If my redemption depended on me, I would be constantly anxious, worried, and distraught. I would be proud whenever I held up my part, and devastated when I saw my imperfection, knowing I have fallen short again and wondering whether this chance was my last, since one day my failure would be my final failure. Heaven would be unattainable for me. I am too small to bear the weight of my sins, too bad to atone for my sins.

This is precisely why the most liberating truth, the most happy-making reality, is that my redemption does not depend on me. It was accomplished by the God-Man Jesus. His perfection is for me an impossible dream. He brought to the cross infinity, a size and weight beyond measurement and comprehension. As Revelation 5 demonstrates, only Christ is worthy to accomplish redemption.

And because He did that for me, I am happy beyond expression. No matter what else in my life brings suffering and turmoil, weighed in the balance, the love of Jesus manifested on the cross for me infuses my soul with wonder and joy.

A thousand years from now I will know no sin or suffering. But I will still know the love of Christ, and know it with an ever-deepening knowledge, and I will experience an ever-deepening joy.

Christ’s death and resurrection bring me a happiness that makes every secondary joy pale in comparison. What Jesus did for me is the hinge of human history, the hinge that allowed my door to swing from death to life, from misery to everlasting happiness.

By far the worst agony in all human history was chosen by someone with the ultimate eternal perspective. And He choose the horrors and shame, Scripture says, for the cause of His own happiness.

What? Does that sound like blasphemy? Didn’t He do it out of love for all of us? Yes. Didn’t He do it out of obedience to the Father? Yes. Didn’t He make the greatest and most selfless sacrifice in human history? Yes.

How then can we say He did all this with His own happiness in mind?

We can say it because Scripture says it: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

So what Pascal said of all men was true of Jesus also: “All men seek happiness.”