The subject of joy is frequently found in the Holy Scriptures. There is the natural joy of life that fades with age, and is so often dimmed by the sorrows inherited by the human race. Another kind of joy is spoken of by Zophar the Naamathite, though probably misapplied by him, where he said, “the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment” (Job 20:5). Not only the joy of the hypocrite and the wicked is of brief duration, but all natural joy, even at its purest, is but for a moment of time.
True and pure joy belongs to heaven, and existed in the beginning, even as the Lord showed when He asked Job, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth…when the morning starts sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4–7). God is the source of all true joy, and its seat is found in heaven where “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents” (Luke 15:7, 10).
How very wonderful is the contemplation that the Son of God came into this world to bring to His own the joy of heaven, His own joy, were the joys of nature were blighted by the entry of sin, and where they are destroyed by the ravages of death.
The Joy of the Lord
Even before the Lord Jesus came into the world we read of the joy of the Lord in Nehemiah 8:10, when the returned remnant were weeping on hearing the words of the law, for the law can only condemn the guilty. Such weeping, even if it was in genuine sorrow over their ways that estranged them from the Lord, was quite out of keeping with a day that was “holy unto the Lord,” therefore the word from the Lord to them was, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet…for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:9-10).
The personal joy of the Son of God is seen in the parable of the treasure hid in the field (Matt. 13:44). He was the merchant of verse 45, and the man who found the treasure. Coming into this world there was a hidden treasure that gave infinite joy to the heart of Christ. Israel was a treasure for God, in spite of all that they were, and God indicated this in all that He did for them. This was a public demonstration before the world of the special place that Israel had in the thoughts of Jehovah. The hidden treasure was of an entirely different character, for “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it (Eph. 5:25). In spite of all the suffering and sorrow through which the Son of God had passed, there was yet in His heart this deep, deep joy, that He had found a treasure that gave Him infinite delight.
When the disciples of the Lord returned from their mission they rejoiced because even the demons were subject to them through His Name, but the Lord said to them, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). It was in that hour that “Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (verse 21).
Here was something entirely new that rejoiced the heart of the Son of God. His disciples, who had been associated with Him on earth, were to have a place in heaven. This, as verse 22 shows, was in connection with the place given to the Son, into whose hands all things had been placed by the Father. It was also connected with the Name of the Father which the Son made known to His own. From Matthew 11 we learn that the Lord spake these words after His rejection by the cities in which most of His mighty works were done. The door of Israel was closing upon Him, but the Son of God saw another door open, even the door of heaven into which He would bring His own according to the eternal purpose of God, and for the pleasure of His Father.
Then in John 15:11 the Son of God says, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Jesus had spoken to His disciples of His going to the Father, and to prepare a place in His house for them, but He was providing for them in the time of His absence. He would look after their interests in heaven, and the Holy Spirit as the Comforter would look after their interests on earth. Already He had said to them, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27), now He was adding to His peace His own joy. The joy that was His in spite of all the sorrow He passed through, would be theirs as a legacy from Himself their Lord and Master.
Full Joy for the Disciples
Having the Lord’s own joy in their hearts, the Lord desired that their joy “might be full.” Like the Lord’s personal joy the joy of His disciples would not consist in what belonged to this world, but in the things that He had revealed to them of the Father, the things that centre in Himself. The joy of the Son was in the Father, and in the things belonging to the Father, and the Son had revealed to His own the Father’s Name, and the things that the Father had spoken to Him (John 15:15). It is only as the things of the Father that our joy will be full.
The Apostle John had learned much from the Lord, both while on earth, as lying in His bosom, and through the Holy Spirit who had come from the ascended Son of God to indwell and abide with the disciples of the Lord. As having been with the Lord on earth he had a special part in God’s testimony to His Son, and of this he writes in his first epistle, saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). The eternal life that was with the Father had come in the Person of the Son, in One who though God was a real Man, for the Word became flesh, and the apostles of the Lord were witnesses of all that was spoken by Jesus, and of all that He was and did.
