Jesus Is Praying for You! (John 17:20)

One of the ways that Jesus continues to express His love for us is through His prayers in our behalf. We were included in His prayer back on that night before He was betrayed and He prays for us now (Hebrews 7:25).

"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love." John 13:1

Jesus prayed, "I have given [my disciples] your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do.

"Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I [set myself apart as holy] for them so they can be [set apart as] holy by your truth.

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.

"I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. John 17:14-21 - New Living Translation (brackets added)

Jesus clarifies that the word from the Father is the truth (John 17:14-19). Therefore truth revealed to us from the Father defines true love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21).

Love based upon truth effectively communicates the truth of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. John 17:20-21

Love based upon the truth of Christ and His word results in unity with God and one another. As we learn and apply the love Christ has for us, His love is communicated to others around us (cp. John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 2:1-11).

The emphasis in the last part of Christ’s prayer in John 17 is clear. He wants us to know how much He loves us.

Christ Jesus gives us the capacity to love (John 17:22-24). But to have this capacity we must keep on looking to Christ Jesus, His Word and His Spirit for His insight and understanding.

Christ gives us the same glory that the Father had given to Him. This means that we may have the God-given capacity to love as He has loved us. This includes being filled with the Spirit of God that empowered Christ in His humanity (Luke 4: 1-13; Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16).

Capacity to love results in communicating the truth that God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ.

Because Christ loves us He wants us to see His glory in eternity (cp. Revelation 5). In the context of His prayer, this especially includes seeing His awesome love.

Christ and His Spirit will continue to help us know the Father so that we will have His love in us. How is this accomplished? As we keep on fixing our eyes on Jesus at the foot of His cross, bringing to mind the great cost of His sacrifice in our place so that we can live with God and truly know God, we come to know the love of the Father and the Son more and more.

Like the Apostle Paul prayed for believers in Christ, so we should pray for one another:

"I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 4:14-21 - New Living Translation)

Grace Needed to Forgive from Our Hearts

by Eldon DeBoer  ( edeboer.gmm@gmail.com )

When Jesus taught the truth of the importance of forgiving others, He warned that if we do not do so we would remain in spiritual torment, having been turned over to torturers.  In the conclusion of His illustration of a servant that had been forgiven much but refused to forgive a fellow-servant, He put it this way:

"My heavenly Father will also [turn you over to torturers]..., if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart" (Matthew 18:34-35).

The sad commentary on many a believer's life is that he/she remains in spiritual torment because of refusing to forgive someone of a wrong done against her/him.

Before I address forgiving others, allow me to make sure we all understand the forgiveness God extends to each of us through Christ Jesus for all eternity and how His forgiveness is extended to us in time from day to day and moment to moment.

By God's Grace We Are Forgiven Forever and Forgiven Again. And Again!

We are forgiven forever when we first place our faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:7). Being forgiven forever is a part of our eternal standing in Christ. It is a part of being identified with Him in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-5). We are sealed in Christ when we believe in Him and this is a permanent seal accomplished by the Spirit of God that includes being forgiven in eternity (Ephesians 1:13-14).

There is another dimension of being forgiven that should be understood. It is God forgiving us again and again for sins we continue to commit that cause us to be in spiritual darkness in our experience with God here and now. While I am forgiven of all sins in Christ forever, in order to live in the light and have true fellowship with God from moment to moment I must confess my sins each and every time the Spirit makes me aware that I have missed a mark that He has set for me to live by.

“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

What a glorious truth and encouraging statement of God's grace for forgiveness. When we fail to live as we should and acknowledge it to God, He is "faithful and just to forgive us" through Christ Jesus (cp. 1 John 2:1-2). And He cleanses us "from all unrighteousness"! We should know we are right with Him when we confess our sin, even though we have failed Him again by sinning against Him. This is the grace of God at work! And how encouraging it is to know this.

