Latest / Reformed Thinking / Christ’s Joy in Us: Abiding Obedience and the Fullness of Joy (John 15:11)

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Christ’s Joy in Us: Abiding Obedience and the Fullness of Joy (John 15:11) · Reformed Thinking

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Hello and welcome to the show. We are well.
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We're kicking off a specific type of analysis today that we
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call reformed thinking. Right.
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And for those listening, this means we are taking a stack of
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theological expositions. These are pretty dense
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historical materials and we're working to extract the I guess
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you could go with the operating system for the Christian life.
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Yeah, operating system is that is the right metaphor here
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because we aren't, you know, we aren't looking at abstract ideas
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today or just philosophy for the sake of philosophy.
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No, not at all. We are looking at the code, the
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actual code that dictates how a human being functions under
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pressure. And specifically today we are
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looking at the concept of joy. But, and I want to be super
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clear right up front for you listening, we are not talking
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about joy in the marketing sense, right?
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Right. Like we aren't talking about the
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feeling you get when you when you buy a new car or when your
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team wins the Super Bowl. That is not it.
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No, we're not discussing joy as a consumer product.
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Or, you know, a mood swing based on your blood sugar.
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We are looking at joy as a theological weapon.
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A weapon. I like that.
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Yeah, because our source material today anchors on the
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Gospel of John, specifically John 15.11, and we are viewing
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it through the lens of Reformed theology, specifically adhering
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to the Westminster Confession. So the mission for this deep
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dive is to figure out how objective doctrine, like literal
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words on a page, can create a subjective reality inside of you
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that actually survives trauma. Which is a huge claim, but the
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source material draws a really sharp line in the sand, right
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Immediately. It suggests that the modern
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cultural definition of joy is fundamentally broken.
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Because it's fragile, yes. Because it is incredibly
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fragile, we tend to think, culturally speaking, that joy
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comes from autonomy. Right, like freedom from rules.
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Exactly. Freedom from obligations is that
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whole Live Your Truth model. We assume that autonomy equals
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happiness. But the text we're analyzing
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today, they argue the exact reverse of that.
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They do. They argue that autonomy
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actually leads to disintegration.
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The central claim we are unpacking is that commandments,
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meaning rules, structure divine law.
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They are not the enemies of joy, they are actually the only
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viable delivery mechanism for it.
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Which, let's be honest, is a really hard sell in our current
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cultural climate. Oh, it's a massive hill to
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climb. But let's look at the data.
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Let's get into the text. The core verse is John 15 point
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Livin. Jesus says these things.
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I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy
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may be made full. Now, on a surface reading that
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sounds like I don't know a greeting card sentiment.
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Yeah, a cross stitch pillow. Right, but the sources push us
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to look at the timestamp of that quote.
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Timestamp changes the entire meaning.
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It changes everything. If Jesus says this at the
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wedding at Cana, it's a toast. It's a nice thought during a
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party, but he doesn't say it there.
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He says this in the upper room. It is Thursday night.
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This is the farewell discourse. We really need to set the scene
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here for you listening because upper Room can sound well, can
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sound cozy to modern years, like a nice loft space.
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It is the complete opposite of cozy.
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It is a bunker. The atmosphere is incredibly
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heavy. Jesus is just washed their feet,
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which is shocking enough, but he also just announced that one of
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them is going to betray. Him and Judas has just walked
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out the door. Yes, Judas is gone.
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He walked out into the night to sell Jesus to the authorities.
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The religious leaders are mobilizing.
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The cross is literally less than 24 hours away.
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The sources describe this moment as the gathering storm.
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That's a great way to phrase it. You have a room full of men who
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are about to lose their leader. They're going to lose their
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security. Christ's visible presence is
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going to be ripped away from them and they're going to face
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absolute hatred from the world. And in that specific window of
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time, when the walls are literally closing in, Jesus
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decides to bring up joy. Which seems, frankly, almost
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clinically insane, or at least wildly insensitive.
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Yeah, I am leaving. You are going to be haunted
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down, so let's have a chat about Joy.
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But that is the first key insight from the material.
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The sources argue that Jesus is stripping joy of its fair
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weather definition. If joy is only for the good
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times, it is completely useless to these men right now.
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So he isn't offering them a distraction.
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No, he is handing them equipment for the trial.
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He is showing them a joy that is totally compatible with
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suffering. So if we are looking for a
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definition to operate with, this is not the joy of a lottery
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winner. This is the joy of a soldier in
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a foxhole who knows the war is won, even if the artillery
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shells are still dropping. That is a brilliant analogy, and
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to understand how that mechanism actually works, we have to look
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at the metaphor he uses right before verse 11.
