John Piper "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" Chapter Four

“God, your God,

has anointed you with

the oil of gladness

beyond your companions.”

HEBREWS 1 : 9

“Well done, good and faithful servant. . . .

Enter into the joy of your master.”

MATTHEW 2 5 : 2 1

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE JOY

The Gladness of Jesus Christ

Excerpts from the Chapter:

“Jesus himself—and all that God is for us in him—is our great reward, nothing less. “I am the bread of life. . . . If anyone thirsts, let him come to me” (John 6:35; 7:37). Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins, but mainly the fellowship of Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9).”

“But the glory and grace of Jesus is that he is, and always will be, indestructibly happy. I say it is his glory, because gloom is not glorious. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his. My capacities for joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for joy into me, so that I can enjoy him with the very joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace.”

“In Hebrews 1:8-9 God speaks to the Son, not to the angels, with these astonishing words: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. . . . You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Jesus Christ is the happiest being in the universe. His gladness is greater than all the angelic gladness of heaven. He mirrors perfectly the infinite, holy, indomitable mirth of his Father.”

“Indomitable joy does not mean that there is only joy. Was he then divided, torn between joy and sorrow? Can an infinitely glorious soul be troubled? Yes, troubled, but not torn and disunited. Christ was complex, but he was not confused. There were divergent notes in the music of his soul, but the result was a symphony.”

“Through the agonies of Gethsemane and Golgotha, Jesus was sustained by indestructible joy. “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). And what was that all-sustaining gladness? It was the gladness of receiving worship from those he died to make glad in God. The Good Shepherd rejoices over one lost sheep (Matthew 18:13). How much more over countless armies of the ransomed!”

“For those who have tasted the joy of Jesus, surely nothing is more compelling than the all-surpassing hope of hearing his final word, “Well done, good and faithful servant. . . . Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). The city of God is a city of joy. And that joy is the indestructible joy of Christ.”

A P R A Y E R

Father, it is a great comfort to us that you and your Son

 are never glib and never gloomy.

We delight in the truth that you can be infinitely happy without being callous to our pain.

We stand in wonder that the light of Jesus’ joy makes a rainbow in the tears on his face.

We long to be like this.

We want to be strong and unshakable in the joy of our faith.

But we don’t want to be oblivious to the grievousness of our own sin or the pain of other people’s distress.

O God, fulfill in us the purpose of your Son in promising that his joy would be in us and that our joy would be full.

Make the fruit of the Spirit—joy—flourish in our lives. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad in you.

Waken our slumbering souls from the sleep of listlessness.

Take away the lukewarmness of our hearts.

Fan the flame of zeal for the glory of your name.

May Christ so dwell in our hearts with his indestructible joy that day by day we are conformed more and more to his glad image.

And so may we be a place of refuge and eternal refreshment for a hopeless, joy-seeking world of people who do not know they are starved for the glory of the gladness of God in Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray,

amen.