Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 3 - “The Happiness of Christ”

When you think of Jesus Christ experiencing joy, what kinds of things come to mind? Go ahead and picture those things for a moment, I’ll wait….

What did you see? Were you involved in this experience of Christ being happy? In this chapter of Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund discusses what ultimately brings Jesus joy. The answer to this question was incredibly surprising to me. But, in hindsight, it really shouldn't have been as that reason is wound up in the core of who Jesus is.

Ortlund begins the chapter by reflecting on a quote by Thomas Goodwin that answers the question of what makes Jesus happy saying:

“[Christ’s] own joy, comfort, happiness and glory are increased and enlarged by his showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieving, and comforting his members here on earth.”

At the core of Jesus, we find a redeemer—our Messiah—and in His actions we receive the atonement for our sins. It's who He is, it's what He came to earth for. It was in joyous anticipation “of seeing his people made invincibly clean that sent [Jesus] through His arrest, death burial, and resurrection.” This means that when we come to Christ for forgiveness, we are a part of His ultimate joy. We are a part of His deepest longing to see people turn from sin and turn to His breast. We cannot grieve Him in this action, we cannot pursue His forgiveness too often, and He does not grow weary of sinners coming to Him for mercy! 

Why did this surprise me when I read it? Did it surprise anyone else? If you asked if I believed all of this I would say, “Sure, yeah, we love Christ because He FIRST loved us. “ But I often feel hesitant to partake in this process, especially if sin has been in my heart recently. Why am I slow to run to the throne of God’s grace? Is this something you can relate to? Do you often feel that you have to get your act together before you can approach Jesus in worship? If you're like me in this regard, I think it’s because we are finding ourselves disconnecting the core of who Christ is from our worship. Think about it, when you read the passage in Hebrews 4:16 (NIV):

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

when you imagine approaching “God’s throne of grace” what does that room look like and what does God look like? For me, I just imagine walking into a huge royal chamber where God sits on His throne of absolute power and says “Yeah, you can come in here.” It’s like I'm the court jester whose foolishness He merely tolerates in His presence. I have this picture that I am technically allowed to enter the throne of grace…but sometimes Christ would prefer I were somewhere else. But that's not what this passage says. We can come with confidence to the throne of grace because we are blood-bought sons and daughters of the most high King. He is overjoyed to make us a part of his family. 

It is a part of the core of Christ to provide forgiveness of sins. He does not distribute that grace begrudgingly. He isn't tolerating us on some technicality. Repenting of our sins, and pursuing the embrace of our Savior is His utmost joy. It is because of Jesus' character and His work on the cross that we can confidently draw near to the comforts of salvation over and over again as we navigate this broken world of sin. We need not be shy; we need not be cautious of how much we draw from this fountain of grace. We can, with boldness, approach our Savior with full confidence, knowing that it will bring Him nothing but joy.