That’s all the reason we need for joy. Indeed, it’s reason enough!

Next week: Joy Grows Where Gratitude Takes Root