This truth of God's grace for forgiveness is illustrated in the life of a prominent leader of old. God was looking for a leader, a king, who would be a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:22). In other words, God was looking for a man to lead His people who wanted to be like Himself more than anything else. You probably know who that man was. Yes, it was David; a shepherd boy who became king of Israel. Was David, the man after God's own heart, perfect? Far from it. He clearly understood how desperately he needed the grace of God in forgiveness. He emphasized this when he wrote Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 after he recovered from a sin that brought a great deal of pain into the lives of many people (2 Samuel 11 & 12). Yet, long after he had died, he was still remembered as someone whose heart was “devoted” to God (1 Kings 11:4; Acts 13:22). How encouraging it is to know that God forgives and that we can recover like David did and be useful to our Lord and Savior once again.

The truth that God forgives us again and again because of Jesus Christ's suffering in our place is a reality that should deeply grip our hearts when we pause to think about what it means. No matter how often we fall to a sinful weakness, be it a wrong thought or behavior, the Lord Jesus forgives us again. And again! And again!! Through confession we recover from being in spiritual darkness and re-enter the light and joy of fellowship with God.

“ . . . these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:4-7).

Like King David, the Apostle Paul wrote of His struggle with sin after being a believer in Christ for a number of years and how he hated it (Romans 7:15-24). He found himself thinking and doing what he knew what was wrong over and over. But when He came to himself by the ministry of the Spirit in His life, He exclaimed,

“Oh wretched man that I am! who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25).

Yes, Christ Jesus “sets us free” again and again from our spiritual deadness and uselessness to God when we sin as believers. It is thought that what Paul had in mind by the phrase “the body of this death” was the practice in his day of chaining a cadaver to a person who had been guilty of an offense that warranted the death penalty. Gangrene would set in and the guilty person would experience a horrible, drawn-out, painful death.

Who will release us from the horrible influence of our sins? From "the body of this death?" Who will deliver us from our spiritual deadness and uselessness to God while we are living in the dark because of sin? Christ Jesus sets us free from this dead condition the again and again. He forgives us every time we admit that we have sinned against Him. And because of our appreciation for His suffering in our place to provide for this forgiveness, because of His love and grace, we should cry out to Him for His help to stop succumbing to the sin. But in our frailty when we fall to that weakness again, that sin that plagues us, He forgives us again. And we then can enjoy fellowship with Him once more and live in His light and the light of His Word, the light of His teachings from the Bible.

Because of the work of Christ Jesus, God forgives us forever and He forgives us again and again when we confess our sin, when we simply admit to Him that we have done wrong. That's grace!!! And just as God forgives us again and again, He calls us to forgive others.

What does it mean to forgive someone?

When we forgive someone we put away the person’s sin against us. The word translated forgive (aphiemi) means to put away. When we forgive, as far as we are concerned, the person is no longer guilty of his sin against us. This is what Jesus did when He was being crucified (Luke 23:34). He put away their sin of crucifying Him and therefore they would not receive immediate judgment from God for that sin.

After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, He told them, “Loose him and let him go” (John 11:44, NKJV). “Let . . . go” is the translation of aphiemi. This provides a fitting analogy that addresses attention to what we do for people when we forgive them. When we forgive someone we no longer keep the person in bondage to the guilt of their sin. As far as we are concerned the person is not guilty. We let him go and he thereby is set free from his guilt against us. This does not mean that an individual should never be held accountable for his sin against us. At times justice must be applied. (This will be addressed at another time.)

Jesus taught us to forgive. Again and again!

The Lord Jesus addressed the importance of forgiving again and again in Matthew 18:21-35.  He concluded his teaching by emphasizing that those who choose not to forgive will remain in spiritual torment until they do forgive (18:34-35).  Strong words but so very true.  The passage begins with the familiar question for Jesus from Peter.

"Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?''

Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Peter probably thought he was being very generous when he asked this question about forgiveness. Certainly forgiving “up to seven times” goes beyond what God requires of us. Louis Barbieri, Jr., notes that “the traditional Rabbinic teaching was that an offended person needed to forgive a brother only three times” (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 62). In what follows in Matthew 18, Peter’s lack of understanding becomes obvious in the story that Jesus told about the king and his two servants. Apparently Peter did not realize the application of God’s forgiveness to forgiving others. It seems that he did not have much appreciation for the truth that the Lord had forgiven him a huge debt of sin. He did not apply the foundational truth that we all need to understand in order to forgive from the heart.

