You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
When Jesus came into this world, He came as a servant of man. When He died on the cross, He died a sinner’s death. When He was raised from the dead, He was a conqueror of death. And when He ascended into glory, He is the King of Kings resting at the right hand of the Almighty.
What Jesus has given to fallen man was a path that leads to life, for He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). It is through Jesus that we get to the presence of God where there is the fullness of joy. He is our pathway to enjoy pleasures forevermore.
Sin has been the great separator between man and God, but Christ has made a way for sinful man to be made alive to God and receive the fullness of joy. But what does it mean, the fullness of joy?
Joy is always rooted in something, and that something is what brings about one’s fulfillment of joy. It is not joy for the sake of joy, for then all man would be in is a constant sad disposition. But it is being in the presence of God that brings about the fullness of joy. All other “something’s” fail at satisfying the eternal longings for joy, but in the presence of Christ it is accomplished.
There is no greater satisfier of the soul than the One who created it, and there is no other place to find it than in His presence.
When we see that at the incarnation, what Jesus was doing was setting the way for man to be in the presence of God where there is the fullness of joy by becoming the pathway to life, Christmas begins to take on a deeper meaning. It’s not just about a baby in a manager, but about the presence of God and the fullness of joy.
Ponderings
You were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever and Jesus has made that possible. Do you find yourself rejoicing in the fact that Jesus has made the way for us to have eternal joy, in His presence?
Is your attitude that of David when he says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).