“...rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” Proverbs 8:31
In learning that we are the focus of Jesus’ delight, we want to look at various historical accounts of Jesus pursuing man. He pursued Adam when he sinned. He pursued the Shulamite because He enjoyd her. He enjoys the Shulamite (drawn away), and then He runs with her to subdue the enemy and rescue the bride. He awakened the Shulamite; we are like His sleeping beauty. He pursued the prodigal son. He pursues lost people because He enjoys them: Luke 15. He pursued the woman at the well. He pursued the ten virgins to awaken a sleeping bride. He is the lion that pursues. He is a bridegroom who rejoices to run the race. For the Joy that was set before Him, He redeemed us. For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost: Luke 19:10. Jesus masters the lifestyle of joy in a joyless world.
The Gospel is really Good News! We need to understand why God created us before we can understand why he redeemed us. The Godhead experiences mutual delight and joy they cannot contain. Proverbs 8:30, “Then I was the craftsman at his side. “I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.”
Jesus is so full of joy as a response to His Father enjoying Him that He focuses His joy on the human race. People were created because the Godhead had too much joy to keep it to themselves. People were created as intimate companions and creative partners with God. People were created to uniquely participate in a heaven’s culture of intense mutual joy and creativity. In short, heaven’s party was so good, God created a class of beings that could enjoy it with him. People were created as the object of God’s joy. Proverbs 8:31, “...rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”
Man is created and placed in an ideal environment that is the perfect backdrop for the fulfillment of every desire God had designed in him. Eden’s conditions were ideal for Adam’s enjoyment. Most importantly, it was the place God and man could enjoy one another. God designed the garden with conditions that would inspire Adam’s relationship with God rather than distract him from God. God Himself communed with Adam in the cool of the morning. This relationship between God and Adam was the priority of every day and was ultimately the very reason both Adam and the garden were created.
God values free will more than the absence of evil, because He wants man to make the free-will choice to love Him. So, God places the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, giving Adam the choice to disobey.
The tree of life is in the center of the garden. As long as Adam maintained a lifestyle that kept the Tree of Life (Jesus) central, he was successful. When he allowed the other tree to distract him from the centrality of Christ in his life, he became vulnerable to temptation.
Satan tempts Adam and Eve to sin. Feeling shame for the first time, they devised a method to cover themselves and exercise human effort to earn God’s acceptance. God rejected their self-covering, and he killed an animal to provide a covering for them. This is the first example in scripture that foreshadows the death of Christ on the cross to cleanse us of sin. An innocent animal must die to pay the price for Adam’s sin in order to remove his shame. Only God can cleanse us and remove our shame. We can’t do it for ourselves! We need a Savior, and we can’t save ourselves!
When Jesus died, the veil that separated God from man was torn from the top down! God takes the initiative to cleanse and redeem us because He wouldn’t deny himself the pleasure of being with us!
We are that valuable to Him! He could not bear the thought of being forever isolated from us. He created us as the object of His joy! Since we are His joy, He was willing to go to any length to rescue us. It is like having children who are lost. The father and mother will do anything to find them and get them back in the family. Unredeemed humans are lost but infinitely valuable to God!
Photo by richard-r-schunemann-V8Gd5rQvAPA-unsplash.jpg
Comments