And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
At the Jordan after Jesus was baptized and prayed, the heavens opened and the Father Himself spoke from heaven, owning Jesus as His dear Son who fully delights Him. That word publicly attests that He is the eternal Son of God and the anointed Messiah sent to reveal the Father and to save the world. Because He stood there as humanity's representative and head, His acceptance is the acceptance of all who repent, believe, are baptized and follow Him, who through His merits are received as God's beloved children pleasing to Him. The assurance of that voice sustained Him when Satan tempted Him to doubt His sonship and to use His power for Himself, and He overcame by trusting His Father's word. In Him heaven stands open to earth, so every sincere prayer offered in His name is accepted and answered with grace and power to overcome.
Baptism Setting and Voice
The words are the Father's own voice speaking from the highest heaven, from His throne, declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The voice was audible and powerful, at times described as thundering forth from heaven. It is the great Jehovah's testimony identifying who Jesus is.
It was spoken at the Jordan after Jesus had been baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness in behalf of the human race. As He came up out of the water He knelt on the bank and offered a prayer such as had never before entered heaven. At that prayer the heavens were opened and the glory of God in the form of a dove of burnished gold rested upon Him, hovered over Him, encircled Him, and enshrouded Him in light. The Holy Spirit descended in dove-like form and lighted upon Jesus while the glory of God shone round about Him. Christ's prayer passed through the darkness into God's presence as He prayed on the banks of the Jordan.
The scene is Christ's first act in His public ministry, when the time for that ministry had come. It was His anointing with the Holy Spirit and power for doing good, affirming Him as God's beloved Son for His mission. It marks the opening of His appointed work and a new and demanding era in His life as Messiah, when He prayed for support and strength from His Father to begin His public work. The declaration came before His wilderness temptation and testing, and the baptism with its wilderness temptations belongs to the period before He attended the wedding at Cana.
The people stood watching with eyes fastened upon Him, greatly amazed and spell-bound by what they saw. Angels hovered over the scene, desiring to carry the message, yet the light of glory and the voice issued direct from the Father to the Son bowed in prayer. Only a few of those present perceived the sign, for those who had refused the call to repentance had hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding so they did not recognize the revelation of God's glory or hear the witness. The Pharisees did not hear the voice or see the Spirit, though others heard God's voice and saw divine glory declaring Jesus to be the Son of God.
The beams of glory resting upon the Son of God and taking the form of a dove in appearance like burnished gold were emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That dove hovering over Jesus pictures His gentleness of character. It is the same gentleness He showed on earth when He was touched by the sorrows of children, listened to the story of childish woe, dried their tears, and cheered them with tender sympathetic words that hushed their sorrows and made them forget their grief.
Divine Sonship and Mission
The voice declares the close relation of Christ to the Father and attests His divine character as the Son of the Eternal and Infinite Father. It names Him the beloved Son and the only begotten Son of God, beloved by the Father and revealed as God made known in Christ. He was the Son of God from all eternity, partaker of the Father's glory before the world was, yet at Bethlehem He gained the title Son of God in a new sense by standing in the world as the Son of God allied by birth to the human race. Having assumed the liabilities of human nature and endured and resisted the temptations that beset men and women, showing ample provision for living in loyalty to the Creator while sorely afflicted and hard beset, He was not left without recognition at His baptism by John in the Jordan. As He came up out of the water the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove of burnished gold, and the voice from heaven publicly declared Him the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
It is the Father's public recognition, inauguration and anointing of Christ for His exalted mission as He entered His appointed work. The declaration marked Him as God's divine representative, sent and set apart for His work to reveal God's character to the world, displaying God's love in giving His only begotten Son. It publicly identified His exalted and holy mission as the promised Messiah, the Prince of Life, the almighty Saviour, the long-awaited Redeemer and Deliverer of Israel and Saviour of the world, though the crowd wrongly expected Him then to display human grandeur and power and human promotion. Having left the heavenly courts and clothed divinity with humanity, He came as teacher and instructor and as the True Light shining amid the moral darkness of superstition and error, bearing saving truth plainly in contrast with error. God thereby summons the world to hear and obey Christ, who stands above every human teacher and authority, so that every word He speaks is to be obeyed as law and life, a commission confirmed again at His transfiguration with the added command to hear Him as Prophet and teacher to be received and obeyed.
