The Rejoicer

We were rejoiced into being (1). I was loved, rejoiced in , before I.

The radical implications. Loved before I. Before I do and did and doing. I am not loved for what I do. Indeed, the Bible speaks of us, in and of our own nature, as worthless (Deut. 13:13;1 Sam. 2:12; Ps. 96:5 with Ps. 115:8;  Ps. 97:7; Jer. 2:5; etc.). We fell; rebelled; chased after vain and empty things and became empty and worthless. Worse, enemies of God. Objects of wrath. Dead. But The Rejoicer went after his enemies. He crowned them with love, set his affection on them. Agape love creates value. Thus, life is grace. Pure grace.

The foundation of life is love. He who loses his life--giving it for Christ and for others--really does find it, for this is the nature of reality. This is what God did in Christ, springing from his own nature. Not because he had to. Perhaps there could have been another way to redeem mankind, but The Giver gave all. I am loved--I am loved even in the suffering that he permits. I am loved not in spite of it--but in it, through it. It is his love for me, carefully tailored to deck me in robes of fine linen for himself.

Life is for praise and joy. If the world, if reality, is created by a God who had all delight, all love, all glory in and of himself, and created out of this overflowing of his essence, then joy-love is an essential part of the universe. The Glorious Praise stepped into rejection and darkness and abandonment so that our joy might be complete. So that we might find him who is Better Than Life. In pain, in grief, in suffering, I still acknowledge that there is reason for praise. I have God, the Satisfier. Life Himself. I am still moved by grace. I still have hope for more mercy and grace. Praise can come from a broken, poured out soul that acknowledges the Glorious Praise, even when there is no joy in it because the wasted body has nothing to give.

I am not alone. There is a Creator God who cares for me--not because he has to, but because he wants to. The Rejoicer created me because he wanted to include me in his fellowship. He redeemed because he wanted to include me in his fellowship. Not because I'm great, but because he wants to share his love, and he is magnified as the Giver of All, the Sustainer, the Grace-Giver. In his three persons, he is for me, interceding for me, with me. In the darkness of despair and depression when golden gleams are engulfed, he is with me.

I will be glorified. The Trinity promises it. The Triune God will bring me to himself. The Father has declared it, the Son has done it, the Spirit is the Guarantee and applies the Son's work. When suffering seems to crush, when the world seems broken beyond repair, the Triune God promises a glory.

Rejoiced into being by the Rejoicer. Sustained in the groaning by his continual, eternal, immortal Rejoicing, which breathes out life, for an eternal love-joy-jubilee with him.

NOTES
(1) Thank you to Tim Keller who gave me that phrase in his sermon from Mark, "Father, Son, Spirit."