When Jesus told Peter that we should keep on forgiving up to 490 times, he was not saying that we should keep a ledger of the sins against us. The expression, “up to seventy times seven,” emphasizes that we should keep on forgiving and not keep track of the number of times someone sins against us.

Peter’s lack of understanding concerning God’s standards for forgiving one another is not unusual among believers. Many believers do not understand the application of this truth. But what is it that believers need to grasp in order to forgive from the heart? The parable Jesus told provides the answer.

Heart-felt Forgiveness Flows from Being Forgiven a Huge Debt

In this parable the king of the servant who has incurred a huge debt is God the Father Himself. There are a number of views concerning what a talent would be worth in today’s currency, but according to one source the amount equaled about 15 years wages. If you earned an average of $30,000 a year multiplied times 15, times 10,000, your debt would be $4,500,000,000. The main point of the Lord’s illustration is that since God has forgiven us so very much, we are to forgive others from our hearts. If you appreciate the huge debt of sin that God has forgiven you, you will keep on forgiving others who sin against you. This is precisely what the servant did not do. His lack of appreciation for how much his lord had forgiven him was expressed in his refusal to forgive a fellow servant of a far lesser debt of sin. Consequently, he was handed over to the torturers (cp. Hebrews 12:4-15).

Our sins are ultimately against our holy heavenly Father.

The two servants in the story Jesus told are both representative of believers in Christ Jesus. The wicked servant who refused to forgive had incurred a debt beyond his ability to repay. When we sin against our holy God, we should understand that we are unable to pay back the debt we owe due to our sins. We do not have the ability to repay our Lord for sins committed against Him. Our sins are too great. All the Father asks is that we go to him and admit our need of His forgiveness. God always treats us in grace and forgives us because our debt has been paid through the suffering and death of Christ Jesus. The wicked servant had been forgiven by his lord. But when he refused to forgive a fellow servant, he was turned over to the torturers because of his sin of refusing to forgive. We should keep in mind that ultimately our sins are sins against our holy God and only His forgiveness removes the sin and the guilt. David understood this and expressed his indebtedness to God. After he had confessed his sin of adultery against Uriah and Bathsheba, he said to the Lord,

Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight

That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.           (Psalm 51:4)

David was well aware that he was worthy of death. And he knew that God could take His Spirit from him (Psalm 51:11). (While this cannot happen to a believer today in the Church Age, it could happen to believers in the Old Testament. Believers today fully receive the Spirit when they believe in Jesus and He continues to indwell them no matter how sinful they might become.) When we sin against the Lord God we should understand that all sins, whether seemingly significant or insignificant to us, are offenses against our holy heavenly Father and are huge in His sight.

Yet some sins cause more damage than others. It could be that the wicked servant is an illustration of a believer who has received forgiveness for a sin that has caused a great deal of damage to others. Whatever the case, the teaching is clear. Believers should maintain forgiving hearts because the holy God has forgiven them a huge debt of sin.

Sins and offenses against you

When someone does something that hurts you, there are times when the person who has offended you may not even be aware of the hurt that has been caused. Then, to the other extreme, there are sins that obviously are motivated by maliciousness. There are offenses that are perceived to be damaging which may not even be sinful at all. Sometimes we can be too sensitive about what others do to us. Whatever the case, when we feel that someone has hurt us, God calls us to forgive them. When we have disagreements with others or complaints against others for whatever reason, the Lord says,

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.                    (Colossians 3:12-13)

The Lord calls us to forgive as He has forgiven us in Christ.

Since God has forgiven us a huge debt of sin we are to forgive others. This is an important part of the Spirit of the Lord’s concern as He moved the Apostle Paul to write Ephesians. Having proclaimed the truth of the everlasting spiritual blessing of our forgiveness in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), Paul emphasizes the importance of forgiving one another:

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

Forgiving one another is what accompanies being kind and tenderhearted. If believers prominently keep in mind the forgiveness that was bought and paid for by Jesus (Ephesians 5:1-2), they should keep on maintaining a forgiving heart. Notice that Paul points to God’s forgiveness as the basis for our forgiveness. The word translated forgive in this passage emphasizes grace in forgiveness (charizomai). We communicate kindness and tenderheartedness as we keep on forgiving others.

