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HELEN SANDERS
8-5-2022
THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM
There is no way that our finite minds can understand the infinite. We can only know God through His word, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to understand the suffering that Jesus went through on the cross.
He endured every pain, every sorrow, every sickness, every lie, every evil thing that can be thought of to reconcile us back to God. He bore these things in his own body through the stripes he took and the crown that pierced his head and the blood he shed, then death itself. Crucifixion is one of the worst possible ways to die, yet he did it.
Because of the sin of Adam, man that once walked with God in the cool of the day was separated from God for eternity. The only way back was through sinless blood. Since mankind inherited Adam’s bloodline there is not one that could qualify to reconcile (pay the debt). God, in the person of Jesus, was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God knew what Adam would do and made a way for man to be reconciled to God through Jesus sinless birth, sinless life, and Jesus’ sinless precious shed blood.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he surrendered His will to God the Father. He knew what was before him and asked Father God to remove that “cup.” But he knew it had to be done. The cup wasn’t removed because of the necessity of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection to reconcile us.
How could he endure this? How could he endure the rejection, the pain, the humiliation that was to come? Hebrews 12:2-3 tells us how he was able to do this. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction (dishonor) of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
Jesus did not keep his eye on the suffering. He kept his eye on “the joy that was set before him.” He saw you and me receiving him as Savior and it made all he endured worthwhile. He saw us praying to him and worshipping him for who he is, and it made it all worthwhile.
We must also look beyond the present suffering that we endure and look towards the joy we will have when we see Jesus face to face. This is the only way that we can endure what suffering we go through. We must focus on the end of the race, and not the race itself. The race is the means to the end, not the end of the means.
Are you going through suffering and trials? Then focus on the joy that is set before us and you will be able to endure.
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