Joy in Dark Places

JOY

IN DARK PLACES

Thomas Parr

Reformation Heritage Books

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Joy in Dark Places

© 2022 by Thomas Parr

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Parr, Thomas (Thomas M.), author.

Title: Joy in dark places / Thomas Parr.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Reformation Heritage Books, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022001150 (print) | LCCN 2022001151 (ebook) | ISBN 9781601789266 (paperback) | ISBN 9781601789273 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Joy—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Happiness—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Light and darkness in the Bible. | BISAC: RELIGION / Christian Living / Spiritual Warfare

Classification: LCC BV4647.J68 P37 2022 (print) | LCC BV4647.J68 (ebook) | DDC 248.4—dc23/eng/20220210

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022001150

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022001151

For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or email address.

Contents

Introduction

1. Joy and Its Obstacles

2. Joy despite God’s Judgments in the Earth

3. Law and Conviction Necessary for Joy

4. Joy despite Fears of Spiritual Deterioration

5. Joy from Empowerment and Even Chastening

6. Joy from the Bible’s Works-Oriented Statements

7. Joy in Renouncing All Forms of Legalism

8. Joy by Quieting Your Conscience in the Cross

9. To Have Joy You Must Have Faith

10. To Have Joy You Must Obey

11. Joy in an Incomprehensible God

12. Joy and Problem People in the Church

13. Joy in Old Testament Promises to Israel

14. Joy at the Prospect of Growing Old and Dying

15. Biblical Joy versus Cheap Joy

16. Joy Even When Society Disintegrates

17. Joy at the Last Judgment

Conclusion: Our Joy and God’s Glory

Introduction

Christians often find themselves to be miserable instead of joyful, and deep down they know something is very wrong. They are aware that their loss of joy is tragic, but they think they can’t help it, that in the end it doesn’t really matter, and that having a joyful life is an unattainable ideal. This book was written to dispel this hopelessness and to kindle joy despite the multitude of things trying to snuff it out.

Gaining biblical joy means you must resolutely confront yourself: you encounter truth in God’s Word and believe it to be true in your case, then you align your emotions with it, despite your circumstances. The psalmist does this when he confronts his depressed self: Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance (Ps. 42:5). Martyn Lloyd-Jones commented on this verse, saying, You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself…. Remind yourself of God…. Then having done that…defy yourself…and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.’1 Defy yourself isn’t an overstatement. The psalmist banishes displeasure at circumstances and embraces God’s truth decisively, even aggressively. He urges the reasons for joy on himself, regardless of his hardships. This self-defiance presumes that there is something within us that resists biblical joy and must be confronted (Gal. 5:17).

Maintaining joy requires using Scripture in faith persistently. Since you resist joy yourself, you cannot rely on one experience of victory. You have to reassert truth continually. You keep praying in light of it, using its brilliance to dispel your soul’s darkness, which always wants to creep back in. Pouring oil in the lamp keeps the room lit, and stocking a stove keeps it warm. Biblical joy is fueled by the Word: I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love (Ps. 119:47). You must keep your soul well-lit and warm with continual and fresh supplies of biblical truth.

Maintaining joy also requires relying on the Spirit. It is hard to confront your wayward emotions and persistently rejoice in truth rather than groan in hardship. It goes against our fallen natures. It is hard to overcome tiredness and put off sin and every weight holding you back (Heb. 12:1). All this requires a Spirit-empowered resolve, setting your face like flint to put to death what is earthly in you. You cannot fight the flesh with the flesh, so you must continually make use of the only antidote to the flesh’s withering and enfeebling influence, the Spirit of God.

