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Jesus takes pleasure in obeying God the Father; taking pleasure in obedience is the secret to having the joy of obedience.  Firstly, Jesus could take pleasure in obeying God because His substance – or whole being – was tied up in God’s Word.   He “delights” to do God’s Will.   God’s Law was not just entrenched in his heart, it was infused into His being – “within my heart” (Ps. 40:8).   It was such that the “meat” or substance of himself was to do the will of the Father and to “finish His work” (Jn. 4:34).

Secondly, Jesus was found “as a man” (Phil. 2:8).  He was the Son of God, the second person of the Triune Godhead, “de-robed” Himself of heaven’s splendour and majesty and “divorced” Himself from the presence of His beloved Father.  He “de-voided” Himself of the essence of His most-high being to become a human being in a space of time.   So that He might know our infirmities being tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Finally, Jesus took that step of absolute obedience.  Knowing all the precepts does nothing to bring about the beauty of obedience.  Jesus, in taking the final step of obedience, pleaded with th

e Father with crying and tears that “if it be possible”, God, His Father, would take the cup (the cross) from Him.  In the end, it was His cup to die a horrible and gruesome death.  What is our cup (our cross)?  True obedience brings about a personal cross that we must carry when surrendering our will to the Father.

Indeed, the “joy” of suffering is hard to see when you are going through dark times.   But the beauty of the scenery is something that only hindsight can gaze on and appreciate.   Typically, all kinds of pottery need hours of being fired in a kiln before they are done.  Take celadon (the glazed green ceramics famous in Chiangmai).   The cheap ones are not fired at such high temperatures and are cooled more quickly.   But classy celadon gets its cracked high-glaze finish from being fired at about 1,300O C for 8 to 10 hours.   The result: the cracking (veins of white lines) are richer and more beautiful.  For the joy that was set before Him (Heb. 12:2), the Lord Jesus endured the ultimate – becoming man (yet without sin) and dying for men – so that his beauty in us is obvious for all to see.   Indeed, His obedience is our salvation.  We too must obey!