Matthew 3:17, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Short Thoughts:
And all who are trusting Christ as their life, have entered into this same fellowship as beloved sons and daughters, with whom the Father is well pleased.
Long Thoughts:
By virtue of the Christian’s union to God the Son by faith through the Spirit, they have entered—and will ever increasingly enter—into this eternal moment of intratrinitarian love.
Christian, we are folded into this fellowship, we are welcomed into this eternal “I love you” of the Father spoken to the Son in the Spirit….and by virtue of our union to the Son, so we too become beloved sons (and daughters, but the word “son” carries implications of inheritance, which is crucial not to miss) with whom He is well-pleased.”
We are intimately interwoven into the eternal experience of God’s own triune love….We are united to God the Son as we feast by faith on Him as our True Food and Drink (John 6:56), and so in Him know and love and receive the fullness of the Father (John 14:10; 16:15), and by virtue of this faith union (indeed, as the context of this union) the Spirit who is the love of God for God is poured out into our hearts enabling us both to be loved by God with God’s own love for Himself and (which I would contend is the same thing) to love God with God’s own love for Himself (John 4:14; 7:37-39; Romans 5:5).
Oh that we would enter more deeply into the knowing and believing and enjoyment of that love! For us to know, to deeply and truly know that in Christ, God’s whole heart toward us says, “this is my beloved one, with whom I am well pleased…”
Let us enter by faith into this moment! Let us be found in Christ, hidden in Christ, united to Christ, crucified with Christ, raised with Christ, bound up, interwoven, folded into the Beloved Son, that we might know ourselves loved by the Father even as the Eternal Son is loved (John 17:23)!
That we—in Christ—might hear spoken over our heads, “This too is my beloved son, this too is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” And hearing that voice sing over us from the Throne, that we would shun ever offer to anchor our worth in anything other than this: That we are disciples loved by Christ, and so loved by the Father, and so filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).
