What is my greatest joy? This is a question that I ask myself constantly. I have also asked this to a fair number of people only to receive varying degrees of non-answers. It seems like a question with an immediate answer, but it just isn’t quite as obvious. If you were to ask yourself the same question, what would your answer be? Considering your answer, would you say that you live in light of the answer you have given? Or do you think, like most do, that the fuel to your joy is in what you do?
In this article, I will labour to help you answer one question: Is it your greatest joy that the Lord of history knows you?
Who is the Lord of History?
So, who is this Lord of history? As Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us, he is the Son of God (Hebrews 1:2). He is the one through whom God speaks to us in these last days (Hebrews 1:2). It is through him that the world was created (Hebrews 1:2). He is so significant that earthly time was split with respect to him. What we call B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin for the Year of our Lord) didn’t exist until he came. In the same way history began with him, it will end when he returns (Hebrews 9:26-28, 1 Peter 1:3-9). His name is Jesus Christ.
Does He Know You?
After defining who he is, the other question is, does he know you? You might know Him, but when you stand before him on the Day of the Lord, are you confident he will say to you, “Welcome good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21, 23)? Or might he say, “Depart from me for I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23)?
If you suspect the latter might be true, then you have yet to put your trust in Christ. In John 6:37, Christ says that those who put their trust in him, he will never cast out. He is the Good Shepherd; like any good shepherd, he knows his sheep (John 10:14), and his sheep know him. The true sheep of Christ know that the only way they will not lose their way is by following the Shepherd’s guidance. This means they will have no room to boast in themselves as all they will be able to boast in is God (2 Corinthians 11:31-12:10). They will confidently sing words like these:
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
it is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me.
We sing this confidently because our good shepherd, Jesus Christ, laid down his life for us, his sheep (John 10:14-18). However, the joy for those known by Christ doesn’t end there. As John 10:17 states, Christ laid down his life and took it up again. This means he is alive right now. Those he knows are not ashamed to make that known (Romans 1:16-17).
Would you cast aside your pride, accomplishments, and accolades to know Christ (Philippians 3:1-11)? Would you regard all the world offers as rubbish and deny yourself worldly pleasures to follow Christ (Matthew 16:24-28)? If the answer is no, it means that Christ doesn’t know you. But since you are reading this, it is a sign that there is a chance for you to know and be known by the Saviour, as long as it is still called ‘today’ (Hebrews 3:7-11). Pray that God will soften your heart and help you realise the enormous load you bear without Christ. He guarantees that he will give rest to those who are heavy-laden (Matthew 11:28-30). Kiss the Son now, or there will come a day when it will be too late to do so (Psalm 2:12).
If you need to know more about the gift Christ is, click the Receive Christ link at the top-right corner of our website. There, you will be presented with the gospel from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
Do You Rejoice More in What You Do for Him than in Him?
If you’re among those who are confident that they have placed their faith in Jesus and that he knows them, then, the question would be if indeed it is your greatest joy that he, the Lord of history, knows you? Is it his knowledge of you that fuels your joy of serving him or is it the priviledge of serving him that fuels your joy in Christ? Jesus clarifies that if the latter is true, there is an issue. He told His disciples that they must draw their joy in serving him from the fact that he knows them. This instruction came on the heels of the report the disciples gave him after their mission trip in Luke 10.
He had sent out the seventy-two disciples he had appointed to pave the way for him in the towns he was about to visit (Matthew 10:2). Jesus dropped the truth above when they had completed the task and came back to him expressing how proud they were of all they had accomplished (Luke 10:17). By no means did Jesus say those words to downplay the accomplishments they had made in his name. He actually appreciated what they had done (Luke 10:18-19). However, he wanted to clarify that their joy in what they do in his name should never surpass their joy in knowing that he knows them by name (Luke 10:20). He knew their hearts (John 2:24-25), and so I am confident that Christ was saying these things for the preservation of their souls.
Saint, might you be like the disciples? Who, instead of rejoicing more that God knew them, cared more for what they did for him? Yes, there was an acknowledgement of the name of Christ being the name they used to bind demons (Luke 10:17). However, their underlying source of pride was that they were somehow special. Just a chapter before they were sent out, the disciples ask Jesus if anyone but them has the right to do what he commanded (Luke 9:49-50). Have you ever caught yourself wondering if anyone but you can do what you do for Christ? Is there a tinge of jealousy or anger whenever you see others excel at serving Christ? If yes, you have probably exulted what you do for Christ above Christ himself.
Rejoice for He Knows You
My plea to you is to strive to be like the woman in Matthew 26:6-13, who spent almost a year’s wages of expensive oil to anoint Jesus (John 12:5). As we see in that account, everyone around her considered what she was doing wastefull (Matthew 26:8-9). However, the reason this account is part of history is because Christ saw that what she was doing was fueled by joy in the fact that Christ knew her.
Dear saint, you will only be able to regard everything as loss when your greatest joy is in the fact that he knows you. Out of that will come an overflow of love for him and fellow saints (Psalm 16:3, John 13:34-35) once you realise that you have no good apart from him (Psalm 16:1). My prayer is that the same joy he has in knowing you will also be yours.