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The vine in the branches. Yes, John 15.1 through 10.
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I am the true Vine and my father is the Vine dresser.
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Now we have all seen the stained glass windows depicting this.
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It's a very common image. But the reformed lens on this is
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quite distinct, isn't it? It is.
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The Reformed view focuses heavily on the difference
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between the visible and the invisible church.
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The imagery Jesus uses here is about vital union versus mere
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proximity. Let's break that down.
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Jesus calls himself the true Vine.
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Right, which is a deliberate contrast to Israel in the Old
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Testament. Israel is friggily called a
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vine, but a failed 1A vine that yielded bad grapes.
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Jesus is stepping in and saying I am the true source of life.
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I am what Israel failed to be. But then there's the scary part
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of the text. The Vine dresser.
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The Father. Yeah, the Vine dresser is work
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in the vineyard and he has a knife he is cutting.
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And the text mentions 2 very different types of cutting.
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Yes, there is pruning and there is removal and the distinction
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there is literally life or death.
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Let's. Talk about pruning first.
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The sources point out that pruning is painful.
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It involves a blade. It involves loss.
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Parts of the branch are severed, but the intent of the vine
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dresser is fruitfulness. He cuts the living branch
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specifically so it will produce more grapes.
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So for you listening, when you hit a wall, say it's a financial
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collapse or a health crisis or deep grief, The Reformed view is
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not that God has forgotten you. Absolutely not.
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The reformed view is that the vine dresser is actively
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cultivating you. Those painful providences are an
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act of attentive, deliberate love.
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He is clearing away the dead leaves so you can grow.
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Precisely. But then you have the other side
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of the blade. The branches that quote do not
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abide. What happens to them?
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They are taken away, they are withered and they are burned.
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This is verse 6, and this is where the theology gets
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incredibly heavy. The sources note that you can be
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in the vine visibly, meaning you can be sitting in a church Pew,
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you can be baptized, you can be taking communion.
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But if there is no actual SAP flowing.
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If there's no vital union. Then you are just Deadwood.
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That is the warning passage theology that Reformed thinkers
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point to. It is designed to shatter our
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spiritual complacency. Just being close to the things
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of God is not enough. Proximity is not union.
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You need abiding. Yes, and Jesus defines abiding
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not as some mystical empty your mind meditation.
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He defines it as his words taking up residence inside the
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disciple. Which leads us directly into the
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actual mechanics of joy in verse 11.
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Yes, let's look at the first part of that verse, section one
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of our outline the objective source.
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Jesus says these things I have spoken to you.
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He points to a record of words. And this is where we have to do
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a little bit of grammar analysis.
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Yeah, because the Greek behind this phrase is critical.
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The verb used is liloluca. Liluca OK, let's unpack that for
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those of us who haven't looked at a Greek textbook recently.
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Sure, that verb is in the perfect tense.
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And the significance of the perfect tense is what exactly?
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Well, the perfect tense in Greek signals an action that was
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completely finished in the past, but it has ongoing permanent
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results in the present. It implies absolute finality.
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So Jesus is not saying I am currently chatting with.
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You right, he is saying. I have spoken, the action is
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done, the deposit of truth is finished, and it stands forever.
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Man, that feels like a direct shot at a lot of modern
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spirituality. It is a massive polemic against
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it. Modern spirituality is often
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obsessed with the fresh word. Right, you hear people say.
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God told me this morning to do this.
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Or they are constantly waiting for some subjective inner nudge
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to tell them what is true. And the sources are very hard on
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this kind of mysticism. They argue that if your joy
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depends on a fresh, subjective whisper from God every single
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day, your joy is going to be as volatile as your mood because
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your psychology fluctuates. You wake up tired and suddenly
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you feel like God is silent. Exactly.
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But if your joy is anchored in these things I have spoken,
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meaning the objective, fixed historical Canon of scripture,
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then your joy has a floor. It's a concrete foundation that
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exists entirely outside of your own head.
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This aligns so perfectly with the Westminster Confession,
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specifically Chapter 1. Yes, the doctrine of the
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sufficiency of Scripture. The idea that God's truth is
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wholly committed to writing. The Reformed position adheres to
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the fact that the former ways of God revealing his will.
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So dreams, visions, direct auditory voices, those have
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ceased because the Canon of scripture is full.
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And people push back on that, saying it limits God.