Our emotional vulnerability when angry

The fact that we should guard against not letting go of justified anger or righteous wrath before we go to bed is clear from what we are told in Ephesians 4:26-27:

"'Be angry (orgizo) and do not sin': do not let the sun go down on your wrath(parorgismos) nor give place to the devil" (note the root word orge found in parorgismos).

We should never go to sleep filled with anger, even though our anger may be justified because of the hurt and injury that someone caused. May we look to the Lord for the grace to put our righteous wrath to rest against those who have sinned against us or, possibly, others as well. This warning is accompanied by the real danger that even righteous wrath might turn to bitterness and sinful anger and that this may be used by the devil and his cohorts to bring us into spiritual bondage.

We understand from personal experience that often our emotions cause us to lose the ability to think clearly. When sinful emotions take over we are “in the dark” spiritually. God tells us we should be alert to this and we must draw upon His grace to overcome these harmful emotions.

Put away the emotions that torture you because you refuse to forgive.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. Ephesians 4:31

At times, when we are reminded of the hurt that someone caused, bitterness and sinful anger apparently may overcome us. These emotions are often the torture that comes to us when we refuse to forgive. They are a huge part of the torture designed by God to get our attention. What are we to do about these sinful emotions? We are told to put them away or put them off (cf. Colossians 3:8). In Ephesians 4:31 “put away” translates airo which is also used in another place to explain how Christ Jesus came to taken away our sins (1 John 3:5).

When we do not put away someone’s sin against us by forgiving them, the Spirit of God is grieved (Ephesians 4:30). The fact that we are commanded to “put away” these sinful emotions tells us that by God’s grace, by the ministry of the Spirit through the new man, we can do something about them. We need not be enslaved to them. With God’s enabling grace, we can put a stop to these evil feelings.

Bitterness (pikria, Acts 8:23; Romans 3:14: Hebrews 12:15)) is the emotion that results when we dwell on how someone has hurt us and begin to think about revenge. We become self-centered and filled with self-pity. We can only think about ourselves or how we might vindicate ourselves. Wrath (thumos, Luke 4:28; Acts 19:28) and anger (orge, 1 Timothy 2:8; James 1:19-20) are expressed as we “clamor” for attention and speak evil of the offender. We begin to plan malicious acts against our offenders.

This was not true of Stephen (Acts 7). Stephen demonstrated the grace of God as he was being stoned to death. His final words were words of forgiveness and love for those who took his life. It seems that this left a marked impression on a young man named Saul. Saul came to faith in Jesus as his Messiah and Savior a short time later and became the Apostle Paul who wrote the letter to the Ephesians. Paul knew about forgiveness and deeply appreciated the forgiveness of God. He had experienced the grace of God’s forgiveness. As the “chief of sinners” who had persecuted believers in Christ, Paul became well aware of his need for God’s forgiveness (1 Timothy 1:15-16).

How do we put away the sinful emotions that torture us?

God commands us to put away the sinful emotions that torture us. By the grace of God through the ministry of the Spirit working through the new man we can put away our sinful emotions. When the Holy Spirit convicts you about your sinful emotions confess them as sin. Then prayerfully consider the question, “Have I committed some sin that caused these sinful emotions?” Oftentimes it is the sin of refusing to forgive that has caused these emotions to surface. When the Spirit brings to your attention that refusing to forgive is the sin that is at the root of these emotional responses, then that sin must be confessed as well. Receive the forgiveness granted to you by God through Christ by admitting you have sinned (1 John 1:7, 9). Then remind yourself of the huge debt of sin that God has forgiven you in Christ. Ponder the wonder of His love and grace that He has expressed to you.

Putting these sinful emotions away is not easy (duh!). We may find that it is very difficult to completely let go of the offense against us. We forgive and let go and then we pick it up again in our thoughts. We find ourselves hanging on to it and we rework it in our minds over and over again. Very soon afterwards we are filled with bitterness and sinful anger. Hopefully we do not descend to the point of clamoring for attention by talking about it with others. May we stop short of seeking revenge. May we not carry out injurious plans for personal vindication (cf. Romans 12:14-21).

