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………