HAPPINESS: A Biblical Perspective
God is the “happy” God of reality. In 1 Tim 6:15 we see God described as the “blessed and only Sovereign”—in the Greek the word for “blessed” is makarios¸ which could be translated happy. God is happy within his own Triune nature and has no needs from outside of Himself to find a happiness: His happiness is not contingent upon His creation, though He freely and sovereignly chooses to delight in His Creation.
Before there was a universe, there was God who is happy within Himself. Out of an overflow of love within the Trinity, and for His own good purposes, God created the universe and us to know Him and share in His love. Here, is where our hearts find happiness and joy: knowing and loving the God who is there. We were made to enjoy God and enjoy His good gifts in love for Him. This is the happy life.
Happiness is not an accident of Darwinian evolution, something not designed for our universe. It is something God has set up and called His people to partake in as they “rejoice in the Lord” (Phil 3:1). It is not a trick of our genes so that we will be more likely to survive or reproduce, but a gift from God to draw us near to Him.
Much of the sadness and lack of happiness we experience is a result of our sin or other people’s sin. We feel a sadness due to it: “We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.” (Isaiah 59:11). Through our willful rebellion against God and His design, we lead ourselves and others into further sadness.
In this life, happiness is often fleeting, and there are many times where we must take the hard, sad, path to do what is right and pleasing to God—we willing forsake temporary fleeting happiness to experience a joy and happiness that is found in knowing God (Psalm 16:11). Jesus himself was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). In love he came to save us from our sin and bring us into everlasting life, and into a world where the sorrows of sin are forever removed. God Himself will “wipe away ever tear from their eyes” (Re 21:4).
Therefore, as Christians we say that happiness is not an accident, but a designed state that we as image-bearers of God were made to experience and find its source in God. Everyone experiences some happiness in this life and such happiness is a gift from God (Acts 14:17), meant to lead us to God who is the source of happiness. True and lasting happiness is only found in knowing and love God and only Jesus Christ can save us from sin—sin leads to an eternal lack of happiness in hell.
There is a happiness that results from being forgiven of sin. “Blessed (also translated as HAPPY) is the one whose transgression is forgiven” (Psalm 32:1a). As Randy Alcorn notes, this is a happiness based on upon a rational and metaphysically real reality. It is one offered to us in Christ.
There is a right and wrong way to pursue or obtain happiness. This is not true is there is no God, because subjective morality would be true.
Only God can satisfy the human heart and lead us to lasting happiness (Ps 16:11).