The pleasure expressed means His life and will are perfectly conformed to God's will. It announces a character wholly lovely and surpassing every human example. It affirms His identity and innocence in contrast with the false charges for which He was condemned. The same beloved, sinless identity stands in contrast with His suffering under condemnation as the sinner's substitute and surety, taking the penalty deserved by sinners so they could have another chance to prove loyalty to God and keep His commandments.
The heavenly voice together with the heavenly light at His baptism was evidence of His divine Sonship and mission greater than John's human testimony. That testimony was greater evidence of His divinity than a miracle. It confirmed that the Father had sent Him, standing alongside John's testimony and His own works, and with the glory surrounding Him it proclaimed Him the beloved Son in whom He was pleased. His accusers could not recognize its meaning because spiritual things are discerned spiritually, yet the Jewish leaders had received a report of the manifestation, so they were not ignorant of the evidence.
The light of the Father's glory overshadowing Jesus made this identification unmistakable in the crowd. At His baptism He is the One the Father sanctified and sent into the world. In Him the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, so that human agents were unworthy in comparison with Him, for He is the Life-giver whom the Father sealed.
Sign to John and Witnesses
The voice from heaven together with the Spirit descending like a dove and the glory of God shining round about Jesus was the distinct promised sign by which God pointed John to Jesus as the promised Messiah. At the baptism the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and lighted upon Jesus while the people stood greatly amazed with eyes fastened upon Him and angels hovered over the scene. By that resting dove and voice John knew Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and was enabled to recognize Him and to present Him to the people and to the world as the long-expected One and Saviour in whom the Father declared Himself well pleased. The heavenly sign revealed His divine character at the start of His mission and gave John what he needed to point others to Him.
That divine testimony confirms John's witness that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. The voice from heaven together with the heavenly light at the baptism was evidence of His divine Sonship and mission, greater than John's human testimony. The Jewish leaders had received a report of this manifestation, so they were not ignorant of the evidence for Jesus. To admit that John's baptism was from heaven and still deny that Jesus is the Messiah exposes inconsistency, and having been given this evidence makes their rejection culpable.
The words were spoken to inspire faith in those who witnessed the scene and to strengthen Jesus for His arduous and demanding public work now opening before Him. Though clothed with humanity and bowed in prayer, Jesus was assured by the Father's own voice of His sonship with the Eternal. That assurance sustained the Son of God for the conflict before Him.
The manifestation at the baptism was evidence Mary treasured, renewing her hope in His mission and confirming her belief that He was the promised Saviour, the Messiah, the One sent by God. The Father's heavenly testimony identifying Jesus as His beloved Son stands as a witness to Jesus' divine mission, alongside the works the Father gave Him to do. Accompanied by glory from heaven it confirms His divine identity and that the Father sent Him, while His works also bear witness to His divinity.
Strength in Wilderness Temptation
The word spoken at the Jordan remained sounding in the ears of both Jesus and Satan as a precious memory through the wilderness conflict, and remembering it Jesus rested in His Father's love and care instead of doubting. He trusted God's word rather than performing a miracle for Himself, refusing to use His divine power for His own relief to prove His Sonship. That refusal showed that reliance on God is greater proof than any sign demanded in doubt, for He had no need to convince Satan of His power or that He is the Saviour, since Satan already had sufficient evidence of His exalted station and authority.
Satan heard those words still sounding and was determined to make Christ disbelieve and doubt the testimony with If Thou be the Son of God. He insinuated distrust and ridiculed the claim in light of Christ's lowly birth in a stable, hurried flight to Egypt to escape Herod, work as a carpenter in an obscure town of Galilee, and hungry, lonely, emaciated, pale and starving condition wandering unhonored and unattended among wild beasts without companions, comfort, food, retinue of angels, glory or honor. He mocked that God would so treat His own Son and urged Him to prove His Sonship by commanding stone to be made bread to relieve His pressing hunger. Had hunger and despondency shaken His confidence so that He lost faith in His Father and worked a miracle in His own behalf, Satan would have overcome Jesus, gained victory in the whole conflict, and broken the plan of salvation.
The voice gave precious assurance that the Father approved the steps Christ was taking in the plan of salvation as humanity's substitute and surety. Together with the opened heavens and the descending dove it assured Him that the Father would unite heaven's power with His work on earth to rescue humanity from Satan and to join earth to heaven and finite people to the infinite God. These baptismal assurances remained precious to Him through suffering, conflict and ministry, sustaining His confidence in His Father's love without doubting.