Maintaining joy requires really banking on the good news about a merciful God. You have to really believe that God loves you forever and provides all your needs. Otherwise, the clamor and din of a fallen world will win out in your soul. But the gospel assures Christians that they have peace with God by faith (Rom. 5:1), that all things work for their good (8:28), that mercy will follow them all their days (Ps. 23:6), and that nothing can separate them from God’s love (Rom. 8:35). Christians fail to have joy because they haven’t fully or consistently grasped the greatness of these things. Their emotions haven’t yet learned to harmonize with the gospel’s tones. They haven’t fully experienced the sweetness of Christ or fully known the height and depth of God’s love, at least not enough that their knowledge affects their emotions when in hardship. They don’t feel safe in Christ’s arms because they haven’t yet realized that the gospel is a flood of light for all dark places.

Dark places refers to anything that challenges our joy. Some of this book’s chapters address things that are truly dark, like the moral evil of legalism or results of the fall such as old age, dying, problem people in the church, and societal disintegration. Other chapters address things often misunderstood as dark, like law and conviction of sin. Every chapter shows how the gospel dispels anxiety over circumstances and brings profound joy instead. Whether we’re talking moral evil, calamity, or misunderstanding, the gospel is the answer.

The first two chapters of the book define joy and show some basics for experiencing it. Chapters 3–10 show how the gospel sheds light on dark places people often create when they think about God’s commands: they avoid conviction, fearfully wonder if the Bible teaches works-salvation after all, subtly rely on their performance, and don’t grasp the true freedom the gospel gives. Beginning in chapter 11, each chapter stands alone and sheds gospel light on a discrete topic that often challenges joy. Chapter 17 deals with how we can possibly have joy when we know that the last judgment will be according to our works.

This book primarily addresses Christian thinking and experience. It is about the head and the heart. Applications for us to do can be found throughout, but the focus is on whether our inner lives are really in accord with our faith and thus whether our doing really flows from that inner life. Are we shedding God’s light in our dark places and rejoicing there? The gospel is supposed to produce a soundtrack of the soul, an inner song that is described as rejoicing (e.g., Ps. 97:12; Hab. 3:18; Rom. 12:12).

When we are cast down and have changed the soundtrack, we need to reassert the biblical reasons to rejoice. As we saw above, David did so in Psalm 42. On another occasion, when all his men turned against him and were about to take his life, David strengthened himself in the LORD his God (1 Sam. 30:6). On yet another occasion, when people told him that matters were hopeless and that he should flee as a bird, he replied that the Lord was on His heavenly throne watching all people (see Ps. 11:1–4). David gained spiritual ballast in truth about God. He grounded his soul in theology and gained joy from it.

But many people don’t derive joy from theology. They strengthen themselves in films, games, food, or social connections rather than thoughts of God. These things either are or can be blessings, and we ought to rejoice in good things. But if this book is about anything, it is about instilling a spiritual habit of rejoicing in the primary and best thing—God’s salvation in Christ through the Spirit. That is the purpose of every chapter, pointing us to the dazzling light of Christ.

For someone outside of Christ, encountering dark places in life should be a profoundly disturbing experience. Dark things such as temporal judgments, an unclean conscience, and aging are foretastes of doom for unbelievers. For them, every unpleasant thing is just a sample of the Great Unpleasant of the afterlife. But Christians are encouraged to rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4) because they have a basis, even a necessity, for it in Christ. The question is whether we will truly appropriate God’s promises by faith and bank on eternal, unseen things. It is my prayer that the gospel will always brighten your life, even—especially—when you are in dark places.

1. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 21.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

—1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

It is probably not an overstatement to say that a joyless Christian is, or ought to be, a contradiction. Experiencing Christ’s salvation is supposed to have a dramatic impact on us and transform our lives into ones of holy delight. But we may not be experiencing biblical joy because we do not understand what it is. People can even be suspicious of joy, as if it were frivolous merriment. Or they might resist the idea that biblical joy is emotional at all. Others may simply not see why joy is important, and still others are among the host of people who allow difficulties to snuff it out.

In this chapter, let’s define biblical joy from Scripture and see why it is absolutely crucial. Then we’ll consider more closely the problem of dark places that can quench it, even things we may feel come from the Bible itself.

