A Christian Guidebook: Who Is Jesus? (5)

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10.10 

Not what God intended
The Scriptures expose to the light what every wrong-believing person knows to be true about their life: that happiness and fulfillment are elusive, and disappointment and disillusionment are pretty much the norm in life.

To which Christianity says, “Not so.”

Paul tells us that apart from God people have no hope in this life (Eph. 2.12). Everything on which they depend for happiness is either fleeting or inadequate, leaving them wondering aloud, “Is that all there is?”

What’s more, all people live in the fear of death (Heb. 2.15) and are stalked by the prospect of judgment for their wrongdoings. Guilt and shame run like polluted rivers in the souls of all but the most hardened of heart. Many perhaps resonate with the bumper sticker that reads, “Are we having fun yet?”

This is not what God intended when He created men and women. He made us to be upright, happy, full of joy, abounding in pleasure, and flourishing in good works. His purpose for us is to know and enjoy Him, and to serve Him in full and bounteous flourishing with all the gifts of personality, relationships, creation, and culture.

But sin has ruined the promise of our being. Sin not only robs God of His honor, but it also robs human beings of their longed-for happiness. Unless something is done to take away our sin, we will never know the kind of happiness which God intends for us. 

The way to happiness
Here, Anselm explained to Boso, is yet another reason why God had to become a Man. By satisfying the debt of our sins, Jesus has opened the way to true and lasting happiness for all who believe in Him. Indeed, our happiness could not be achieved, Anselm explained, apart from the work of Christ in the Incarnation: “Therefore, consider it settled that, without satisfaction, that is, without voluntary payment of the debt, God can neither pass by sin unpunished nor can the sinner attain that happiness, or happiness like that, which he had before he sinned.”

The reason for the Incarnation is, besides satisfying the debt of sin and bringing honor to God, to provide for the joy and happiness of men. Most people have completely lost sight of the “reason for the season” of Christmas. However, so powerful was the work of Christ’s Incarnation that untold millions of those who do not believe in Him share—if only for a season—in the happiness He has made possible for us.

The penalty, power, and presence of sin
God became a Man, Anselm explained in Cur Deus Homo, so that human beings, trapped in a misery of our own creating, might be set free to know the happiness of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. That happiness, moreover, consists of two dimensions. 

First is the happiness we may know here and now.

In this life those who come to salvation through faith in Christ are not immediately translated out of the world of sin; nor are they even completely freed from their own sinful tendencies. In this life we continue to know the blows and bruises of sinful behavior, both ours and that of others. The penalty of sin has been removed from us, but the power of sin continues to affect us, though we daily strive to make progress against it. However, despite this, believers who know their sins to be forgiven and who are pursuing a life of obedience to God through Jesus Christ can know true happiness, a deep-seated joy that not even the direst of circumstances can take away (cf. Hab. 3.17-19).

Yet our happiness now, while real, is but a foretaste of the eternal happiness which is yet to be, when we are finally translated from the power and the very presence of sin to live in glory with God forever.

And the greatest happiness we have, now and forever, is that of knowing God and living in His Presence. That we may know this increasingly day by day is a happiness from which nothing can keep us. That we will know it forever in a new world of untainted, unremitting beauty, goodness, and truth is the great hope and happiness of every Christian.

As Anselm explained, “rational nature was made holy by God, in order to be happy in enjoying Him…It is, therefore, established that rational nature was created for this end, viz., to love and choose the highest good supremely, for its own sake and nothing else…Wherefore rational nature was made holy, in order to be happy in enjoying the supreme good, which is God.”

Human beings could not be happy as God intended, unless God became a Man in the Incarnation of the Son of God to take away our sins and restore us in His righteousness to the Father Who made us. His having done this in Jesus is the reason for “joy to the world.”

Search the Scriptures
1. Read quickly through Ecclesiastes 2. No one ever enjoyed more favorable material conditions than Solomon. But where did this leave him? Why?

2. Read Habakkuk 3.17-19. Why could the prophet be filled with joy despite the loss of every material good?

3. What is it about the Presence of God that brings us such joy? Why can nothing else provide this?

Next steps—Conversation: When have you known the Presence of the Lord unto deep and lasting joy? In a service of worship? During a time of Bible study and prayer? Wandering about in creation? What provoked that joy? How did it compare with mere happiness? Give thanks to God for the joy of your salvation. Then share this experience with a friend.

Additional Resources
For a free copy of Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo, click this link.

If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.