The eternal life was a life that belonged to heaven, and was that of the Father and the Son in heaven. It was a life of divine affections that was lived and enjoyed in divine and heavenly relationships, but yet was manifested on earth in the blessed Son of God. When Jesus was on earth, Peter could say, “Thou hast the words of eternal life,” and now John tells us that “the life was manifested, and we have seen it.” It was not only borne witness to in the words of Jesus, but He was its expression, and the disciples saw it. Having seen the eternal life, the disciples became witnesses of it in their ministry, for it was manifested to them.
In John’s Gospel and in his epistles there is the simple yet powerful witness of what he saw and heard, with his fellow disciples, when Jesus was upon earth, and it is this that he makes known to us that we might have fellowship with them in the wondrous things of eternal life. No doubt the disciples had a special part in this fellowship with the Father and the Son, on account of the place of testimony in which the Lord had set them, but in the joys of eternal life we have fellowship with those who made the truth known, but also with the Father and the Son about whom the testimony was.
It is an amazing privilege to have communion with the Father and the Son in to whose presence we have access with boldness and with confidence through the faith of the Son of God. Individually and collectively the saints of God may come into the immediate presence of God, the God who has been revealed to us as Father by the Son. There is no joy to compare with the joy that the Father’s presence brings to the hearts of His own, those who can share His thoughts of His beloved Son, and who can share the Son’s thoughts of the Father.
This precious fellowship belongs to the eternal life made known by the Son, and which has been communicated to those He is pleased to call His own and His brethren. As the children of God we have the nature that gives the capacity to enjoy what the Son has revealed, and the Holy Spirit within us is the power for entering into the heavenly communications of divine love. It is as the heart and spirit are occupied with the divine revelations and affections, yea with the Father and the Son in communion and worship, that the vessel is filled with the heavenly joy.
There are many things that hinder the full enjoyment of what has been made known to us, but these things are to be laid aside so as not to disturb our communion with God. If there is failure, there is divine provision to meet it, for we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and when there is confession He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are to be in constant exercise so as not to allow the world, or any idol, into the heart, for these would hinder our communion and full joy in the heart.
Opposition and persecution will not rob the Christian of the joy that the Lord give to His own. This is seen in the disciples at the beginning of the Acts who, after being beaten for their testimony to Jesus, “departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name“ (Acts 5:41). The same thing was seen in Paul and Silas who, beaten with many stripes, and with their feet fast in the stocks, “sang praises unto God” and prayed to Him (Acts 16:25).
Full Joy in God’s Presence
Psalm 16 presents the Lord Jesus in the perfection of His Manhood here below, and after contemplating Him in His pathway, the Psalmist by the Spirit brings the Lord before us in relation to His death and resurrection. Indeed, it is the Spirit of Christ who says, “My heart is glad, and my glory rejoices,” and this in relation to His coming out of death after having secured God’s glory there. The path of life for the Son of God lay through death, but it led upward to the Father’s throne, so that the Son could say in Spirit, “In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (verse 11).
This joy of the Lord is also brought before us in Hebrews 12:2, where it is written concerning Him, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” With infinite suffering before Him, the enduring of the cross and all that would mean to Him as bearing the judgment of God, the Son of God was able to contemplate what lay beyond the cross. How wonderful that we should be let into this divine secret that the heart of the Lord, in the midst of its deepest sorrows, was sustained in the knowledge of what the finishing of the work of redemption would mean to Him. He needed strengthening in the Garden from the angel from heaven as anticipating the cross, but while enduring the agonies of divine wrath the blessed, holy One was sustained by His great love for the Father, by His love for us, and by the knowledge of the joy that was set before Him in the Father’s presence.
The Lord was able to look to the moment of His entry into heaven when He would sit down at the Father’s right hand. He would sit there as having finished the work the Father gave Him to do, with all the claims of the throne of God met in relation to every question sin had raised in God’s universe, with the basis laid in redemption for the accomplishment of all the Father’s will and counsels, and as being able to minister the divine blessing that lay in the eternal purpose of God. These are some of the reasons that the Son’s joy would be full in the Father’s presence.
R. 19.12.69