It’s our new native land.
Enjoying God: Part 1 (4)
Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples. Psalm 96.1-3
…for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Romans 14.17, 18
The Liberator
Being set free from oppressive burdens can usher in a state of great happiness.
Consider the films you’ve seen of allied soldiers marching through liberated Paris. All those smiling, weeping, rejoicing Parisians waving flags and running up to kiss the soldiers, shake their hands, or bang them on their backs.
Such freedom—and the happiness that comes with it—is what everyone desires. We all have burdens, annoyances, aggravations, uncertainties, drudgeries, injustices, and fears from which we would love to be liberated.
Freedom brings relief, happiness, hope, and the possibility of a new life. And nowhere is this truer than when we realize freedom from the burden of sin and all the conditions and consequences of life in our sinful and wrong-believing world.
And there is Good News: The Liberator has come, and freedom from everything that vexes us and drags us down is available now. And with that freedom comes not merely happiness, but joy—true and lasting joy.
This is the Good News of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ, the King of kings.
The joyful Kingdom
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just the Good News of forgiveness, salvation, and going to heaven when we die. It is that, of course, but this was not the focus of Jesus’ ministry, nor of the ministries of the apostles. Jesus taught and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. His teaching was meant to make us wonder about and desire this Kingdom; And He showed in His works the various kinds of liberation that the Kingdom would entail: the blind can see, the tormented can be set free, the lame can walk, the paralyzed can leap and jump about, abundance of food can be found on every hand, old animosities can be resolved, justice and lovingkindness will prevail, people will freely share with one another, everyone will have some role or part in helping to further tha joyous new realm that Jesus proclaimed and inaugurated, and peace and joy will pervade everything.
For the Kingdom of God is joy. Righteousness describes the character of the Kingdom. Its citizens seek to be righteous as Jesus is righteous, and they walk the path of God’s commandments that Jesus walked (cf. 1 Jn. 2.1-6; Matt. 5.17-19).
In such a Kingdom, where relationships, roles, and responsibilities are pervaded by righteousness, the other-worldly peace that Jesus promised becomes just the normal condition in which people live (Jn. 14.27; 16.33).
And where peace obtains, joy is the consequence which increasingly affects everyone and everything. This is not a temporary happiness, but a permanent consequence of a change of citizenship for all who have come to know the liberation from sin that King Jesus brings, and who have been conveyed by Him into His glorious and joyful Kingdom, here and now (Col. 1.13, 14).
If the Gospel you believed is not the full and glorious Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, then you have believed in a kind of “near Christianity” which is perhaps enough to save you, but not enough for you consistently to enjoy and spread the eternal joy of our risen Lord.
How great our joy!
It’s difficult to explain how great is the joy of those who, as they grow in their relationship with Jesus and fill out the promise of Kingdom citizenship, are increasing in righteousness, peace, and joy every day. The impact on others that such a life can have is vast, as the psalmist suggests in Psalm 96. Where the Kingdom of God is advancing, new songs of joy break out over all the earth (v. 1)—the consequence of revival, renewal, and awakening, and of the progress of Christ’s realm.
Further, those who know the joy of salvation that comes from living in the Kingdom of God are downright chatty about it, telling of their salvation “from day to day” (v. 2). All nations and peoples are confronted with the glory of God and wonders of His works by joyous Kingdom citizens, showing them the love of King Jesus in a multitude of ways.
But there is more. In Romans 8.18-24 Paul remarks on the effects of humankind’s sin on the created world. The creation, he says, “was subjected to futility” and it “groans and labors…together until now” (vv. 20, 21). Our sin has laid a burden of neglect, misuse, waste, indifference, and unappreciation on the creation around us. Yet when the Kingdom of joy comes, so great is the joy of those who possess it that it brings liberation to the creation in all its parts and creatures (v. 21). As the King and His Kingdom advance, heaven rejoices, gladness fills the land, seas roar with joy, fields abound in it, and trees and woods rejoice with every trunk, branch, and leaf or needle (Ps. 96.11-13).
I don’t pretend to know entirely what that means or how it happens. But if the whole creation can be liberated from the burden of our sin as the Kingdom of joy spreads throughout it, I know this much: I want to have a part in this.
And I suspect you do, too.
Search the Scriptures
1. Read Romans 14.17, 18. Is this how you think about the Kingdom of God? Is this what you seek as the defining priority of your life (Matt. 6.33)?
2. Meditate on Colossians 1.13, 14. What is it like for you to have been conveyed into the Kingdom of Jesus?
3. When, or under what conditions, do you experience the joy of Christ and His Kingdom? What do we mean by suggesting that this joy is infectious?
Next steps—Demonstration: How do you want people to see more of the reality of your Kingdom citizenship? What will you do today to begin spreading the joy of the Kingdom more consistently?
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation 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).
How should joy affect our lives as Christians? Our booklet, Joy to Your World!, can show you how both to know more of the Lord’s joy and to invite others into it as well. Order your copy by clicking here.
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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.