Immediately after the voice Christ went into the wilderness of temptation and began His long fast, led there by the Spirit with no compulsion, not in His own behalf but in ours to overcome for us. His humanity was to be proved as one who had undertaken to stand at the head of the fallen race, to be tried and tested as its representative, to meet the foe in personal encounter and overthrow him who claimed to be head of the kingdoms of the world. This declaration at the Jordan, with its manifestation of heavenly glory proclaiming Him the Son of the Eternal, marked Him as the one Satan would personally confront in his effort to overthrow His kingdom. As He entered the wilderness the glory reflected from God's throne and from His countenance was gone, and by fasting and prayer He braced Himself for conflict and the suffering path ahead while He bore the world's sins and faced Satan alone.
The Father's approval remained true while He was alone in severe temptation, sustaining Him through suffering and ministry without doubting His Father's love. After He passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and yielded in no point, repulsing every temptation and flashing divinity through humanity, the same declaration fittingly expresses the Father's pleasure in the Son who honored Him by enduring a test no human being will ever pass through. Then God sent supernatural restoration with approval and commendation by angels sent direct from the Father to revive and comfort Him after He refused to worship Satan.
Though He is God's beloved Son, He went alone into the wilderness and met temptations more severe than any brought against others, for divine favor did not spare Him loneliness and hard trial. Those bowed down under trial and temptation who feel forsaken by friends should think of Him and not give up in despair, but reach out a trembling hand of faith and cast helpless souls upon Him to grasp the hand held out to save, because having passed over the same ground He knows how to deliver those who are tempted. Knowing His Father was pleased with Him and that God's smile of approval rested on Him also kept Him from discouragement when He patiently bore rough treatment without contending for His rights, even when His willing, uncomplaining spirit made His work needlessly hard.
Accepted in the Beloved
The Father's acceptance of Christ at His baptism was spoken to Jesus as humanity's representative and head standing between sinners and God. The declaration accepted His offering and sacrifice for past transgression. The sign was given for humanity's comfort and hope, for although sin separates people from God, through Christ's merits they are connected with God again as substitute and surety. The open heavens showed that people have access to God and that light and power are available to help them overcome sin, with heaven opened to humanity and heaven and earth again united through Christ.
In accepting His beloved Son God accepts humanity as exalted through the Son's excellence. The approval assured Jesus, as representative of the human race, that the Father accepted fallen humanity through Him and granted the race a second trial. Because Christ though sinless became sin for humanity, His sinless righteousness and perfect character could be credited to people, raising humanity's moral standing before God. His merits restored the broken connection between God and humanity.
What God spoke over Jesus belongs to every believer. Though bearing sin and weakness humanity is not rejected as worthless but through Christ's mission, merits and infinite sacrifice is accepted in the Beloved. The glory resting on Christ is a pledge of God's love, and the voice that spoke to Jesus also assures every believer that they are God's beloved child and pleasing to Him, brought back into favor and made children of God and sons and daughters of the Most High. Christ's steps of repentance and baptism were taken for people, clearing the way for their prayers to reach heaven, so every sincere prayer offered in faith in His name is accepted in the Beloved and enters the sanctuary above. That acceptance is a pledge to the whole human family that through Christ they also may be accepted, and the light from heaven that rested on Christ falls on those who pray for help to resist temptation.
The promise comes to each who will believe in Christ as personal Saviour and take the requisite steps Christ took on humanity's behalf to fulfil all righteousness — repentance, conversion, faith and baptism. By those steps believers enter covenant relation with God, are buried with Christ in baptism as an emblem of His death and raised as an emblem of His resurrection to live as newborn souls. Those who walk in His footsteps and come in God's appointed way fulfilling every requirement He has given are accepted by God in Christ, for in Christ is the only hope of salvation. Those who receive God's Word intelligently and understandingly will see the salvation of God, while merely knowing about Him is not enough and all who believe in Him must also obey His commandments.
