Beloved

Matthew 3:17
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Have you ever considered these words and how important they were to Jesus? Well, not only were they crucially important to Him, but also to us as believers in Christ. When Jesus walked on the earth, prior to His death and resurrection, He was both 100% man and 100% God. What that meant was not only would He have the feelings and emotions of God, but also those of a man. So this message from the Father was of great importance to Him as a man.

We’ve all heard it before on radio programs, television, and even from the pulpit; it’s important for dads to speak good things to their children. When they do good things, tell them. By doing this, you will help build self-confidence, strength of character, and good morals as your child grows. But is that what God the Father was doing here? Was He telling Jesus how pleased He was with Him because He had done such great and wonderful things?

The answer is no. When Jesus got baptized He had not yet begun His ministry here on earth. He hadn’t called any of the disciples to serve with Him yet. He hadn’t cleansed a leper. He had yet to cleanse the Temple, heal the blind, make the lame walk, give the deaf ears, restore the dead to life, heal the sick, or change water into wine. Nope, Jesus was just Jesus at this point in His life, a man who needed to hear that His dad was pleased with Him.

But I believe that God chose to do this, not only for the sake of the Son, but for the benefit of the believers. I believe that this was God’s grace being shown to all mankind, that while Jesus had yet to do anything for God, God was pleased with Him and called Him “beloved”. This is freeing news!

We live in a world so wrapped up in accomplishments, a society based around determining someone’s worth or significance based on what they have done. We have churches that espouse this same doctrine, that doing brings about the love of God and His blessings, and that doing is what gains approval in the eyes of God. But that’s false. It is only in our accomplishment of nothing that God is given all of the glory. Grace thrives in a world that has done nothing to earn favor. That’s the point!

God has demonstrated His grace for us in telling His Son that He is beloved, and that He is well pleased with Him, while He, the Son, had as yet done NOTHING! Friends, this is what we must grab onto for the abundant life promised by Christ: that we are in Christ, and in the Beloved we are the beloved, and as the beloved the Father is well pleased with us, regardless of what we have done or haven’t done.

The Father’s love for you and me does not rest in the works of our hands, the greatness of our ministry, or the sins of our past, but rather in the fullness of His Son and the glory of His righteousness. It’s not about doing anything, but realizing that everything is done!