Thankfully, when we confess these sins and receive cleansing from God once again, we return to the high road of forgiveness in God’s plan for us. Our thoughts should then turn to Jesus and we should once again ponder the great debt of sin that we have been forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice in our place. Do we deserve to be forgiven? No. Does the person who has sinned against us deserve to be forgiven. No. Yet, God’s plan for our lives is that we forgive as He forgave. When we do forgive because we have been forgiven in Christ and maintain forgiveness from the heart, God will free us from the emotional torture of bitterness and anger. When we apply God’s Word by His Spirit, He gives us peace.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:15-16

Forgive and illustrate the grace of God.

We illustrate the grace and love of God when we forgive others. This is crucially important in the ministry of a church. By forgiving one another and putting up with each other, believers may powerfully communicate the love and grace of God shown them in Christ Jesus.

The chapter break is unfortunate at the close of Ephesians 4 because the following verses emphasize the importance of being like God in forgiveness and in the demonstration of love by Jesus Christ’s death.

Therefore be followers of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

(Ephesians 5:1-2

When we maintain hearts of forgiveness we demonstrate to others that we truly are followers of God. When we keep on forgiving we shine forth the light of the truth of Christ and are behaving in a way that is consistent with whom we are in Christ. We have received total and complete everlasting forgiveness in Christ. We are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). When we keep on forgiving we are walking as children of light. We are behaving wisely by the power of the Spirit of God (5:15-21).

By the grace of God through the ministry of the Spirit through the new man created in the image of Christ (Colossians 3:10), we may overcome the emotional torment caused by refusing to forgive. We may express the love and grace to others that God has given us in Christ Jesus.

Jesus warned those who do not forgive from the heart that they would be turned over to the torturers (Matthew 18:35). The heavenly Father will bring severe discipline upon those who refuse to forgive (Hebrews 12:3-15). Often this discipline from the Father includes emotional torture.

Forgiving someone is not a one time, now it's settled forever experience.  Many of us have felt that churning sensation within again and again as we re-live in our heads the hurt and pain we went through at the hands or words of someone.  So we need to look to our Savior for His grace to forgive again.

May we forgive from the heart because we appreciate that we have been forgiven a huge debt of sin by our holy God and thereby be free of the emotional torture that results from refusing to forgive.

A summary of God’s provisions for maintaining a heart of forgiveness:

1. Remember that in and through Jesus Christ, God has forgiven you a huge debt of sin. Keep in mind that no one can offend you or sin against you to the degree that you have sinned against God (Matthew 18:27).

2. Ponder and dwell on the wondrous love and forgiveness God has granted to you through Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9-2:2).

Think about the awful cost of your deliverance by the Son of God Himself. Keep your eyes on Jesus (Ephesians 4:29-5:2; Colossians 3:1-16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Hebrews 12:1-3).

3. Recognize that you cannot maintain a heart of forgiveness and forgive again for the right reasons in your own strength (John 15:5).

4. Keep in mind the Lord’s command to not take your righteous wrath to bed (Ephesians 4:25-27).

5. Be on the alert for signs of sinful anger and bitterness (Matthew 18:35). Remain sensitive to the convicting work of the Spirit from the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 4:30-31; Colossians 3:8-10; Hebrews 12:15).

6. Confess to the Lord the sin of an unforgiving spirit when the Holy Spirit causes you to realize that this is the reason for the emotional torture of bitterness and anger (1 John 1:9; cp. Matthew 6:14-15; Psalm 32:1-6).

7. Cry out to God for the grace to keep on maintaining a heart of forgiveness to forgive again and again so that your life will be a testimony to His love and grace (John 13:35; 2 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Jesus taught that refusing to forgive is itself a sin and breaks fellowship with God (Matthew 6:14-15). When a believer refuses to forgive, God will not forgive him until it is confessed as sin (1 John 1:9; Psalm 32:1-5). This is forgiveness for fellowship with God in this life. Every believer remains forgiven in Christ forever whether he or she forgives or not (Ephesians 1:7). The importance of forgiving others and the sin of refusing to forgive in Matthew 6 and 18 has to do with continuing in fellowship in a meaningful relationship with Jesus here and now in this life.

