The Joy of God: Understanding Divine Happiness and Salvation
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The infinite complexity of the Divine mind is such that God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. When God looks at a painful or Wicked event through his narrow lens he sees the tragedy or sin for what it is in itself and he's angered and grieved, but when God looks through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. This mosaic, in all its parts good and evil, brings him Delight. [00:03:20]
The happiness of God is foundational to our own happiness. If God is not happy, then our hope for true happiness is in vain. The pleasures of God, as revealed in Scripture, assure us of our joy in Him. This understanding was deepened by exploring the pleasures of God in the gospel, particularly through the lens of Isaiah 53, which addresses the profound pleasure conundrum: how can God delight in the death of His righteous Son? [00:04:55]
At the very heart of the Gospel is a pleasure conundrum. If Jesus saves sinners, is a simple General summary of The Gospel, then the simple straightforward answer to how he saved sinners, in the words of First Corinthians 15:3, is Christ died for our sins. Jesus died. Did that give God pleasure? Did he Delight in the death of his son? How can a god, who does not Delight in the death of the wicked says Ezekiel, Delight in the death of his own righteous son? [00:07:46]
The whole Vision tells of an astonishing, startling, almost unbelievable work that the arm of the Lord will perform, and this servant, who is God's own arm, all that is in God is God's own arm, will have his appearance marred Beyond human semblance, and perhaps what's most striking of all is not just that it will happen, but that it is God himself who does it. This is God's doing; it's his work. [00:13:06]
The pleasure of God in the gospel is the pleasure of God in substitution. Verse 10: his soul makes an offering for guilt. Verse 12: he bore the sins of many, which leads to the very heart of the passage in verses four to six. And remember, it all flows under this Banner of astonishment. Why was such a servant a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief? Because his sorrows and griefs were not his own but ours. [00:30:03]
The pleasure of God in the gospel is the pleasure of God in justification. So glad he rehearsed it last night. I'm so glad to see it in Isaiah 53 verse 11: the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous. The servant does not only bear the griefs of others and carry their sorrows, but he literally will provide righteousness for the many. [00:32:47]
The intended recipients and the actual beneficiaries of the servant's atoning death are one in the same group. That is, the servant's work is definite; it is particular, which means that the servant can actually say as Jesus does in John 19:30, it is finished. The servant doesn't leave his work undone. Nothing in Isaiah 53 is open-ended, and this finality, this completeness, this particularity, this definiteness is all part and parcel of the achievement of the servant at the cross that Delights his father. [00:37:49]
God Delights in the magnitude of his son's achievement, and his death is an achievement. In fact, it's the single greatest achievement in the history of the world. The Eternal son became man, lived sinlessly for more than three decades and with silence and without violence willfully submitted himself to unjust arrest and torture and death to rescue a chosen multitude from every tribe and tongue in people and Nation, and then rose again in Triumph. [00:40:36]
God Delights in the pleasure of the many rescued by his son. He Delights in once natural men, now born again to delight in God, and nothing produces holy Delight in his redeemed people like the achievement of his son at the cross, to be accounted righteous and apportioned to the son. What does that produce in the born-again heart? Obligation? Duty? Boredom? Joy, real pleasure, not thin and shallow like the pleasures of the world but the kind of Pleasures that endure forever. [00:42:08]
The pleasure of God in crushing his son is not apart from the pleasure of the son in being crushed, not Cosmic child abuse, that the son was pleased to be crushed, that in the agony he endured for the joy set before him does not mean it was easy. This is not pleasure light; this is pleasure deep, enough to sustain and animate the soul against earth's greatest deterrence. [00:48:07]
The resurrection turns death upside down, and God's pleasure in the death of his son is always a pleasure that has Resurrection in view. Verse 10: the Lord shall prolong his death, pours out a soul to death and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Not only is it God's Delight that he be crushed but God's Delight will be in his hand to prosper the resurrection. [00:53:11]