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But the sources argue it doesn't limit God, It secures the
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believer. You don't have to guess God's
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mood today. You don't have to read the tea
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leaves of your circumstances, you just read his word.
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The instrument of joy is external data before it ever
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becomes an internal emotion. That is a great way to put it.
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The polemic here isn't just against modern mysticism, by the
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way. It is also a historical polemic
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against Roman Catholicism. Because of where the authority
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lies. Right.
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For the Reformed thinker, authority lies in the spoken and
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written word of Christ, not in an evolving church tradition,
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not in a magisterium that can add new doctrines over the
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centuries. Joy is tethered specifically to
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these things, the instruction given by the vine.
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So step one for the listener. Stop looking inside yourself to
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find joy. Look at the text.
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Look at the objective source. Yes.
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Which brings us to Step 2, which is the substance of the joy
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itself. Jesus says that my joy may be in
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you. And we have to look closely at
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those pronouns, he says. My joy in the Greek it's ha
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chara ha me joy, the mine. He is being incredibly specific.
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He isn't saying I'm going to give you some joy or I hope you
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feel joyful. He is distinguishing it from any
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other kind of happiness. He is not giving them a generic
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human emotion. He's literally importing his own
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psychological and spiritual state into them.
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Which forces a really tough question.
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What on earth is Jesus joyful about in the Upper Room?
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Right, because he is about to be arrested, beaten and crucified.
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He isn't happy about the physical pain of the cross.
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No, he is not a masochist. The sources dig into this and
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define Christ's joy as fundamentally Trinitarian.
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Trinitarian joy. OK, let's look at that.
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It is the Son's settled, eternal delight in the Father.
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It is the joy of perfect, unbroken communion.
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Even when the earthly circumstances are horrific, like
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facing the wrath of God on the cross, the underlying union
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between the obedient Son and the loving Father remains the
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bedrock of His existence. That is the joy He is offering.
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Contrast that with how the world defines joy.
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The Greco Roman definition of the word Cara joy was almost
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always linked to outward prosperity, or at least the
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absence of suffering. If you were healthy and wealthy,
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you had Cara. But the Johannian definition,
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what John is writing down here, is totally different.
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It is a durable gladness that persists straight through the
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cross. Think of Hebrews 12, who, for
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the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.
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It is a relational confidence. It's the oil of gladness that
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the Psalms talk about. It is the absolute confidence of
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being perfectly loved by the Father.
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And the staggering claim of John 15 is that this specific joy,
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Christ's own internal reality, is transferable.
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Transferable to you and me, yes. But transferable?
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How is it like a software update?
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Just a download from heaven. This brings us back to the
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doctrine of union with Christ. Back to the vine metaphor.
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Think about how SAP works. The SAP that is generated in the
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main vine flows directly into the attached branch.
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The branch doesn't have to work hard to manufacture its own SAP.
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Right. It just has to remain connected.
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It receives it. If you are united to Christ by
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faith. His actual life, His peace, His
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joy begins to circulate through your spiritual veins.
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It takes up residence in you. The preposition in the text is
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in in you. It's an interior reality.
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It's not just Jesus giving us a good example to follow
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externally. It is a divine impartation.
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The Westminster Standards talk about this in chapters 13 and 18
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regarding sanctification and assurance.
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The grace and the gladness are poured from the head of the
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Church, Christ, down to all the members.
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Honestly, that is a massive relief.
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It means I don't have to conjure up this feeling by trying really
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hard. I am a vessel.
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I am not a generator. You are a recipient.
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That is the beauty of grace. But, and this is a big but,
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there is a method to keeping that connection clear and open.
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And this is where the text gets very controversial for modern
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ears, yes. Let's jump into Section 3, the
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method Jesus says in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you
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will abide in my love. That word if it is a conditional
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clause and that makes a lot of reformed folks nervous.
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It sounds like a legal transaction.
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If you behave well enough then I will love you.
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It sounds like the bad, toxic religious experience that so
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many people are actively running away from right now.
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Just straight up legalism. Right, but the sources make a
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vital critical distinction here. You have to understand the
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difference between the logic of a contract and logic of a
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covenant. Let's unpack that.
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What is the logic of a contract? In a contract, you work in order
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to get paid. You perform a task and the
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employer owes you a wage. If we apply that to God, you
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obey the rules to earn His love. Which is the definition of
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legalism? Yes, and legalism absolutely
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kills joy because if you think you are doing well, you become
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arrogant and proud, and if you know you are failing, you fall
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into complete despair. You are always wondering if you
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have done enough to keep the contract valid.
