Grace: The Joy of Jesus

For my second instalment into Jesus as the personification of grace I want to look at the second definition of grace:

·      A pleasing or attractive quality/endowment

This got me thinking. What was the most pleasing and attractive quality about Jesus? I thought long and hard about this one and it wasn’t because I couldn’t think of anything, it was more because I had so many to pick from. I had to settle on something that I think underpins it all and what should hold our faith together as Christians. The pleasing quality I decided to focus on is Joy; more specifically the joy of salvation.

Now I don’t want to talk about the joy that we experience at the moment we are saved, that joy is what I would call joy for a moment. It’s like the joy you have when you achieve a goal, a temporary joy if you want to call it that, it is an emotional reaction rather than the deep found joy of salvation. Why do I say this, because I believe that scripture makes it clear that the joy of salvation is deeper than the emotional joy that we feel the instant we are saved. Take a look at this scripture in Psalms 51:12:

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you”

I believe the emotional joy that we feel is connected to a deeper joy that we receive at the point of salvation. One is the type of joy that makes you say:

“Oh my, I can’t believe this just happened, I am so excited” (emotional joy) and the other is a joy that makes you say:

“I just lost my job and I am on my last few pounds but yet will I praise you Lord” (the joy of salvation).

The joy of salvation is a joy that comes from a deep place, a supernatural place, a place where no matter what the storms of life bring your way you are resolute that there is a God in heaven whose thoughts towards you are of good and not evil.

Now I am not saying that we do not have emotional joy from Jesus, we do and we need it. Life can be such a drag sometimes and we need those happy moments to perk us up. We need to enjoy our family, we need to enjoy our friends and the various other relationships we maintain. God has created our body in a way that we release a group of chemical called endorphins. I won’t bore you with the biochemistry, I will safely assume that you are not a bunch of nerds like I am and you just want me to get to the point. The principal function of endorphins is to inhibit the transmission of pain signals, in lay man’s terms they block pain. They are also cited to produce a feeling of euphoria (a state of intense happiness and self-confidence).

One reason I like to distinguish between emotional joy and the joy of salvation is the feelings that come with emotional joy. That feeling of self-confidence is one that lures us into a false sense of security. When we are in our euphoric state we believe we can take on the whole world. We believe that we can do anything but we tend to place that belief in ourselves. You see there is nothing wrong with having confidence but there is something wrong when that confidence is placed in yourself. That is why when things suddenly go wrong, our emotional joy fades away. We suddenly turn into people that don’t want anyone else around us. We want to lock ourselves in a room and scream “woe is me!”. Like all things in life there is a momentary feeling (a sensation) or there is a deep lasting change (a transformation).

Our emotional joy comes with a sensation. Sometimes we can easily confuse the two and we get lost in the sensation of salvation. We get caught up in the moment and there is nothing wrong with enjoying that moment. God wants you to enjoy the moment, that moment is the moment your new life begins, that moment is your spiritual birthday, enjoy the moment of your spiritual birth but guess what, when the festivities stop God is saying it’s time to work on your growth. It’s time to work on your transformation. Why do we struggle, because we never took the time to come out of the sensation and enter into the transformation. Like a caterpillar who is about to become a butterfly we need to enter our cocoon and allow the change to take place. If we live only in the sensation we are like a house with no foundations, as soon as the strong winds come we fall down.

I listened to an amazing sermon this week and one thing that struck me was the story of Jesus asleep on the boat as the crossed the lake and his disciples panicking when the storm hit the waters. Now his disciples had just seen Jesus do some amazing things and minister to vast crowds, I mean these guys would have been pumped. Can you imagine seeing the lame healed, the blind seeing, demons cast out and all sorts of physical manifestations of the power of God? So these guys must have been pumped up but then a storm comes out of nowhere and their immediate reaction is “we are going to die”. These are the same people that have Jesus on the boat with them and as soon as a little trouble comes their way their first thought is “we are about to die”. Is this not a perfect picture of what we can be like as believers? We go to church and we hear an amazing message and we walk away feeling super and then Monday comes around and work is horrible, your boss goes in on you, your project is going wrong, you make a major mistake, you get home and find a stack of bills which seem higher than you were expecting and more than what you have left in the bank. We suddenly lose that euphoric feeling we had on Sunday and we become downcast, we want to curl into a ball and die. We forget one thing; we have the God of resurrection on our side, we have Jesus, the one who spoke to the wind and said “be still” and it obeyed. We have him walking with us, fighting with us and standing waiting for us to hand over our baggage to him so he can help us carry the load. Nowadays we live in a world where we live from sensation to sensation. We are looking for that next high! For some it is drugs, for some it is the gym, for some it is food, for some it is the next deal. Whatever it is, we are living to get that next euphoric hit from our moment. What about transformation? Let me share some scriptures with you.

“Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness” – Isaiah 51:11

“And the believers were filled with joy and with the holy spirit” – Acts 13:52

“With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!” – Isaiah 12:3

“I shout for joy and sing your praises, for you have ransomed me.” – Psalms 71:23

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.” – Psalms 31:1

You see on that day of salvation, there was a sensation but along with that sensation, there was a gift, the holy spirit. Your momentary joy is the doorway into an everlasting joy. A joy that comes with an understanding that no matter what may come your way there is something that can never be taken away from you. You were ransomed and your penalty has been paid now and forever more. Every mistake that you have made or will ever make has been paid for. You will forever be seen in Gods eyes through the lens of Jesus Christ. When God looks at you he sees Christ in you. He sees righteousness and holiness, not because of you but because of the finished work of Christ. Your transformation begins as you work with the Holy Spirit that was given to you on your spiritual birthday. He is called the comforter, so when there is despair he will comfort you and remind you of that joy, that everlasting joy that lives deep in you.

The joy of salvation comes from knowing that no matter what, you have been redeemed and you have a new life. It comes from understanding that you will be attacked, afflicted and persecuted because you follow Christ but it also comes from knowing that he said he will not allow you to go through more than you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). Jesus is with you and you have the hosts of heaven fighting with you. God said in Psalm 105:15:

“Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm”

You are God’s anointed, you are his chosen generation, a royal priesthood and God has set protection for you. Everything around you can be touched, and I know some of you don’t want to hear that! Everything we own in this world is fair game, Job was a perfect example of this, but you cannot be touched. You cannot be harmed. Find your rest in the Lord and in his word. Find your comfort in his word and enter into your transformation, your deep joy, the joy of salvation.