Biblical Joy

Biblical joy is an emotion of gladness. You might be tempted to think of joy as an ideal, an act of the will, or an objective reality rather than an emotional state. I suspect people think of it in these terms because they either don’t have emotional joy in God (and feel bad about their lack) or they are suspicious of emotionalism. It is true that emotionalism—minimizing doctrine and the intellect in favor of emotion—is a terrible problem in our times. But it doesn’t follow that joy itself is a problem. And if our hearts are dead like stones, we should not distort the verses that point out our deficiency.

Joy is clearly an emotional state of gladness in contrast to sorrow or misery. This definition is not just common sense but is reflected in Scripture. Jesus described joy as the opposite of sorrow when He told the disciples, Your sorrow will be turned into joy (John 16:20). Paul contrasted joy with sorrow too (2 Cor. 2:3). This fundamental starting point profoundly affects how we live. If we do not see joy as an emotion that is the opposite of misery, then our Christian life will be very different from someone who sees it as such. One person will ensure that their theology leads them to the emotional state of joy and will not be content otherwise, while the other person might tolerate deadness or even hypocritical externalism, outward show without inward reality.

Biblical joy is empowering. It strengthens you to do right in hardship: The joy of the LORD is your strength (Neh. 8:10). Jesus warned us that in the world you will have tribulation (John 16:33), but Christians are not to give up, be morose, or be outraged at trials. They are to be so joyful that they have the strength to overcome the crushing weight of hardship. Far from being of marginal importance, the emotion of biblical joy is necessary for spiritual power.

Joy comes from meditating on the Word of God. Jesus prayed, These things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves (John 17:13). Jesus says that He spoke His words to produce joy in His disciples; His purpose in giving the Word is to foster it. The prophet Jeremiah testified to experiencing that same joy: Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart (Jer. 15:16). God does not mean for such an experience to be a momentary sentiment; it is to be an eternal delight: Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart (Ps. 119:111). When Spirit-filled people nourish their souls in the Word, they gain joy. Perhaps we’re joyless because we’re Word-less. More than ever, our society provides endless opportunities to immerse ourselves in things other than the Bible, so it is entirely possible that the happiness we experience is not Word-centered and thus not biblical joy.

Biblical joy is supposed to be consistent. Rejoice in the Lord always, Paul taught (Phil. 4:4). God’s salvation is boundless, and therefore joy should be too. When we consider what God has done for us in Christ and by faith assert it in dark places, joy results; it is like standing in a dreadful cave and holding aloft a blazing torch. But if we do not meditate on Scripture, we’ll just stand in the shadows, letting it creep into our souls. We fail to have joy because circumstances are real to us and biblical doctrine is not. But fixing our gaze on Christ gives joy by the power of the Spirit.

Biblical joy should be normative in comparison to other emotions. It should not often be superseded by other emotions—and never by sinful ones. Joy isn’t the only emotion we should experience, and it’s a mistake to think that it is. God wants us to abhor evil, be convicted of sin, weep with those who weep, and sorrow over the fate of the wicked. All these emotions are right for us to feel, and sometimes such emotions should even temporarily be prominent in our hearts. After all, Jesus Himself wept when He beheld the effect of His friend’s death on his family (John 11:35) and was grieved at people’s hard hearts (Mark 3:5). Weeping and grieving are akin to sorrow; sorrow’s opposite, joy, cannot take precedence in a heart that is experiencing it. All this leads us to conclude that rejoice in the Lord always doesn’t mean be happy all the time, every second. That is a shallow understanding that doesn’t grapple with the complexity of living in a fallen world, and it doesn’t square with Scripture either. Being around someone who plasters on a smile all the time, thinking they’re obeying Philippians 4:4, would be unbearable.

Rejoice in the Lord always isn’t a simplistic thing. It does mean rejoicing in the Lord consistently, however, and also not allowing other godly emotions to move joy from the normative position. Whatever emotion may temporarily need to take center stage, it shouldn’t