God's pleasure in the crushing of his son is the pleasure of God in the lifting up of his son. Just as God the son Delights in the glory of his father so God the Father Delights in the glory of his son, and just as nothing moves the human heart like the exaltation and Glory of Christ, so nothing moves the Divine heart like the exaltation and Glory of his incarnate perfect crucified risen reigning son. [00:55:01]
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The happiness of God is foundational to our own happiness. If God is not happy, then our hope for true happiness is in vain. The pleasures of God, as revealed in Scripture, assure us of our joy in Him. This understanding was deepened by exploring the pleasures of God in the gospel, particularly through the lens of Isaiah 53, which addresses the profound pleasure conundrum: how can God delight in the death of His righteous Son? [00:04:55]
At the very heart of the Gospel is a pleasure conundrum. If Jesus saves sinners, is a simple General summary of The Gospel, then the simple straightforward answer to how he saved sinners, in the words of First Corinthians 15:3, is Christ died for our sins. Jesus died. Did that give God pleasure? Did he Delight in the death of his son? How can a god, who does not Delight in the death of the wicked says Ezekiel, Delight in the death of his own righteous son? [00:07:46]
The whole Vision tells of an astonishing, startling, almost unbelievable work that the arm of the Lord will perform, and this servant, who is God's own arm, all that is in God is God's own arm, will have his appearance marred Beyond human semblance, and perhaps what's most striking of all is not just that it will happen, but that it is God himself who does it. This is God's doing; it's his work. [00:13:06]
The pleasure of God in the gospel is the pleasure of God in substitution. Verse 10: his soul makes an offering for guilt. Verse 12: he bore the sins of many, which leads to the very heart of the passage in verses four to six. And remember, it all flows under this Banner of astonishment. Why was such a servant a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief? Because his sorrows and griefs were not his own but ours. [00:30:03]
The pleasure of God in the gospel is the pleasure of God in justification. So glad he rehearsed it last night. I'm so glad to see it in Isaiah 53 verse 11: the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous. The servant does not only bear the griefs of others and carry their sorrows, but he literally will provide righteousness for the many. [00:32:47]
The intended recipients and the actual beneficiaries of the servant's atoning death are one in the same group. That is, the servant's work is definite; it is particular, which means that the servant can actually say as Jesus does in John 19:30, it is finished. The servant doesn't leave his work undone. Nothing in Isaiah 53 is open-ended, and this finality, this completeness, this particularity, this definiteness is all part and parcel of the achievement of the servant at the cross that Delights his father. [00:37:49]
God Delights in the magnitude of his son's achievement, and his death is an achievement. In fact, it's the single greatest achievement in the history of the world. The Eternal son became man, lived sinlessly for more than three decades and with silence and without violence willfully submitted himself to unjust arrest and torture and death to rescue a chosen multitude from every tribe and tongue in people and Nation, and then rose again in Triumph. [00:40:36]
God Delights in the pleasure of the many rescued by his son. He Delights in once natural men, now born again to delight in God, and nothing produces holy Delight in his redeemed people like the achievement of his son at the cross, to be accounted righteous and apportioned to the son. What does that produce in the born-again heart? Obligation? Duty? Boredom? Joy, real pleasure, not thin and shallow like the pleasures of the world but the kind of Pleasures that endure forever. [00:42:08]
The pleasure of God in crushing his son is not apart from the pleasure of the son in being crushed, not Cosmic child abuse, that the son was pleased to be crushed, that in the agony he endured for the joy set before him does not mean it was easy. This is not pleasure light; this is pleasure deep, enough to sustain and animate the soul against earth's greatest deterrence. [00:48:07]
The resurrection turns death upside down, and God's pleasure in the death of his son is always a pleasure that has Resurrection in view. Verse 10: the Lord shall prolong his death, pours out a soul to death and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Not only is it God's Delight that he be crushed but God's Delight will be in his hand to prosper the resurrection. [00:53:11]
God's pleasure in the crushing of his son is the pleasure of God in the lifting up of his son. Just as God the son Delights in the glory of his father so God the Father Delights in the glory of his son, and just as nothing moves the human heart like the exaltation and Glory of Christ, so nothing moves the Divine heart like the exaltation and Glory of his incarnate perfect crucified risen reigning son. [00:55:01]
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