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So what is covenant logic then? How is it different?
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Covenant logic is familial. It is filial.
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Think of a healthy relationship between a father and a child.
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The child does not obey the rules of the house in order to
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become the son. He is already the Son by birth.
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Exactly. The relationship is established.
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But if that son rebels, if he spits in his father's face or
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continually breaks the rules of the house, he is not going to
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enjoy the relationship. He disrupts the harmony.
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So the son doesn't lose his sonship, but he loses the joy of
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the fellowship. Precisely, we do not obey God to
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get loved. We obey God because we are
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already loved. Obedience is not the purchase
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price of abiding in Christ. Obedience is the actual shape
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that abiding takes. We abide in Christ's love in the
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exact same way that Christ abides in the Father's love, by
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doing His will. Right.
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And this addresses another major error.
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We talked about legalism, but the opposite of that is
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antinomianism. The belief that freedom in
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Christ means there are no rules anymore.
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I'm under grace, so the law doesn't matter.
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Right. Lawlessness, the sources argue.
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You simply cannot have my joy without these things I have
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spoken. You can't divorce the feeling of
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joy from the commandments of the text.
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Because sin creates disorder. It creates disorder, it creates
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guilt and it creates shame, and those things are the ultimate
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joy killers. You can't be living an active,
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unrepentant rebellion against God and expect to feel the
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warmth of His joy. You are pinching the hose.
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You are clogging the channel of communion.
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That is a great visual obedience clears the debris out of the
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channel and this also confronts 1/3 error, which is probably the
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most common 1 today. Moralistic therapeutic deism.
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The idea that God is basically a cosmic Butler whose only job is
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to make sure I am happy and comfortable.
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Yes, the false idea that joy equals self actualization or the
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absence of hardship. But the context of the upper
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Room destroys that. Jesus is promising the absolute
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fullness of joy on the very eve of the worst suffering
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imaginable. Joy is the presence of God
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within the hardship. It is not the absence of the
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hardship. If you buy into therapeutic
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deism, the moment suffering hits, your faith collapses
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because God didn't keep you comfortable.
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So we have the source, which is the objective word.
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We have the substance, which is Christ's own planetarian joy.
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We have the method, which is obedient, abiding.
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That brings us to Section 4, the goal.
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The goal is stated at the end of verse 11 that your joy may be
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made full. Let's talk about the grammar of
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grace here, because there's another verb to look at.
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Yes, the Greek verb is ploshtio may be made full.
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And what do the sources say about that?
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First they point out that it is in the passive voice.
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Meaning the disciples aren't the ones doing the filling.
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Right. You do not fill yourself with
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joy. You are acted upon.
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The agent doing the filling is God himself.
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God pours the joy into you as you abide in the vine.
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It takes the pressure off. I don't have to pump myself up.
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And second, it is an aorist subjunctive verb which points to
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a decisive completion and intended maturity.
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So we need to define what fullness really means in this
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context, because I think when a lot of Christians hear the
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phrase fullness of joy, they expect constant ecstasy.
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They expect to be spiritually high 24 hours a day.
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Right emotionalism. Emotionalism is a trap.
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It mistakes intensity for fullness.
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People think, well if I'm crying during worship or if I am
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shouting then my joy must be full.
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But emotions spike and crash. A full cup doesn't splash around
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erratically, it is stable. That is exactly what the sources
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argue. Fullness implies durability.
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It implies a capacity that has been reached and settled.
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It is a heavy, grounded satisfaction.
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It is not a leaking bucket. No.
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This concept of fullness directly opposes 2 extremes.
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On one side it opposes emotionalism, like we just said,
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but on the other side it opposes spiritual complacency.
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The. Idea that it's OK to just settle
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for a dry, joyless Christianity. Right.
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The frozen chosen mentality where duty is everything and
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delight doesn't matter. The source has traced this
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entire biblical theology of joy through redemptive history to
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show that joy is not just a garnish on the plate of
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salvation. It is the main course.
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It is the design of the whole system.
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Think about the Old Testament. Joy erupts right after
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deliverance. Look at Exodus 15, the song of
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Moses after crossing the Red Sea.
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And the Psalms, Psalm 16 says in your presence is fullness of
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joy. Yes, and the prophets.
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Isaiah constantly links the coming salvation with
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everlasting joy that will crown the heads of the redeemed, and
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sorrow and sighing will flee away.
