For the Joy Set Before Him.....

"For the joy set before........"

I saw this part of Hebrews 12:2 on a post by a father attached to a photograph of his son’s bride-to-be.  In the picture, she was getting ready to be married, in her gown, flowers in hand, hope and excitement in her eyes and I realized, in that moment, that at the cross, He saw His Bride with such love and adoration, that He willed Himself to die.  That He had no supernatural ability to do so, but by sheer choice, He submitted to His Father’s will.

I guess, I have often wondered, in my own musings and private thoughts, what that truly meant.  I mean, did He possess on earth the complexity of the Godhead, including some kind of “super holy spirit power” to remain sinless?  Somehow I have always thought “well maybe He did” yet I know that Scripture says that Jesus emptied Himself of glory and came to earth as a man, the firstborn from the dead; the Second Adam.

He was a man on earth…

Meant He had to go away and spend time with His Father just like you and me.  It meant He was not “all-knowing”, but just like you and me, couldn’t necessarily see around the river bend of life.  He had no easy route or one-of-a-kind anointing that made it possible.  He went into the desert and came back with the power of the Holy Spirit (same Spirit that is available to all of us) and walked out His ministry and life on earth as a man, doing what Adam did not do, in order to fulfill God’s plan. 

Yet, He IS the Father so that means that God sent Himself………..for the joy set before Him……..

He was human on earth………..made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:7).

Now I “knew” this intellectually because I read Scripture, and am familiar with the verses but it sometimes takes a while for something to go from being planted as a seed (through the reading of the Word) to bearing spiritual fruit, amen?  It has been watered in the garden of adversity and been through the refining fire and man, today it is hitting me like a brick upon my heart.  It isn't that I am taking anything away from the cross or God's love but simply a revelation that in my own human form, I doubt I could do it.  In fact, I truly doubt any of us could do it anymore than we, like Abraham, could sacrifice our own child or lay down our lives for our friends as Scripture says.  Yet my God, your God……..emptied Himself, of EVERYTHING, and for the “Joy set before Him” endured the cross……..

It talks about this in Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Means to me in the garden of Gethsemane, He took the cup because He saw the joy set before Him...even though He asked the Father repeatedly for some way out of it.   It seems, the third time He went to pray as the disciples slept, that He must have seen that joy set before Him because He comes back and wakes them up and says "let's go, it's time (Cori's paraphrase of John 18).  In any event, it does appear that something changes, doesn't it?

It also talks about how He emptied Himself in Philippians 2:7-11:

“but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Today I am truly humbled that He emptied Himself, took on the form of a human-being, and not only came to earth to fulfill His plan Himself, but endured the death and rejection He did…

………for the joy set before Him……..

Take a moment with me, to see this so clearly.  The Love of the Father so perfectly orchestrated that He would come and endure the torture, the rejection, the deaf ears that would not listen...

I can't help but take encouragement from what He has done and not lose heart.  I hope you can, too.  To know that He loves you; truly and completely loves you.

You see, Beloved, the joy set before Him was something incredible.  It was something that was so important and so costly and yet so worth the cost.  It was worth the pouring out and emptying of the Father of Himself and all that He is.  It was worth the sacrifice of His only Son, a complete reflection of Himself.  

I look back on biblical history and watch that God destoyed the earth one time by flood, wiped out generations, cast angels out of heaven, all for imperfection and for sin against Him.  Yet for the joy set before Him..........

Can you see it, yet?  Can you fathom what was so important, so worth it, that He did what he did?

The joy set before Him is

……………YOU………

God's Promises

Israel was God’s chosen people.  He told them when he made a covenant with Moses that he would deliver them and be their God:

"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.'  (Jer. 31)

We all know that this covenant was also conditional upon the law and the people’s ability to keep it - 10 commandments (which of course, we all know we were unable to, lead us into captivity, etc.)  It was a conditional covenant, one that required our cooperation or adherence in order to be fulfilled.  Later on God makes an unconditional covenant with Abraham, which does NOT rely upon man’s adherence.  (Genesis 25).  In His covenant God:

(1) Gave Abraham the promise of a great nation---primarily meaning Israel, but also includes great peoples in the line of Ishmael and Abraham's others sons. In all Abraham, had eight sons, six through his second wife Keturah after Sarah died, (Gen. 25:3). Two peoples descended from Abraham are named specially. They are an earthly group (Israel) "as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore," and a heavenly group (the true church) "as numerous as the stars in the heavens." These two "family trees" form the subject of the mainstream of redemptive history in the Bible.

(2) Abraham was chosen to be the father of numerous descendants, to be blessed personally, to be personally honored, to be a channel of blessing to others.

(3) Those who bless Abraham are to be blessed and those who curse him will be cursed. Blessings on the nations are to come through Abraham.  

(4) Reaffirmation of the promise of a Messiah was made by God to Abraham.

"Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.' So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him." (Gen. 12:1-7)

"And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, 'By myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." (Gen. 22:15-18)

God then restated the covenant to Issac (Abraham’s son)

"And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him, and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves: because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." (Gen. 26:1-5)

God again restated it to Jacob (descendant of Abraham):

"Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place, and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, 'I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you.'" (Gen. 28:10-15)

Can you see God’s plan of redemption in these promises extended to you as His spiritual family?

God is His word (John 1:1 - in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and was with God…..) means once He says it, it cannot be retracted!.  So, because man failed to adhere to the covenant God made with Israel, in order to fulfill His covenant He made an unconditional covenant to Abraham and all his descendants (of which, by Christ you are one of them!)

How?  JESUS MADE THE WAY POSSIBLE.

"But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: 'The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.' In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." (Heb. 8:8-13)

Simply put, it means that in Christ, we are entitled to the same inheritance and promises The Lord promised in the beginning!

2 Cor 1:20:  For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

I have heard this differenty most of my walk...that all the promises in God are Yes and Amen.....it is us that speaks the Amen to the glory of God though our faith!

Amen:

Strong’s 281:  281 amḗn (the counterpart of the Hebrew OT term, 543 /apeítheia, "steadfast") – properly, sure (certain). 281 (amḗn) is usually translated "amen," and sometimes "verily," "of a truth," "most assuredly," "so let it be."

Some other verses that focus on the fact that the promises made to Israel, through Christ, if we are a believer in Him, are ours:

Rom. 15:8:  For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs.

Heb. 6:13-20: For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. 

If we do not grasp the totality of what we are entitled to, and have already received by the finished work of the cross, it is no different that joining the gym and then never taking the tour, learning the amenities, but simply going there each day for only a smoothie.  The benefits are there for us, but we bypass them, sometimes out of ignorance or by simple choice.

All the promises are YES in Christ!

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