By taking human nature with all its possibilities and uniting it with the divine while fighting its battles against Satan, Christ bridges humanity to God. His divine and human nature joins the Infinite to the human race, with human arm encircling the race and divine arm grasping the throne. This union gives special moral power to withstand every temptation including perverted appetite, so that through His merits people can gain victory over every temptation. Since sin had separated humanity from God, His self-sacrifice opened the way back into harmony with Him and opened heaven to Adam's sons and daughters, so that through faith in Him and obedience to God's commandments all who accept His offered mercy may be saved, become sons and daughters of the Most High, and be brought back to their Eden home.
Open Heaven and Prayer
The opened heavens and the Father's address at the Jordan signify that heaven was becoming more directly accessible to humanity. The communication from God's throne identified Jesus unmistakably in the crowd as the beloved Son, with the light of the Father's glory overshadowing Him, and at the same time marked heaven's opening to humanity and the connection between earth and heaven through Christ. The voice signaled that God was drawing nearer to humanity and would unite people more fully to Himself, giving them power to overcome Satan and his devices. After sin had cut off direct communion, God now communicates with humanity in Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh, and through accepting Christ as humanity's representative He signifies that He will accept people through His Son if they meet the conditions laid down in His word.
Christ's prayer on the banks of the Jordan passed through the darkness into God's presence, and heaven opened in response to assure that heaven is open to human petitions through Christ. With His human arm encircling the human race and His divine arm grasping the throne of the Infinite One, He as Surety and Substitute has opened the way to the Father, overcoming the separation from God caused by sin. The glory given to the Son is shared with all who believe in His name, so the same glory that flashed from heaven's threshold and the glory in Jesus shines toward every tempted person, and their petitions are heard in heaven because God answered His petition.
Because Christ prayed as humanity's representative and took the steps of repentance and baptism for people, God answered Him, clearing the way for their prayers to reach heaven. That answer is a pledge that God hears and accepts the prayers of every believing soul, so every sincere prayer offered in faith in His name is accepted in the Beloved, and through Jesus as Intercessor and Substitute believers receive grace and power. As Christ's prayers ascended through the dark shadow of the powers of darkness, so believers' prayers cleave through Satan's hellish shadow and enter the sanctuary above. Through Jesus even the most needy, sinful, suffering, despised and weakest may approach the Father and take hold of His strength and make peace with Him, with fragrance given to their prayers, and God's words to Jesus assure those who come in His name that they are His beloved children pleasing to Him.
The glory resting on Christ is a pledge of God's love, showing that human prayer can reach God and be accepted in heaven because Jesus has restored the connection between earth and heaven. That light from heaven that rested on Christ also falls on those who pray for help to resist temptation, and the same glory is revealed to every earnest seeker of Christ. Through Christ's merits they can gain victory over every temptation, for Jesus joins humanity to divinity and brings moral power to withstand temptation while honoring and elevating humanity, and the open heavens show that light and power are available to help overcome sin. By His taking human nature and fighting its battles against Satan while united with the divine, Christ bridges humanity to God, enabling believers to be lights to the world and opening the way for every bereaved heart, since as sin-bearer He takes sins in His body.
The voice and the Spirit like a dove of burnished gold resting on Christ after close communion with God were God's richest blessing and great honor, a more than usually clear revelation of His presence and compassion and love and assurance of His blessing, witnessing to sonship and commission to a special work. God gave this revelation to prepare Christ for the storm of temptation that fell at once afterward, and He does the same for His people, so the Spirit's witness to adoption and a special commission are nearly always followed by a day of sore trial that darkens the soul and tempts to doubt God's goodness. Such blessing must not lift the receiver in self-estimation but lead to exalt God, walk humbly with Him, and draw near by prayer and fasting, knowing sufficient strength for the trial is given and victory comes in Christ who was tempted in all points as we are and conquered.
Prophetic Timing and Voices
The anointing by the Holy Spirit at baptism marks the moment Christ became the Messiah in A.D. 27, fulfilling the 69 weeks of prophecy. That voice at the Jordan was the first of three occasions on which God publicly testified to Jesus from heaven, followed by the voice at the transfiguration and a third voice near the close of His ministry shortly before His betrayal. Together these three testimonies affirmed His mission and Messiahship, confirmed that He spoke the truth, and declared His divinity as the Son of God, the Messiah Israel rejected. By contrast, at the cross no voice from heaven spoke in His favor while He endured abuse and mockery alone.