Your questions and comments are appreciated ( edeboer.gmm@gmail.com ).

Joy in Knowing Jesus:  

Reasons to Rejoice in Him

by Eldon DeBoer

Chapter three of Philippians opens with a command:

“Henceforth*, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.”

This challenge by the Spirit of God from the hand of the Apostle Paul is built upon the truth of Jesus Christ. The Lord has given us many good reasons to rejoice. As Paul shares his personal testimony in Philippians three, it is clearly evident why he rejoiced. He knew where true inner happiness is found. It is found in knowing Jesus Christ (3:8). Even though life is oftentimes not what we hoped it would be or what we expected it to be, we can rejoice in the Lord because we know Him. (* “Henceforth” is a good translation of the word that is typically translated “Finally” (loipon).)

Jesus said, “I came that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). What did Jesus mean by this declaration? What is an abundant life to you? Certainly it includes happiness, wouldn’t you think?

Blaise Pascal, the accomplished mathematician of yesteryear, had some insightful thoughts about happiness and rejoicing:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. [Happiness] is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

And yet after such a great number of years, no one without faith has reached the point to which all continually look. All complain, princes and subjects, noblemen and commoners, old and young, strong and weak, learned and ignorant, healthy and sick, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.

A trial so long, so continuous, and so uniform, should certainly convince us of our inability to reach the good by our own efforts. But example teaches us little. No resemblance is ever so perfect that there is not some slight difference; and hence we expect that our hope will not be deceived on this occasion as before. And thus, while the

present never satisfies us, experience dupes us, and from misfortune to misfortune leads us to death, their eternal crown.

What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.  (Blaise Pascal, 1623–1662, Thoughts. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14, Section VII, Morality and Doctrine, the SECOND part.—That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor justice. (Brackets and emphasis added.))

It is only in God that we find joy in a world filled with sadness and trouble. This is part of the abundant life that Jesus has promised us.

An Initial Definition of Rejoice and Joy

First of all, we will consider how the Greek words translated rejoice and joy, chairo and chara, bring into view a deep sense of happiness that only comes from the Lord. The command to rejoice is not a directive to have fun or experience surface level happiness. It is much deeper than that.

The Lord frequently commands us to rejoice through the hand of the Apostle Paul. In addition to Philippians 3:1, the following verses also present this challenge (all quotations are from the NASB):

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always. . .

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

In this verse we are directed join with others in their joy:

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, . . .

In addition to the three commands to rejoice in Philippians, Paul frequently wrote of rejoicing and possessing joy in this very same letter:

1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy (sugchairo) with you all.

2:18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

2:28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you.

2:29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy (chara), and hold men like him in high regard;

4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.

Here are additional verses in which chara, the noun translate “joy,” is used in Philippians:

1:4 . . . always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,

1:25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,

2:2 . . . make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

2:29 Receive [Epaphroditus] then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard;

4:1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

As the following reasons to rejoice are presented, keep in mind that the joy being addressed is a deep sense of happiness that only comes from the Lord and is only found in Him.

Reason #1: We can rejoice in the Lord Jesus because we know Him. Philippians 3:7-8

From the perspective of religious Jews, Paul had it made. He had position, power and prestige among his people. But then he met Jesus and found out what really mattered in life. Nothing compared to knowing Jesus Christ. Anything else he considered to be “rubbish.” He wrote in Philippians 3:7-10,

7. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

9. and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

10. that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; . . .

When we have the perspective on life that Paul had, we will have a joyful life.

When knowing Jesus Christ is our main objective in life, we will rejoice in Him. In other words, when nothing else matters to us more than know Jesus Christ, no circumstance in life can take away the joy we have in Him.

