Joy & Grace

The life of Jesus demonstrated what joy is all about. Jesus had tremendous joy yet he encountered constant opposition. Joy is not free of opposition. We live in a world that values other people’s approval; therefore we often try to earn the approval of others. The flaw in that is that if my joy requires your approval, I probably will not be honest with you; instead I will do everything I can to make you like me, including putting on a false image and then tell lies to back it up. When we are not honest, we live in fear that we will be found out, that people will one day see the real us. We are afraid they will like what they see. We can’t have true joy if we can’t be honest; there is no joy in pretending to be something we are not. In his book What's So Amazing about Grace, Philip Yancey recounts this story about C.S. Lewis: “During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began thinking about the possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the others agreed.” The idea of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist have an eight-fold path, the Hindu believe in Karma, & Islam have the code of law. Each of these offers a way to earn approval and salvation; only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. Conditional love is harmful to relationships. What if I don’t meet the expectations of my wife, and she decides to give me the silent treatment? The implication is: "If you do what I want you to, I will talk to you. Otherwise, I won't." That is always fun isn’t it? It’s really fun when both people give each other the silent treatment. Then the only way to communicate is through banging doors, loud sighs, and evil stares. Could you imagine if a preacher did that to a church? There would be the silent treatment every Sunday. Conditional love in the church kills joy. What if I only sang when songs I like are being led? What if I only give when projects I like are being done? What if I only serve when it is convenient and what I want? What if I only pray only when God gives me what I want? Conditional love destroys churches, it destroys faith, and it is a joy killer. That is why God’s grace allows us to have true joy. Grace allows us to be who we really are; in fact grace is only understood by those who are honest. When someone loves you for you, and you don’t have to pretend to be something you are not, that kind of honesty allows us to have joy. The world wanted Jesus to be Superman or an earthly king, and when He refused it rejected Him. In Hebrews 12 it says that Jesus had joy even when He knew He was headed toward the cross. The reason Jesus had joy was not the cross, but the relationship He had with His Father, because God accepted Jesus as he really was.
If you follow the path of Jesus, you cling to God, to a father who you don’t have to pretend to be something you are not; He loves you for who you are, and for what He created you to be. It is His loving grace that propels our joy. The more we connect with Him and the people He puts in our lives the more complete our joy will be.