Sight, Love, and Joy

[py3ak]

That the Christian life is a pilgrimage, is sufficiently established. That pilgrimages are hard, we all know or will come to know by experience. But here is some encouragement for the length and difficulty of the way: the destination is worth the hardships of travel.

Richard Baxter, The Divine Life, challenges us with the question:
"Canst thou not run with patience so short a race, when thou lookest to so long a rest?"

James Durham, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, makes it obvious what the answer should be:

The kingdom will superabundantly make up all. The very first draft of this new wine will make sighing and sorrow forever to flee away. Let your souls be comforted in what you have, and in the expectation of what is coming.

Christ’s first welcome to his Father’s house will eternally banish the remembrance of all the sad things that you meet with in this world.

As Paul says, Romans 8:18, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, explains this in beautiful detail:

But in order to understand more fully that most blissful state, we think the three things are to be united here which inseparably cohere with each other in happiness: sight, love, joy. From these effloresces that ineffable glory with which the blessed will shine for ever on account of their fruition of the supreme good. For as that happiness is the full and ultimate perfection of the soul and all its faculties, so it requires the operation of all the powers, every imperfection having been removed (i.e., perfect vision, and from it supreme joy and consolation). Sight contemplates God as the supreme good; love is carried out towards him, and is most closely united with him; and joy enjoys and acquiesces in him. Sight perfects the intellect, love the will, joy the conscience. Sight answers to faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, which will then be changed into sight because we will no longer walk by faith, but by sight, beholding God face to face. Love consummated, by which we will be united with God, will answer to love begun, which sanctifies the heart. Joy answers to hope, which accompanies the fruition of the thing hoped for. Vision begets love. God cannot be seen without being loved; love draws joy after it because he cannot be possessed without filling with joy. Vision is opposed to the banishing of the damned from his face and to the most dense darkness of ignorance in which they lie; love the most furious hatred which they cherish toward him; joy to the dreadful despair and wailing which will arise from the multiplicity and continuity of the torments they will feel.

 

[Zach]

Thank you for sharing, Ruben. Your post makes me think of this passage:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:9-11 ESV)

 

[py3ak]

Well observed! That is most applicable.

 

[MW]

But here is some encouragement for the length and difficulty of the way: the destination is worth the hardships of travel.

That is a wonderfully comforting thought. In a recent study on Ps. 121, I wrote virtually the same thing:

Those words, “for evermore,” give us a vision for eternity. They show us things afar off and persuade us of them so that we will embrace them as ours. It is a blessed hope when a soul can speak of a future that lasts for ever and ever. That is the future of the believer. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” What a comfort! Verse 18 says, “comfort one another with these words.” We can say to our fellow travellers, however dangerous and difficult the journey becomes, that the final destination makes it well worth the effort.

 

[py3ak]

Thank you for posting that, Mr. Winzer. It has been of especial comfort to me to in recent days to think of Baxter's question and try to bear in mind that ultimately the time of our journeying is brief.

By any chance, is the whole study on Psalm 121 available?

 

[MW]

By any chance, is the whole study on Psalm 121 available?

Yes; would you like me to send it via email?

 

[py3ak]

That would be excellent, thank you!