The same heavenly voice was heard again at the transfiguration, with the added command to hear Him. That addition marked Him as the Prophet and teacher to be received and obeyed, confirming His authority for His work as teacher and instructor revealing saving truth as the True Light amid moral darkness, superstition and error. Since God had already testified that Jesus was His Son, to ask for further proof of His sonship puts God's word to the test. The testimony already given is the ground of trust in God rather than a demand for additional evidence.
Example and Moral Claim
Though wholly righteous and sinless, having never sinned, Christ submitted to baptism not to confess any personal guilt but to take on humanity's behalf the steps sinners must take in conversion. In doing so He fulfilled all righteousness and showed how to become children of God and heirs of heaven. His baptism and the patient endurance that followed stand as an example for all to follow in receiving baptism themselves.
Heaven's declaration of Him as God's beloved Son, well pleasing to God, was a pledge for humanity, since He prayed on our behalf and through Him acceptance with God is secured. Those who receive the principles of truth and obey them are to have life, spirit, inclinations and habits conformed to His life and to God's will, for His life and will are perfectly pleasing to God. This should move believers to strive earnestly and persistently to please the Saviour and to live so that His death for them is not in vain.
Unlike Isaac, who was spared at the last moment, Jesus as the well-beloved Son given to die for the sins of the world received no reprieve and no angelic announcement that He need not die. He endured humiliation, mockery and crucifixion to the end. God's giving of His beloved Son to suffer and die in this way is the greatest proof of His love, and it lays a corresponding claim upon people for complete, willing obedience and whole-hearted devotion.
At the Jordan after Jesus was baptized and prayed, the heavens opened and the Father Himself spoke from heaven, owning Jesus as His dear Son who fully delights Him. That word publicly attests that He is the eternal Son of God and the anointed Messiah sent to reveal the Father and to save the world. Because He stood there as humanity's representative and head, His acceptance is the acceptance of all who repent, believe, are baptized and follow Him, who through His merits are received as God's beloved children pleasing to Him. The assurance of that voice sustained Him when Satan tempted Him to doubt His sonship and to use His power for Himself, and He overcame by trusting His Father's word. In Him heaven stands open to earth, so every sincere prayer offered in His name is accepted and answered with grace and power to overcome.
Baptism Setting and Voice
The words are the Father's own voice speaking from the highest heaven, from His throne, declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The voice was audible and powerful, at times described as thundering forth from heaven. It is the great Jehovah's testimony identifying who Jesus is.
It was spoken at the Jordan after Jesus had been baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness in behalf of the human race. As He came up out of the water He knelt on the bank and offered a prayer such as had never before entered heaven. At that prayer the heavens were opened and the glory of God in the form of a dove of burnished gold rested upon Him, hovered over Him, encircled Him, and enshrouded Him in light. The Holy Spirit descended in dove-like form and lighted upon Jesus while the glory of God shone round about Him. Christ's prayer passed through the darkness into God's presence as He prayed on the banks of the Jordan.
The scene is Christ's first act in His public ministry, when the time for that ministry had come. It was His anointing with the Holy Spirit and power for doing good, affirming Him as God's beloved Son for His mission. It marks the opening of His appointed work and a new and demanding era in His life as Messiah, when He prayed for support and strength from His Father to begin His public work. The declaration came before His wilderness temptation and testing, and the baptism with its wilderness temptations belongs to the period before He attended the wedding at Cana.
The people stood watching with eyes fastened upon Him, greatly amazed and spell-bound by what they saw. Angels hovered over the scene, desiring to carry the message, yet the light of glory and the voice issued direct from the Father to the Son bowed in prayer. Only a few of those present perceived the sign, for those who had refused the call to repentance had hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding so they did not recognize the revelation of God's glory or hear the witness. The Pharisees did not hear the voice or see the Spirit, though others heard God's voice and saw divine glory declaring Jesus to be the Son of God.
The beams of glory resting upon the Son of God and taking the form of a dove in appearance like burnished gold were emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That dove hovering over Jesus pictures His gentleness of character. It is the same gentleness He showed on earth when He was touched by the sorrows of children, listened to the story of childish woe, dried their tears, and cheered them with tender sympathetic words that hushed their sorrows and made them forget their grief.
