THE ATTRIBUTES
OF GOD
Lesson #21
The
Joy of God Deuteronomy 30:9
Joy
is complacency, satisfaction, and delight. The Lord our God is so kind,
gracious, and good to his people that he makes joy a duty. He commands us to
rejoice! “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and
again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). He says, “Rejoice evermore” (1 Thess. 5:16). Paul tells us that God has
given us the “joy of faith” (Phil.
1:25) and that our spiritual joy in Christ is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.
5:22). Joy is the commandment of God and the gift of God. But did you know that
joy is also an attribute of God, an essential part of his character as God? As
God is a God of holiness, justice, truth, and grace, he is also a God of joy.
Here
are three texts of Scripture in which joy is attributed to the Lord our God. In
Jeremiah 31 and 32 the Lord God proclaims some of his blessed covenant promises
to his people (31:3, 31-34; 32:36-40). Then, in Jeremiah 32:41, he makes this the crowning promise of his covenant
grace: “Yea, I will rejoice over them to
do them good!”
In
Deuteronomy 28:63 we read, “The LORD rejoiced over you to do you
good.” In that chapter Moses declares to Israel all the blessings of God
upon those who perfectly obey his commands, blessings which could never be won
by any man, but Christ. Yet, since Christ has won them for his elect, by his
obedience to God as their Representative, they may be and should be properly claimed
by all who believe him. They are ours by his merit and by virtue of our union
with him. Are you a believer? If so, read what God has promised to you (vv.
1-14) and rejoice! He blesses us in everything! In the latter part of the
chapter we read of God’s curses upon all who transgress his law. The ungodly,
those who will not trust Christ alone for righteousness, standing upon their
own merit, are cursed and condemned in everything. Then, in verse 63, we are
told of God’s joy. Now, read what the text says. As the Lord God rejoices in
conferring upon his elect the benefits of his grace, so he rejoices in pouring
out upon the wicked the punishment of his just wrath. Though “he delighteth in mercy,” and though
judgment is his strange work, it is his work, and he joys in it. God rejoices
in the display of his justice and holiness and in the display of his goodness
and grace.
In
Deuteronomy 30:9, we read, "And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work
of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in
the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for
good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:" In chapters 29 and 30 Moses
gives us “the words of the covenant which
the Lord commanded.” In their ultimate fulfillment, this covenant and the
prophecies of these two chapters refer to the salvation of God’s elect in
Christ, as a comparison of Scripture with Scripture will readily show.
·
Compare Deuteronomy 30:6 with Philippians 3:3.
·
Compare Deuteronomy 30:14 with Romans 10:8.
So the message
of verse nine is that the Lord God himself takes joy in the salvation of his
own elect in the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son.
Be sure you understand that with God
joy is an attribute of his glorious Being, not a passion. The joy of God is
therefore eternal, infinite, perfect, and immutable. It is not a conditional,
fluctuating joy, but an immutable, unchanging, unchangeable joy. Joy in God is
his eternal complacency, satisfaction, and delight.
GOD
REJOICES IN HIMSELF (1 Chron. 16:27). In his Psalm of thanksgiving to God,
David said, “Glory and honor are in his
presence; strength and gladness are in his place.” When God dwelt alone in
the solitary perfection of his glorious Being, when nothing else existed except
in God’s infinite mind, there was joy and gladness in his place. This needs to
be recognized. God was perfect without us from eternity. And being perfect, he
was joyful in himself. The point is this
- God does not need angels, or men, or any other of his creatures to give
him joy, satisfaction, complacency, and delight. God’s joy is in himself. The
three Persons of the Holy Trinity find joy in one another. It is right for
God’s joy to be in himself because he is perfect. And God always rejoices in
perfection.
Because God always rejoices in
perfection, we know that GOD REJOICES IN
ALL HIS WORKS (Psa. 104:31). The psalmist declares, “The glory of the Lord shall endure forever: the Lord shall rejoice in
his works.” And the implication is that he will rejoice in all his works
forever (Rev. 4:11). Everything that God is doing, has done, or shall hereafter
do, is to him a matter of endless joy.
Though in his actions he appeared to
have regretted making man upon the earth (Gen. 6:6), because he changed his
course of action and poured out his wrath upon the fallen race in Noah’s day,
God himself did not change. He had not made a mistake! And even when he appears
to be, in our eyes, disgusted with his works, he never is. Every work of his
hand is perfect and always gives him joy.
God
takes joy in his works of creation (Gen. 1:31; 2:2). God created the
heavens and the earth and all that is in them by the word of his power. And
when he had finished his works, he not only rested from them, but rested in
them too. He looked over all that he had made with joy, pleasure, and
satisfaction, and pronounced that they were very good. But there is more - God
still has joy in his creation, otherwise, he would not uphold all things by the
word of his power. The fact that he maintains the universe in existence is
evidence that he yet finds joy in that which he has made.
The
Lord also rejoices in all his works of providence. When he speaks of his
works of providence, our God says, “I
will do all my pleasure” (Isa. 46:10). The works of providence, when we
contemplate them, give us unspeakable pleasure and delight. Though God’s ways
and his works are past finding out, we see in providence the infinite depth of
God’s wisdom and knowledge, and rejoice (Rom. 11:33-36). And in that day when
all things are made manifest, when all things are revealed in their true light,
God’s saints will shout his praise with unending, everlasting joy (Rev. 4:11).
