Question 34.
Wasn’t Jesus motivated to redeem mankind because He was seeking His own joy?
Answer 34.
What was the motive that induced Jesus to sacrifice Himself for us? Was it really just for the sake of His own joy, as Christian Hedonism teaches?
Motive 1: for the profit of others
Paul teaches that his own motivation for ministry is based on imitating Jesus’ motive for ministry: the profit of the many.
Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1Corinthians 10:33,11:1)
Motive 2: a servant’s heart of selflessness
Further, Paul teaches that Christ did not go to the cross looking only to please Himself by obtaining joy, but His going to the cross was not even self-pleasing but was selflessly motivated.
Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me. Romans 15:1-3
Motive 3: a sense of duty toward God
Jesus taught us that he was motivated to minister and to die out of a sense of duty to God.
Jesus said
to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word." (John 8:42,43)
but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. (John 14:31)
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. (John 4:34)
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." … He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." (Matthew 26:39,42)
And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will." (Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42)
Motive 4: Jesus was moved to action by a heart full of mercy
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:5,6)
For He [Jesus] had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" He said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you." (Mark 5:8, 19b)
When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road. (Mark 10:47, 52)
Mary prophesied in song regarding the motive behind why Jesus was to be born
: "AND HIS MERCY IS UPON GENERATION AFTER GENERATION TOWARD THOSE WHO FEAR HIM." (Luke 1:50)
Zacharia prophesied over Jesus also saying the two motives for Jesus’ life were mercy and to guide mankind into the way of service and peace:
"To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:74-79)
Even the Apostle Paul said one of his motives for serving in the ministry was that he had received mercy from God, which is why he did not lose heart:
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:1)
Motive 5: Compassion
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?" But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:11-13)
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:35-38)
When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14)
Moved with compassion
, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." (Mark 1:41)
When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:34)
Motive 6: Love
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34,35)
"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21)
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Even though Jesus did not come on His "own initiative", but was under orders from God, He did get the commandment from God that He had free choice as to whether to lay down His own life for the sheep. Out of love for the sheep and motivated by duty to the Father, Jesus laid down His own life and then took it up again.
"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." (John 10:17,18)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35,38,39)
Motive 7: Future Joy
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:12)
A Motive "Beyond All These Things"
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)
Certainly it is acceptable to be motivated in part by the anticipation that God will reward good behavior and that this will result in joy. But it would be silly and naïve to assume there is only one biblical motive behind all actions and thoughts. God was, and is, motivated by a rich diversity of reasons, affections, emotions, responses, and desires (love, compassion, mercy, duty). Men too are capable and blessed by similar, but imperfect, diverse motivations.
In truth, those who act only out of consideration for their own pleasure are to be pitied, for they are missing the vast array of affections and godly motives that swayed our Lord to act, and therefore, they are missing a tremendous number of opportunities to serve others and the Lord. Similarly, I confess to being angered by the teachings of some which contradict the Word when they claim that Christ had but one motivation and that we too should have only one motivation.
There is not generally much written in the Bible telling us to examine our motives. In those comparatively few instances where we are told to look within ourselves to determine why we do what we do, the motive most often cited as being "bad" and improper (so as to root it out of ourselves) is selfishness and literally hedonism, doing things for our own profit or pleasure. This is perhaps the ultimate irony: Christian Hedonism calls us to always act on the basis of seeking our own pleasure with all our strength as our highest motive, yet, the Scriptures do not often ask us to consider our motives, and when they do, hedonism (pleasure seeking) is the one thing that is most strongly condemned as an improper motive.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3)