Divine Sonship and Mission
The voice declares the close relation of Christ to the Father and attests His divine character as the Son of the Eternal and Infinite Father. It names Him the beloved Son and the only begotten Son of God, beloved by the Father and revealed as God made known in Christ. He was the Son of God from all eternity, partaker of the Father's glory before the world was, yet at Bethlehem He gained the title Son of God in a new sense by standing in the world as the Son of God allied by birth to the human race. Having assumed the liabilities of human nature and endured and resisted the temptations that beset men and women, showing ample provision for living in loyalty to the Creator while sorely afflicted and hard beset, He was not left without recognition at His baptism by John in the Jordan. As He came up out of the water the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove of burnished gold, and the voice from heaven publicly declared Him the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
It is the Father's public recognition, inauguration and anointing of Christ for His exalted mission as He entered His appointed work. The declaration marked Him as God's divine representative, sent and set apart for His work to reveal God's character to the world, displaying God's love in giving His only begotten Son. It publicly identified His exalted and holy mission as the promised Messiah, the Prince of Life, the almighty Saviour, the long-awaited Redeemer and Deliverer of Israel and Saviour of the world, though the crowd wrongly expected Him then to display human grandeur and power and human promotion. Having left the heavenly courts and clothed divinity with humanity, He came as teacher and instructor and as the True Light shining amid the moral darkness of superstition and error, bearing saving truth plainly in contrast with error. God thereby summons the world to hear and obey Christ, who stands above every human teacher and authority, so that every word He speaks is to be obeyed as law and life, a commission confirmed again at His transfiguration with the added command to hear Him as Prophet and teacher to be received and obeyed.
The pleasure expressed means His life and will are perfectly conformed to God's will. It announces a character wholly lovely and surpassing every human example. It affirms His identity and innocence in contrast with the false charges for which He was condemned. The same beloved, sinless identity stands in contrast with His suffering under condemnation as the sinner's substitute and surety, taking the penalty deserved by sinners so they could have another chance to prove loyalty to God and keep His commandments.
The heavenly voice together with the heavenly light at His baptism was evidence of His divine Sonship and mission greater than John's human testimony. That testimony was greater evidence of His divinity than a miracle. It confirmed that the Father had sent Him, standing alongside John's testimony and His own works, and with the glory surrounding Him it proclaimed Him the beloved Son in whom He was pleased. His accusers could not recognize its meaning because spiritual things are discerned spiritually, yet the Jewish leaders had received a report of the manifestation, so they were not ignorant of the evidence.
The light of the Father's glory overshadowing Jesus made this identification unmistakable in the crowd. At His baptism He is the One the Father sanctified and sent into the world. In Him the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, so that human agents were unworthy in comparison with Him, for He is the Life-giver whom the Father sealed.
Sign to John and Witnesses
The voice from heaven together with the Spirit descending like a dove and the glory of God shining round about Jesus was the distinct promised sign by which God pointed John to Jesus as the promised Messiah. At the baptism the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and lighted upon Jesus while the people stood greatly amazed with eyes fastened upon Him and angels hovered over the scene. By that resting dove and voice John knew Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and was enabled to recognize Him and to present Him to the people and to the world as the long-expected One and Saviour in whom the Father declared Himself well pleased. The heavenly sign revealed His divine character at the start of His mission and gave John what he needed to point others to Him.
That divine testimony confirms John's witness that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. The voice from heaven together with the heavenly light at the baptism was evidence of His divine Sonship and mission, greater than John's human testimony. The Jewish leaders had received a report of this manifestation, so they were not ignorant of the evidence for Jesus. To admit that John's baptism was from heaven and still deny that Jesus is the Messiah exposes inconsistency, and having been given this evidence makes their rejection culpable.
The words were spoken to inspire faith in those who witnessed the scene and to strengthen Jesus for His arduous and demanding public work now opening before Him. Though clothed with humanity and bowed in prayer, Jesus was assured by the Father's own voice of His sonship with the Eternal. That assurance sustained the Son of God for the conflict before Him.
The manifestation at the baptism was evidence Mary treasured, renewing her hope in His mission and confirming her belief that He was the promised Saviour, the Messiah, the One sent by God. The Father's heavenly testimony identifying Jesus as His beloved Son stands as a witness to Jesus' divine mission, alongside the works the Father gave Him to do. Accompanied by glory from heaven it confirms His divine identity and that the Father sent Him, while His works also bear witness to His divinity.
