For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. He wanted joy because He loved Himself and wanted our salvation. He wanted to return to Heaven. God can both love Himself and act selflessly, for the love of others.
1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares
us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2looking unto Jesus, the
[a]author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1,2. NKJV.
So Jesus set the example of loving Himself so we also look to Him and His Way of seeking for joy for the self after the end of life and suffering.
Jesus is our Way's author and the example of a man, with a human like nature, who sets the example of what and how we can follow, as humans made in God's image and likeness, with self love. Otherwise for love of others and selflessness, some may say Jesus committed divine suicide. I think He gave His life like one of David's soldiers.
Jesus is the Way, Truth and the Life for people who love themselves.
So I also mention Genesis, God made creation for His pleasure, for His joy. For the selves. And we are made for His pleasure and at the cross event, Jesus looked forwards not only to being back in Heaven with God and the angels, glorified, but to have us there, who otherwise would not be.
Genesis 1:29-31 NKJV
29And God said, “See, I have given you every herb
that yields seed which
is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
30Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which
there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Revelation 4:9-11 NKJV
9Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
10the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11“You are worthy,
[g]O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they
[h]exist and were created.”
This is all for God's pleasure, He made it all and us for Himself.
God they made creation for their pleasure, us in creation for their pleasure, to have our worship for their pleasure and joy, and this joy and pleasure is one reason maybe Paul stated Christ died on the cross, looking forwards to the joy and worship afterwards. In self love.
