Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Does God’s Joy Become My Joy?

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How Does God’s Joy Become My Joy? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back to the podcast. Well, God is happy in himself, amen.
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  And God wants us to be happy in himself. Amen. And if
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  you start to apply biblical categories here to this topic, you begin to ask
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  this question, how does God's joy become my joy? That's our question today,
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  A really good one from a listener named Heather in Chicago. Hello,
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  Patrick Johnny, thank you for this podcast. She writes, My question for
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  you is about the nature of who God is and how he relates to our
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  joy. Can you explain to me from the Bible the person and work of
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  the Holy spirits as the love and joy shared between the Father and son.
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  I don't quite understand this without making his person seem more like a force or
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  a cosmic energy. And then how does the person of the Spirit enable us
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  to experience God's joy within us? Is seems like those two realities connect to
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  the person of the Spirit and the joy in us, but it doesn't connect
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  from me, not yet. Can you help me understand these two dynamics from
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  the Bible. I think it's crucial as we try to understand our relationship with
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  the Holy Spirit that we fix it firmly in our minds that we are dealing
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  with a distinct person. Just fix it so that whatever else is uncertain,
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  don't let that be uncertain. A person, a divine person, the third
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  person of the Trinity. In fact, I've been struck recently, even before
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  I heard this question, I've been struck recently how the New Testament encourages us
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  to enjoy fellowship with each of the three divine person of the Trinity. Not
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  just fellowship with God in the abstract or general way, but fellowship with God
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  the Father, Fellowship with God the Son, fellowship with God the Spirit.
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  For example, First Corinthians one nine says that God called us into the fellowship
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  of His Son. Second Corinthians thirteen fourteen refers to the fellowship of the Holy
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  Spirit. First John one three says our fellowship is with the Father. So
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  we're taught to have fellowship, communion, personal relations with the Father, the
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  Son, the Holy Spirit. And you know what book I would recommend,
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  Tony John Owen of communion with God. Nobody I don't think in the history
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  of the Church has helped people come to term with what it means to relate
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  to each person of the Trinity. Like John Owen, I would recommend of
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  communion with God by John Owen. Now that implies that the Holy Spirit is
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  a person someone you can relate to talk to, which is exactly the way
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  Jesus spoke of him. He says in John fourteen twenty six, the helper,
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  the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name he and
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  yes it is masculine, not neuter to agree with spirit Pnuma. He will
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  teach you all things. So he is distinct from the Father because the Father
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  sends him, and he's a teacher when he comes, not just a force
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  or gas and the apostle. Paul picks up on this very reality of the
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  Spirit as distinct from the Father and a very personal teacher in First Corinthians two
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  ten and thirteen, where he says, the Spirit searches everything, even the
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  depths of God. What an amazing statement. The Spirit searches the depths of
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  God, and we impart things of God inwards, taught by the Spirit.
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  So, just like Jesus, Paul picking it up and continuing what Jesus taught.
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  So Jesus and Paul treat the Holy Spirit not as an impersonal force or
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  power, but as a person who comes and teaches and in dwells believers and
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  who can be related to personally. Then consider that Jesus said in John four
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  twenty four God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in
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  spirit and in truth. In other words, God is not material, He's
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  not physical, He is spirit, Which means when we say that one of
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  the persons of the Trinity is the Spirit of God, we are saying he
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  is the spirit of a spirit. Now what does that mean? What does
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  it mean to say the spirit has the spirit? We are not saying he's
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  the image of the Spirit, or the radiance of Spirit, or the law
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  gooss or word of Spirit, all of which are said about the sun.
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  So what are we saying when we refer to the Holy Spirit of God,
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  who is himself as Trinity Spirit. Here's what Edward says, Jonathan Edwards,
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  who has helped me so much, quote the word spirit in scripture, when
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  used concerning minds or spirits, is put for the disposition, inclination, or
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  temper of the mind. For example, when if he Shans four twenty seven
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  says be renewed in the spirit of your mind, the disposition or temper of
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  your mind. So I suppose I'm still quoting Edwards So I suppose when we
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  read of the Spirit of God, who we are told is a spirit,
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  it is to be understood of the disposition or temper or affection of the mind.
