Well, Jesus is my substitute. He became sin for me that I might stand before God righteous and forgiven. It's beautifully true in 2 Corinthians 5:21. But is Jesus also my joy substitute to my hope for when I fail to delight in God as I ought to? It's a really sharp question from a listener named Jake.

Hello Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. I love the fact that Jesus is my substitute in any way that I display Christ-likeness. It's something all made possible by the cross of Christ and the Spirit's work inside of me. Christ was sexually faithful for me because I was not.

In Him I find forgiveness for my past and power to fight my lust today. Similarly, Christ was never arrogant for me so that I can be forgiven of my angry past and given the power to fight my own arrogant heart today. So I wonder if this paradigm also applies to my joy.

Is it true that Christ was fully satisfied in God for me so that I am not condemned for my sourness but so that my lack of joy in God is forgiven and I can be free to pursue my joy in God daily? When I fail, I rest in Christ, the perfect Christian hedonist who paid for all my heart's idols, and there I find renewed hope to press on in seeking after God.

In other words, is Jesus also my joy substitute? That's pretty thoughtful. I like that. I like this question a lot. But I'm sure that not all of our listeners are tracking with Jake's pretty remarkable grasp of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. So let me put some Bible verses under it and then answer his question straight up.

He's applying the doctrine of justification by saying that all the defects of my obedience to God, my shortfall in keeping God's commandments, do not keep me from being justified in the courtroom of heaven or from being vindicated and declared not guilty but, in fact, declared righteous in God's sight.

He's saying, rightly, that all this is owing to the perfect obedience and righteousness of Jesus, which through faith alone is counted as mine. In union with Christ, Christ's perfections are credited to my account so that God's wrath is taken away and he is 100% for me as I am in Christ.

So here's where Jake is getting that. 1 Corinthians 1:30, "From God are you in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Or Romans 5:19, "As by one man's disobedience, namely Adam, the many were appointed sinners, so by one man's obedience, Christ, the many will be appointed righteous." Or 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin,"—that's Jesus— "so that in him,"—in union with him—"we might become the righteousness of God." Philippians 3:9, "We are found in him,"—in union with him—"not having a righteousness of our own that comes from law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Now Jake is asking if this applies to our joy failures in the Christian life.

Joy is commanded by God. It's one of his commands. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. One of the central tenets of my life is that joy is essential for honoring God and obeying God, because we're commanded to treasure Christ and be satisfied in him and rejoice in him above all things.

So Jake is asking if we are defective in this regard, is the perfect rejoicing of Christ counted as mine, like all the other aspects of his obedience are? Now here goes my answer. So I want you to listen carefully, everybody, because I took a long time thinking about this sentence, okay, these two sentences.

Here's my answer. The sinful defects of our joy in this life are forgiven, and the righteous joyfulness of Jesus is imputed to us in the same way that all of our sinful defects as Christians are forgiven, and all of Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, namely, by our union with the perfect Jesus Christ, which we enter, that union, we enter this union by faith, and which we confirm, so we enter it by faith alone, and we confirm by Spirit-enabled holiness, including holy joy in Christ.

Now let me take a minute and unpack that answer. There are two implications of what I'm saying. One has to do with the faith by which we enter union with Christ, and the other has to do with the works of faith that the Holy Spirit enables us to do after we are in Christ, which confirm that we really are new creatures in Christ.

So one at a time. The implication regarding faith in Jesus through which we enter into union with Christ is that Christ does not perform faith for us or instead of us in such a way that no faith is needed in us to enjoy union with him. In other words, the way Jake is applying the doctrine of justification has been taken by some people to the extreme that they say, "I've read this.

I really read this. We don't need to even be believers if we are elect, because Christ believed perfectly on our behalf, and his belief is credited to us when we are unbelievers." Now, Jake is not saying that, but others have followed that logic of imputation to that unbiblical conclusion.

And the reason it's unbiblical is that faith is the instrument God uses to unite us to Christ and only in union with Christ then do his perfections count on our behalf. The faithfulness of Christ doesn't replace the requirement of faith to be united to the faithful Christ. That's the first implication.

Justification by faith does not mean that Christ's perfect belief replaces the requirement for us to believe. Here's the second implication. Christ's obedience, which is imputed to us, also does not replace the obedience we are required to have as the fruit of our union with Christ. Here's 2 Thessalonians 2, 213.

We are "saved through sanctification by the Spirit." In other words, the reality of saving faith is confirmed in sanctification— that is, in lived-out, Spirit-enabled obedience, including the obedience of joy in Jesus, treasuring Jesus, being satisfied in Jesus. Christ's holiness does not replace the requirement of our holiness. Hebrews 12, 14, "Strive for the holiness without which you will not see the Lord." That's spoken to believers.

To be sure, our holiness is not the ground of our justification. Christ's holiness is. But our holiness confirms the reality of the faith that unites us to Christ and his holiness. So what does that imply about our joy in Christ? It implies that Christ's perfect joy does not replace the requirement for us to rejoice in Christ above all else.

But because of our union with Christ, his perfect joy, counted as ours, covers all the defects in our joy. So our joy, with all its defects, is a real fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22, "a real fruit of the Spirit," and thus a real confirmation that we belong to Christ.

Amen. Thank you, Pastor John, for that clarification. And Jake, thank you for the excellent question. As you apply Christian hedonism to your life, send us questions. What doesn't make sense to you? What seems hard to apply? Send us those questions through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn Well, speaking of hard topics, self-hate.

It's a topic that gets talked about a lot in our Western culture. So how would you go about sharing the gospel with an unbelieving friend who struggles here, who struggles with self-hate? That is the question for Pastor John. On Wednesday when we return, I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then.

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