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And then it climaxes. In the New Testament, joy is
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listed as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, and Romans 14
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says the Kingdom of pride is not a matter of eating and drinking,
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but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
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So if you are a believer and you are chronically, persistently
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joyless, you are living far beneath your privileges.
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You are missing out on the very thing Christ secured for you.
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Let's pivot to application. We have a listener out there,
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let's call them the learner persona.
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They are tracking with us. They buy the theology.
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They understand the difference between a contract and a
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covenant. They get the Greek passive
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voice. They are exhausted.
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Right. They are dealing with real life.
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Maybe they are suffering. How do they actually move this
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from abstract theology into concrete daily practice?
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What should they do? The sources outline a very clear
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path for application point #1 pursue the source, not the
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feeling. That is so counterintuitive
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because when I feel terrible, my immediate instinct is to try and
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fix the feeling when. We treat joy like it's a
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painkiller. We think I'm hurting.
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I need to hit a joy right now to numb this, but the text says joy
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is a byproduct. It is the exhaust fume of
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abiding. So you don't chase the smoke,
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you fuel the engine. Yes.
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So the diagnostic question for the listener is not how can I
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make myself feel better. The question is, am I abiding in
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the vine right now? You have to repent of self
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reliant spirituality. You look at the vine.
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You don't sit there staring at your own branch, hoping a great
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pops out. Exactly.
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Application .2 flows right out of that.
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Use the means of grace. Because joy is tethered to the
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word. Practical instruction here.
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Read your Bible, but don't just read it for information or to
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win a theological debate. Read it for Communion.
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Read it to hear the voice of the Vine dresser.
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And the sacraments play a role here too, right?
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Absolutely. In Reformed theology, the Lord's
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Supper is the visible word. It is feasting on the vine.
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It is a physical means by which the Spirit nourishes that union
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and feeds your joy. OK application .3 repair your
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joy leaks. This is the uncomfortable one,
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but it is so necessary. We have to address the reality
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of sin clogging up our communion with God.
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Because if there's a blockage in your joy, you have to check the
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obedience. Are there secret sins in your
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life? Are you nursing bitterness
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against someone in your church? Are you being dishonest in your
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business? You cannot have warm, joyful
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communion with the Holy God while you are secretly hugging a
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sin in the dark. The sources are blunt about
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this. Confess it, cut it off.
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Restored fellowship restores joy.
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It is amazing how much psychological and spiritual
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weight just evaporates when you finally come clean with God.
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It restores the flow of the SAP and then finally application .4.
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This is for the person who is really hurting the weary St.
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The person who feels like the knife is cutting them to pieces
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right now. Yes, the instruction is do not
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interpret your pain as God's hatred.
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That is so huge because when the diagnosis comes back bad or the
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bank account hits 0, the immediate lie the enemy whispers
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is God has abandoned you. But if you know the theology of
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John 15, you can reinterpret the pain.
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It is not punishment, it is the vine dresser pruning you.
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If you think the nice means God hates you, you will fall into
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total despair. But if you know the knife is
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held by a Father who loves you infinitely, you can endure it.
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You can. Have that dynamic the Apostle
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Paul talks about. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
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Because Christ's joy is completely compatible with
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tears. It brings us all the way back to
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that image of the Upper room finding peace in the middle of
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the storm. It does.
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It is a cohesive, beautiful system, source, sphere, method
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and goal. The Word, the indwelling Christ,
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obedient, abiding and divine fullness.
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It's not magic. It is sound theology applied to
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real life. It is the urgent hope for a
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world that is just drowning in pragmatism.
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I want to leave you, the listener, with one final
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provocative thought from the sources as we wrap up this deep
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dive. We mentioned Psalm 16.11 earlier
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in your presence is fullness of joy, right?
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Think about the timing of Jesus speaking these words in John 15.
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He speaks these words to secure your joy right before He walks
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out to the garden and then to the cross to pay for.
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It the timing is everything. Think about the cost for Jesus
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to ensure that you could have the absolute fullness of God's
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presence. He had to experience the
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absolute terrifying absence of it.
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He took the darkness so we could have the light.
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He had to scream. My God, my God, why have you
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forsaken me into the dark? He took the blade of the pruning
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shears to the neck, taking the wrath of the vine dresser so
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that we could be grafted in and receive the SAP.
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That is the gospel. If he was willing to pay that
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agonizing of a price for your joy, what does that tell you
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about the value he places on it? Your joy was bought with blood.
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It is not a side dish, it is the point.
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Amen. It was bought with a price.
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Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.