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  Now, the sum of God's temper or disposition is love, for he
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  is infinite love Verchoun four eight, end of quote. Now when he says
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  as that we must resist, we must resist. As Heather pointed out,
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  the temptation to think of love as a mere force or power rather than a
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  person. Edwards is not denying the personhood of the Holy Spirit when he talks
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  of him as the temper or the disposition or the love of God. Edwards
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  is simply trying to put all the biblical pieces together. The New Testament doesn't
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  just come out and tell us in a doctrinal statement the Holy Spirit is a
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  person. Doesn't say that, or the person is the very embodiment of the
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  love of God. The various statements of the New Testament point in this direction.
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  But you have to put the pieces together, which means we need to
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  be careful. Oh how careful lest we go off the rails and become heretics.
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  I think all of our human efforts, I'd say this in general,
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  now about Edwards, myself or anybody else. All of our human efforts to
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  conceptualize the relationships within the Trinity need to confess that we see through a glass
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  darkly until we know even as we are known, which means be careful.
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  Now here's another point pointer to the question that Heather's concerned about. First,
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  John four twelve and thirteen points to the Holy Spirit as the love of God
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  in us. Here's what it says. If we love one another, God
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  abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this,
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  we know that we abide in Him and he in us, because He has
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  given us of his spirit. So if you put all that together, God
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  in us, his love in us, his spirit in us. All seemed
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  to point to the fact that the way the love of God abides in us
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  is by his spirit. That is his disposition, his temper, that is
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  his love in person abiding in us by the person of the Holy Spirit.
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  Now, the peace that remains to be added for Heather's question is joy.
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  And this is added by pondering that the love that God is from all eternity
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  is not a sacrificial love between the Father and the Son. They are infinitely
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  beautiful infinitely worthy of each other's love, which means that they delight in each
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  other infinitely. That's what their love is. This is my loved son in
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  whom I am totally delighted. That's my paraphrase of well pleased. To say
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  that the love of the Father and the Son for each other is embodied in
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  the Spirit is to say that the Spirit, in his essence, is God's
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  joyful love, loving joy in person. Because God's loving from eternity has been
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  his enjoying from eternity. That's how the persons of the Godhead have related to
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  each other. They're not disappointed. They don't have to overcome any obstacles to
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  delight in each other. So when Jesus says my joy I give to you
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  John fifteen eleven, or when he says enter into the joy of your Master
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  Matthew twenty five eleven, he is welcoming us into the fullest experience of the
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  son's love for the Father. And it seems right then to say this is
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  experienced by being filled with the Holy Spirit, who is the very person who
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  is the love of God and the joy of God. Paul speaks in First
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  Thessalonians one six of the joy of the Holy Spirit, the joy which the
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  Holy Spirit gives by coming himself to live in us as the very love and
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  joy of God. So I pray that God would help you, Heather,
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  and all of us as we humbly and carefully try to faithfully put the pieces
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  of God's precious word together. Amen. Yeah, these are some profound pieces
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  too, some of the most precious pieces, precious realities that we can ever
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  try to wrap our brains around. To think you Pastor John, and thank
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  you for joining us today. If you want to ask Pastor John, email
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  your questions to us at ask Pastor John at Desiring God dot org. Well,
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  we will be back next week to look at the challenges posed by our
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  own personal doubt. Can we struggle with doubt and experience joy in God as
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  well? That's Monday Thursday we look at how to fight off the inner skeptic
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  when we have doubts about what we read in the Bible. Monday? Can
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  I doubt God and have joy in Him? On Thursday? Fighting off the
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  inner skeptic inn Bible reading. I'm your host, Tony Rinkie. We'll see
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  you next week.