We all want to be happy. And not just superficially happy. We want to be deeply happy forever. The Bible word for this sort of happiness is blessing or blessedness. And the Bible suggests that this sort of happiness is part of God’s intention for humanity. In Genesis 1, the first thing God does after creating humanity is bless them (Genesis 1:28). At the end of the Bible, looking forward to the new creation, Revelation 22:14 decalres that the final state of saved humanity is blessed, happy: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” The desire for happiness is not a twisted or rebellious desire. Instead, the desire for happiness is how humans were made and what they were made for- to be truly blessed. And in this life of blessing, humans are being invited to share in God’s own happiness, for God himself is blessed (1 Timothy 1:11, 6:15). So Jesus teaches his followers the way to true happiness or blessing in the beatitudes: Blessed are they who…
But alongside the universal human desire for this blessedness, this profound and lasting happiness, is an obvious fact. We are not this happy. No one is. Even those who lives are broadly working face fears and anxieties and shame and pressure. The blessedness for which we all seek is most conspicuous by its absence.
To see why, I want to explore the connection of holiness and happiness. For holiness is also part of how humans are intended to be. In the garden and the new creation, blessed humanity is also holy humanity. In Revelation 21:27, we find that “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those who names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” The unholy are excluded, but those who belong to the Lamb have been made holy. Revelation 22:11, 14 “Let the holy person continue to be holy… Blessed are those who wash their robes.” Back in the garden, human beings are created in God’s image to represent him. Happiness is linked to this image bearing, this holiness. God is holy and happy, and he shares his happiness and holiness with his people.
One image that helps me understand what holiness means for human beings is a mirror. How would a mirror show something on the ceiling to a horizontal observer? It must be at a 45 degree angle, so that it points to both the ceiling and the observer. How do humans display God’s image? In order to display God (act for God) in the world, they must actually be like God. But in order to be like God they need to be oriented to God, with God. Holiness means being with, like and for God in the world, and the order matters. It is only because we are with (oriented rightly towards) God that we are able to be like God, and it is only as we are like God that we can rightly act for God in the world.
When human beings are truly holy, they are caught up into God’s blessedness, his happiness. But the converse is also true. Those who turn from God, those who are not holy, cut themselves off from the happiness of God. That is what the first human beings did. In order to try and rule for themselves and seek happiness apart from God, they reoriented themselves away from God. With that connection cut, they stopped reflecting the holy God well, becoming selfish and proud and greedy. And so they stopped representing God in the world and acted in devilish ways. With the connection cut, divine happiness, true blessedness, was also lost.
So we return to our starting place: humans beings made for, longing for, true and lasting happiness. Human beings experiencing a profound lack of this blessedness, because we are cut off from the holy God.
And that is the background that makes the gospel good news. It also explains something of the shape of the gospel. You see, we need holiness in order to obtain blessedness. And holiness starts with the connection to God, the mirror oriented to God. But our unholiness disgusts God, and he will not allow unholiness into his own holy life- for it would destroy holiness and happiness. When a terrible disease like Ebola is spreading, we don’t allow one drop of fluid from the infected person into an uninfected home. A holy God will not allow one drop of unholiness into his presence, because of the way it fractures and destroys blessed relationship and life.
So Jesus comes. God the Son coming as a human. He brings the holy happiness of God into this miserable world. We see this in his compassion and power and teaching. But supremely we see his loving rescue at the cross. There, God the Son takes our unholiness on himself, while maintaining the holy orientation towards God. All the holy revulsion at unholiness is poured out on him there. The holy God destroys unholy humanity on the cross. Jesus dies, but he rises again, with a holy humanity.
The first thing he offers is the connection to God. We are made holy by status, clothed in the holy humanity of Jesus, so that we can be oriented to God and enter his presence, and experience only his loving welcome. Despite a lifetime of unholiness, and many turnings away, the moment we turn to God we find him welcoming us with undying love. All because of Jesus. We do nothing to achieve this connection to God except trust Jesus. This loving relationship with our maker, this perfect forgiveness and acceptance, is itself a source of profound joy, a real taste of blessedness.
But there is more to come. Oriented to God, holy by status, we now have his holy happiness flowing into us, changing us to be more like him. And changed to be like him, we begin to act for him, bringing holy blessedness into the world around us. Holiness and happiness are intertwined and imperfect in this fallen world. Holiness may mean going the path of the cross.
But the ultimate goal is the new creation. The holy God will not allow unholy humanity to ruin his world forever. He intends to come and make all things holy and happy. On that day, all who have trusted Jesus will find their transformation complete. They will be holy and happy. All who have rejected Jesus will find their rejection complete- shut out from the holy God forever, and so cursed forever.
Our universal desire for blessedness, and our universal lack of blessedness, is a sign that should drive us to Jesus. He brings holy happiness back to us unhappy unholy humans. He reconnects us to God, begins to transform us now, and will complete the transformation of us and the world when he comes again. Divine blessedness is what we were made for. It is offered to us in Jesus. Choose happiness. Choose holiness. Choose Jesus.
Jots and Scribbles 