Imagine what delight, joy, complacency, and satisfaction God’s works of
providence must give to him! The works of providence are the works of his will
and pleasure. He sees and knows their beauty, harmony, and connection. And he
knows perfectly what the end results of his works will be - The salvation of
his elect and the glory of his name (Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:10-12)
The
Lord God particularly delights in
the great work of redemption devised by his infinite wisdom and wrought out by
his dear Son. Our redemption by Christ and salvation by the grace of God
through the almighty operations of his Holy Spirit gives joy to the triune God
(Lk. 15:7, 9, 22-24). . Our redemption and salvation by Christ displays the
great glory of God (Ps. 85:9-11). It is in the cross of Christ that we see the
glory of God’s love and mercy, grace and truth, holiness and justice, wisdom
and faithfulness. God rejoices in his work of redemption because by it Christ
obtained, upon the ground of strict justice, the salvation of his people, whom
he loved with an everlasting love. This is what his heart was set upon from
eternity. This is what he resolved to do before the worlds were made. This is
the end for which he predestinated all things.
God also rejoices in his work of
grace in the hearts of his people. His work of grace in us is our beauty, even
the beauty of holiness, which the King greatly desires, by which his elect are
made all glorious within (Song of Sol. 4:9-10; Ezek. 16:6-14). The
righteousness of Christ imputed to us in justification makes the believer
judicially appealing and beautiful before the Lord. And the righteousness nature
of Christ imparted to the redeemed in regeneration makes them all glorious
within (Col. 1:27; 2 Pet., 1:4; 1 John 3:9). We are God’s workmanship (Eph.
2:10), his masterpieces, in which he delights. We are the work of his hands,
curiously and mysteriously wrought by him, in which he is glorified (Isa.
60:21).
GOD
REJOICES IN HIS DEAR SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Without
question, God finds joy in his Son as his equal in the Holy Trinity because
Christ is himself God. But the blessed revelation of the gospel is the fact
that God’s joy, pleasure, delight, and satisfaction is in Christ as our
Mediator (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Col. 1:18-19). There is only one Man in all the
universe with whom God is absolutely, eternally, and immutably well-pleased.
And that Man is Christ, our Mediator. God is pleased with Christ’s obedience to
Him as our Representative to fulfill all righteousness (Rom. 5:19). He is
pleased with Christ’s blood sacrifice for the satisfaction of his justice as
our Substitute (Isa. 53:9-10). He is pleased with Christ’s intercession as our
Advocate (1 John 2:1-2). And God is pleased with every sinner who trusts Christ
as his Savior. No one can please God by his works. But all who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ please God by faith in him (Heb. 11:6). It is not our faith
that pleases God, but Christ the Object of our faith. And God is pleased with
us in Christ, our Mediator.
THE LORD
OUR GOD REJOICES, DELIGHTS, TAKES PLEASURE IN, AND FINDS COMPLACENCY IN HIS
PEOPLE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. That is astonishing; but it is a fact. God takes pleasure in
us, his people! We are his Hephzibah in whom he delights, his Beulah to whom he
is married (Isa. 62:4-5). Therefore, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so the Lord rejoices over and takes pleasure in us (Psa. 147:11; 149:4).
Imagine that! In the words of the covenant, God said, “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good” (Jer. 31:41). And
he does what he promised. He rejoices over us because we are united to Christ. God the Father rejoices in us as his
covenant people from eternity. God the
Spirit rejoices in us as the products of his grace. He revealed Christ to
us and in us. He assures us of our adoption. He has sealed to us the blessings
of the covenant. And he preserves and keeps us in grace. And God the Son rejoices over us as his own
peculiar people. Christ rejoiced over us before ever the earth was as the
delight of his heart (Prov. 8:31). His joy in us sustained him as he endured
the ignominy, agony, and death of the cross as our Substitute (Heb. 12:2). Our
Savior rejoices in the conversion of his redeemed ones (Lk. 15:3-5). Every time
a sinner is saved by grace, it is to the Son of God “the day of the gladness of his heart” (Song of Sol. 3:11). And in
the last day we shall be to the Lord Jesus Christ, our dear Savior, his joy and
crown of rejoicing (Psa. 45:13-15; Jude 24).
Can you imagine the blessedness of
Christ’s joy toward, in, and with his people? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, our Savior, rejoices in us! Sinners though we are, being saved by grace,
Christ finds in us a constant cause for joy! He rejoices to...
·
Bestow upon us the benefits of grace and the glory of
heaven.
·
Make us a prosperous, spiritually prosperous people.
·
Make all things work together for our good.
God’s joy in us is full. It is abundant
and overflowing. It is hearty and sincere. And it will remain forever. Our God
has rejoiced in us. He now rejoices in us. And he shall forever rejoice in us.
We are the joy of our God. “The Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee
with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing”
(Zeph. 3:17). If God so rejoices over us, surely we ought to rejoice in him
(Ps. 35:27-28).