Finding Permanent Delight: Why Jesus is Our Ultimate and Unchanging Joy (John 12:44-50)
While the atmosphere surrounding the Christmas season is often filled with joy—the delight of friends, family, decorations, gifts, and the aroma of Christmas cookies—these pleasures, though wonderful, are frequently fleeting in nature. They are not permanent and eventually fade away.
The Search for Joy in a Fleeting Season
Today, we dive into a greater, more permanent, and unchanging source of delight: Jesus is our joy. This simple truth carries a profound theological weight. The bedrock of this understanding lies in the proclamation given to the shepherds in Luke chapter 2, where an angel brought "good news of great joy which shall be for all the people".
We find Jesus's final public declaration in John 12:44-50, which serves as the powerful conclusion to His public ministry before the private events leading up to His death. This is Jesus’s "last stand," His wrap-up speech, where He clearly demonstrates three critical ways He secures this unchanging joy for us.
1. Jesus is Our Joy in Beholding the Father
Jesus cried out publicly, stressing the importance of His words: "Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me, and whoever sees me sees him who sent me".
The Unity of the Godhead
Jesus establishes that believing in Him is inseparable from believing in the Father. Many in His day believed they were religious and spiritual because they believed in the Father, yet they refused to believe in Jesus. Jesus makes it clear that without believing in Him, the eternal Son, infinite in power, majesty, and righteousness, one does not truly believe in the biblical God, as the Father and the Son are one in essence and being.
For the Christian, Jesus is not an obstacle to be overcome; He is the object of joy, specifically because He is the one who makes the Father known to us.
Making the Unapproachable Accessible
Scripture describes the Father dwelling in "unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see". However, Jesus teaches that He is the light. What was once unapproachable is now accessible through the Son. Just as objects are seen via the light they emit, the Father is seen as He is mediated through the Son. As the book of Hebrews confirms, the Son is "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature". Therefore, we cannot behold the Father except by looking to Jesus.
Beholding the Father through Jesus is a profound cause for great joy. It removes the separation caused by sin, making God accessible to us. This access brings us into the delight and eternal celebration that the Father and the Son have shared for all eternity. The Son is the "door" into this house of unending joy. When we believe in Jesus, we behold the Father, and we witness the Father delighting in the Son, just as He declared at Jesus's baptism: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased".
2. Jesus is Our Joy in Bringing Us Out of Darkness
Jesus further declared His purpose: "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness". Jesus addresses multiple dimensions of darkness:
Spiritual Darkness
All people are born into spiritual darkness. Jesus, through accomplishing salvation and sending the Spirit, makes us spiritually alive. Spiritual light is often equated with spiritual life, where light comes out of darkness and life comes out of death. A spiritually dead person does not know their condition, but the spiritually alive person knows, "once I was blind but now I see," which is a tremendous cause for great joy.
Theological Darkness
The world waited centuries for the revealing of the Messiah. Jesus reveals Himself as that long-awaited figure, bringing a great outpouring of the knowledge of God that was historically difficult to obtain or maintain. Under the new covenant that Jesus brings, the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:34 is fulfilled: people shall "all know me".
Jesus turns the "shadow into the substance," replacing what once only pointed to the revelation of God with the fullness of His glory. This comprehensive revelation of the Messiah and the character of God provides ultimate knowledge and is cause for great joy.
Moral Darkness
In Jesus’s time, people were often subject to the man-made traditions of religious leaders, which did not accurately reflect God's character. Jesus contrasted these mistaken notions with the "actual revelation of God," teaching the true nature of righteousness, selflessness, humility, and forgiveness. He brings us out of this moral darkness and, through spiritual illumination of the Word, gives us knowledge of what is right and truly pleasing to God.
The connection between light and joy is affirmed by the prophet Isaiah, who said of the people who walked in darkness that they "have seen a great light... You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest".
3. Jesus is Our Joy in Bearing Our Judgment in Himself
Following His statement about being the light, Jesus offers a crucial clarification about His primary purpose for coming: "If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world".
Salvation, Not Condemnation (In His First Coming)
This verse is often misused to suggest that God is never a God of judgment. However, Jesus is explaining His present purpose in His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, which was not to condemn, but to save the world. Jesus did not come the first time to pour out wrath but to take wrath upon Himself; He came not to judge the world, but to bear our judgment upon Himself.
Jesus addressed the idea of judgment because, deep down, we know we are guilty and deserving of condemnation due to sin against a holy and infinite God. He would be perfectly justified in judging us and casting us out to eternal death, as that is what sin deserves. Instead, He saves us by transferring the judgment due to us onto Himself at the cross. He turns judgment into joy.
The Warning of the Last Day
The joy of salvation, however, cannot be presumed upon; it requires a response. Jesus connects true belief not just to hearing His words, but to keeping them. It is not enough to attend church, listen to podcasts, or study the Bible; one must actually believe the message and embrace Christ personally.
Jesus warns that just because He did not come the first time to judge does not mean judgment is absent in the future. He states, "The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day". Those who reject His teaching, especially concerning who He is and what He came to do, will be condemned. Jesus is the world's Savior; without embracing Him, there is no one qualified to acquit the sinner on the day of judgment.
The Authority and Commandment of Eternal Life
Jesus concludes by emphasizing the ultimate authority behind His message: "For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak".
Jesus’s words carry the very authority of the Father Himself. This contrasts sharply with the religious leaders of His day who spoke on their own authority, often relying on man-made traditions. The Son does not possess a separate or lesser authority than the Father; there is no hierarchical structure within the Trinity regarding authority. What Jesus speaks is fully authoritative.
This "commandment" given by the Father and revealed by the Son is ultimately eternal life. This is the joy of the gospel: Jesus perfectly obeyed the law as our substitute and bore the judgment for all who believe in Him. All those united to Christ by faith are not judged as guilty, because Jesus was judged for us on the cross. This message reveals how God can be both just and the justifier of His people.
The Logical Flow of Permanent Joy
Jesus is preparing His followers, assuring them that what is about to happen (His trial and death) is all part of the Father’s commanded plan. They simply need to trust in His word.
The three points Jesus makes are logically interwoven: How do we behold the Father? By Jesus bringing us out of darkness. How does Jesus bring us out of darkness? By bearing our judgment in Himself on our behalf.
This powerful conclusion solidifies the message of great joy: Jesus is our joy in beholding the Father by bringing us out of darkness through bearing our judgment on himself. May our reflection on the purpose for which He came—to save us—increase our joy in Him every day.
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Keywords: Jesus is our Joy, John 12:44-50, Steven Wilhoit, Dwell City Church, Advent Series, Poured Out, Eternal Life, Beholding the Father, Light and Darkness, Bearing Judgment, Salvation, Last Day, Authority of Christ.