Serious Joy

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” 

—Matthew 12:30-32

The love of God was made manifest in Jesus Christ. He is the exact image of God, God’s expression of love to us, fully seen in His substitutionary death on the cross for our sins. God’s love was on display for the world to see. How God could give His Son on our behalf while we were still yet enemies (Romans 5:8) is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Which is why hell is such a terrible and horrible place. God is GOD. He is the definition of justice, the perfection of passion, and the essence of love. To reject Him and pursue our own way, our own path, is to say that we are sufficient in and of ourselves without Him. That’s why the Gospel is so serious. The cross was God’s display of love for sinners who were willing to surrender the weapon of their sin and rebellion in order to take up and carry His cross. How amazing is the cross that God would bear the symbol of capital punishment that we deserved (because of our rebellion before Him) and He would instead die the death that we deserve! What wondrous love! What joy do we have in the GOD who gave Himself for us! It’s no wonder that C.S. Lewis said, “there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.” The kind of happiness and joy available through the cross of Christ should make every Christian joyfully serious. We are joyous because we have been given the unthinkable—GOD Himself. His blood was shed so that we might have a right standing and relationship with the Creator of the Universe. But, we are serious because we know that He is GOD. He is completely holy, just, and beyond all of our ability to comprehend. And because of His revelation to us through Jesus Christ, we are sobered because we know the destination of those who do not trust in Christ. And because we desire their salvation, we are sobered at the thought of what may happen to them apart from Christ; therefore we yearn, plead, and pray for their salvation. Our joy is not flippant, but serious joy, shed abroad in our hearts, living in the refreshing and life-giving knowledge that God has loved us and desires that we display His love to others by the totality of our life lived in honor and praise to Him.

In our passage for today, we have our Lord telling us that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven except one—the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God. What is that? When Christ came to die on our behalf, giving His life as a payment for our sin, He rose again in order that we might be justified (declared righteous or clean in the sight of God) by our faith in Him. But it is God’s Spirit that convicts our hearts that we are guilty of sin before God, deserve our punishment, and are in need of a Savior. When the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts that we are sinners and Jesus is the only sufficient Savior, we are duty bound to act on that conviction. We are bound to believe, to trust in His sacrifice for our sin. To reject that conviction is to reject God’s testimony that Christ came to save sinners, which means that I have no payment for my sin. I will be left to pay for that sin myself, something that I will never be able to do, and will spend eternity paying it, never, ever being released from my debt.

Are we joyously serious for the Savior? Do we need a fresh view of our Lord? May God reveal Himself through His Word to our hearts so that we may see Him anew. May His Word burn hot within us as we meditate upon His Word and consider again what He did on Calvary’s tree! And may we then resound with the hymn writer:

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Amen.