When Paul writes of gaining Christ he is addressing attention to his personal relationship with him and the benefits of that relationship (3:8). In his book The Joy of Living: A Devotional Study of Philippians, Dr. J Dwight Pentecost offers this summary of Paul’s letter,

[K]nowing Christ, walking in fellowship with Him, and being obedient to Him floods the life and heart and mind of the apostle Paul with an incomparable joy...so that in Christ he has found perfect rest, satisfaction, and contentment."

Reason #2: There is cause for rejoicing in knowing that your righteousness comes from God by faith.

It should be understood that there is joy in knowing that God has given you His righteousness. You are righteous in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). Paul has developed the teaching that God’s righteousness is received as a gift from Him in greater detail in his letter to the Romans, chapters three, four and five (see especially 3:21 – 4:9). But here it is clear that Paul is addressing the righteousness of Christ that he wants to be more and more of a reality in his experience before his glorification.

Notice the subjunctive moods used in Philippians 3:8-9 where Paul declares that he “counts” everything in life as rubbish “in order that [he] may gain Christ, and may be found in Him . . .” (NASB). Paul knew that He had been declared to be right with God by God Himself through faith in Jesus. He had been justified by God in Christ (Romans 5:1). But the subjunctives indicate what Paul desires to be true in his life. He wants what is his position in Christ, justification (Romans 5:1), to be his practice in his walk with Jesus. He wants to have a righteous way of life. He develops this further when he writes of his desire to attain to the resurrection of the dead (Philippians 3:11-13). Positionally in Christ he had been raised with Him (cf. Romans 6:4-5; Ephesians 1:3ff.). But it is the apostle’s desire that who he is in Christ may become more and more of a reality in his life as he lives righteously. This is Paul’s main concern in life for which he presses on (Philippians 3:14).

Just as our righteousness in Christ is given to us from God by faith, so righteousness in the Christian grace-way of life is also a reality when we walk by faith. Any righteousness in our life is there because we are heeding God’s word by faith (cf. Hebrews 11:4). This experiential righteousness is not performance based. It is not ours because we are focusing on keeping a set of rules that certainly are good in themselves. No, this righteousness is by faith as we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and make our main concern gaining Him and knowing Him (cf. 1 John 2:3-6). And this is where joy in the Lord is found.

The relationship between believing God and being filled with joy is found in Paul’s wish for believers in Romans 15:13:

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Back to the Importance of Knowing Christ—and sharing in His sufferings

After stating the fact that a righteous life comes from God through faith (3:9), he once again addresses attention to knowing Christ (3:10). This is where joy is found.

But what in the world, you may ask, is the “fellowship of [Christ’s] sufferings” about? What does that mean, exactly? You may be thinking, yes, I want the “power of His resurrection” but don’t talk to me about suffering with Christ.

Paul frequently wrote of the pain he experienced because he was outspoken about the truth of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 4:11-13; 2 Corinthians 4:7-11; Galatians 5:11; 6:12; 2 Timothy 3:10-12; cf. Colossians 1:24). We may not face persecution like Paul did, but we all experience the effects of sin and the curse because we live in this fallen sinful world. Here is the truth that is taught in the Bible concerning sharing in the sufferings of Christ that has application for all believers everywhere:

Whenever we experience the effects of sin and the curse in this fallen world, we may view it as sharing in the sufferings of Christ (John 11:34; Romans 8:18-23; 2 Corinthians 4:7-11; cf. Hebrews 11:24-26).

Jesus wants you to experience the power of His resurrection, drawing upon His strength, when you share in His sufferings as you experience the pain of living in a sinful world. Just as Jesus wept on His way to the burial place of His friend Lazarus, we may grieve as we experience the effects of sin in our life.

God calls us to keep on demonstrating that we want to know Jesus Christ more and more by continuing to trust in Him—no matter what. This is the Lord’s plan for our life. It is only as we trust Him to give us the strength to obey His commands that we get to know Him better and are able to rejoice in Him.

Reason #3: You rejoice in the Lord because you understand His plan for your life.

Sometimes believers do not rejoice in the Lord because they do not understand the plan of God for the Christian grace-way of life as they should. The Lord’s plan for your life here and now is not a life that is filled with only pleasant experiences. But possibly our expectations of what God should do or must do in our life are skewed, as the perspective of this lady reveals.

A woman told [Larry Crabb] with a peaceful smile that she knows God will bring her deserting husband back to her. When [she was asked to explain] the reason for the hope within her, she smiled even more broadly and replied, “He promised me an abundant life” (Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy, p. 28, brackets added).

Sadly, many believers think that an abundant life must be a life that is filled with pleasant experiences here and now on earth. And if life is not pleasant certainly God will or even must change things for the better.

But as the title of Crabb’s book indicates, Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy, a deeper experience of joy results from experiencing God’s enabling grace to face life as it is. If our first concern is to know Christ and we appreciate that He is providentially working in our life, then when our hopes and dreams do not come true we should continue to keep in mind that we live in a war zone that involves the decisions that people choose to make.

Does the Lord want a deserting husband to return to his wife? Of course! And He knows just what it will take in that husband’s life to bring that about. But the husband may continue to rebel against the Lord Jesus’ plan for his marriage no matter what He could do in his life. And Jesus knows all of this. Has God failed the wife? No, the husband has. But the wife can look to the Lord for help in the face of her pain. By her painful experience of having a wayward husband, she is sharing in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. But through the pain she can experience Jesus’ joy as He gives her the grace to keep trusting Him to face life as it is without her husband. Or the Lord could choose to remove the husband, bringing about his untimely death.

Are we determined to let no one and nothing stand in the way of gaining Christ? Do we want to view all of life, including relationships with others, from the standpoint of carefully considering how what is happening in our life will help us get to know Christ better? Our Savior who suffered in our place wants us to get to know Him better as He views the suffering we experience because we want to get to know Him better and better.

Our Lord God certainly has given us many good reasons to rejoice. Even though life is oftentimes not what we hoped it would be or what we expected it to be, we can have joy in the Lord because knowing Him is our first concern. We experience the power of Christ’s resurrection when we have joy as we experience the pain of sharing in His sufferings.

Reason #4: You will rejoice when your life is productive for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:10-14

Jesus promises you His joy if you love Him. And to love Him is to obey Him. He declared in John 15:

8. "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

9. "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

10. "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

11. "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Jesus wants you to experience the fullness of joy that He has.

It is helpful to keep in mind that the occasion in which Jesus presented the teaching of John 15 took place just prior to His betrayal and crucifixion. In the immediate context He had spoken of being troubled (John 13:21; cf. 14:1). Like Christ, we may have His joy in the midst of difficult and horribly painful times

(cf. 1 Peter 1:6,8; 4:12-13).

Reason #5: You will rejoice when you stay in the love of Jesus Christ.

There is joy in knowing Jesus Christ and enjoying a loving personal relationship with Him (Philippians 3:8,10; cf. 1 John 1:1-7).

Reason #6: You will rejoice when you obey Christ’s commands.

Joy in obedience is the experience of only those who heed the Lord’s commands out of a heart of gratitude for what He has done for them (1 John 4:17-19; 5:3).

These reasons for joy were also the experience of those who looked to the Lord in faith in ages past. The Psalm writers of the Old Testament days knew it well (Psalm 84:1-12; 16:7-11; 89:14-16; 32:10-11; 90:14-16)

Reason #7 There is cause for rejoicing—there is good reason for a deep level of joy—in those who are pure in heart by the grace of God.

The pure in heart know that everything is right between them and God. And they have joy (1 John 1:4-9).

This was true of David after he confessed his sin and cried out to the Lord to restore to him the joy of being delivered from death, sin and sin’s consequences (Psalm 51:6-14).

Reason #8 We should rejoice because there is joy in knowing about the glorious future the Lord has for us. Philippians 3:20-21

When we rejoice in the Lord we may often have to look past the circumstances of life that we are facing and bring to mind what God has done for us and what He has in store for us forever with Him.

Summary

What we have been considering thus far is a level of joy that is not determined by circumstances or the behavior of others. It is the deepest level of joy found in a trusting, loving and obedient relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the deep sense of inner happiness that our Lord God gives to us because we know Him and are trusting in Him. This is the joy that may be ours at any time, in any place, in any circumstance. Because of the grace of God we truly can rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4).