Strength in Wilderness Temptation
The word spoken at the Jordan remained sounding in the ears of both Jesus and Satan as a precious memory through the wilderness conflict, and remembering it Jesus rested in His Father's love and care instead of doubting. He trusted God's word rather than performing a miracle for Himself, refusing to use His divine power for His own relief to prove His Sonship. That refusal showed that reliance on God is greater proof than any sign demanded in doubt, for He had no need to convince Satan of His power or that He is the Saviour, since Satan already had sufficient evidence of His exalted station and authority.
Satan heard those words still sounding and was determined to make Christ disbelieve and doubt the testimony with If Thou be the Son of God. He insinuated distrust and ridiculed the claim in light of Christ's lowly birth in a stable, hurried flight to Egypt to escape Herod, work as a carpenter in an obscure town of Galilee, and hungry, lonely, emaciated, pale and starving condition wandering unhonored and unattended among wild beasts without companions, comfort, food, retinue of angels, glory or honor. He mocked that God would so treat His own Son and urged Him to prove His Sonship by commanding stone to be made bread to relieve His pressing hunger. Had hunger and despondency shaken His confidence so that He lost faith in His Father and worked a miracle in His own behalf, Satan would have overcome Jesus, gained victory in the whole conflict, and broken the plan of salvation.
The voice gave precious assurance that the Father approved the steps Christ was taking in the plan of salvation as humanity's substitute and surety. Together with the opened heavens and the descending dove it assured Him that the Father would unite heaven's power with His work on earth to rescue humanity from Satan and to join earth to heaven and finite people to the infinite God. These baptismal assurances remained precious to Him through suffering, conflict and ministry, sustaining His confidence in His Father's love without doubting.
Immediately after the voice Christ went into the wilderness of temptation and began His long fast, led there by the Spirit with no compulsion, not in His own behalf but in ours to overcome for us. His humanity was to be proved as one who had undertaken to stand at the head of the fallen race, to be tried and tested as its representative, to meet the foe in personal encounter and overthrow him who claimed to be head of the kingdoms of the world. This declaration at the Jordan, with its manifestation of heavenly glory proclaiming Him the Son of the Eternal, marked Him as the one Satan would personally confront in his effort to overthrow His kingdom. As He entered the wilderness the glory reflected from God's throne and from His countenance was gone, and by fasting and prayer He braced Himself for conflict and the suffering path ahead while He bore the world's sins and faced Satan alone.
The Father's approval remained true while He was alone in severe temptation, sustaining Him through suffering and ministry without doubting His Father's love. After He passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and yielded in no point, repulsing every temptation and flashing divinity through humanity, the same declaration fittingly expresses the Father's pleasure in the Son who honored Him by enduring a test no human being will ever pass through. Then God sent supernatural restoration with approval and commendation by angels sent direct from the Father to revive and comfort Him after He refused to worship Satan.
Though He is God's beloved Son, He went alone into the wilderness and met temptations more severe than any brought against others, for divine favor did not spare Him loneliness and hard trial. Those bowed down under trial and temptation who feel forsaken by friends should think of Him and not give up in despair, but reach out a trembling hand of faith and cast helpless souls upon Him to grasp the hand held out to save, because having passed over the same ground He knows how to deliver those who are tempted. Knowing His Father was pleased with Him and that God's smile of approval rested on Him also kept Him from discouragement when He patiently bore rough treatment without contending for His rights, even when His willing, uncomplaining spirit made His work needlessly hard.
Accepted in the Beloved
The Father's acceptance of Christ at His baptism was spoken to Jesus as humanity's representative and head standing between sinners and God. The declaration accepted His offering and sacrifice for past transgression. The sign was given for humanity's comfort and hope, for although sin separates people from God, through Christ's merits they are connected with God again as substitute and surety. The open heavens showed that people have access to God and that light and power are available to help them overcome sin, with heaven opened to humanity and heaven and earth again united through Christ.
In accepting His beloved Son God accepts humanity as exalted through the Son's excellence. The approval assured Jesus, as representative of the human race, that the Father accepted fallen humanity through Him and granted the race a second trial. Because Christ though sinless became sin for humanity, His sinless righteousness and perfect character could be credited to people, raising humanity's moral standing before God. His merits restored the broken connection between God and humanity.
What God spoke over Jesus belongs to every believer. Though bearing sin and weakness humanity is not rejected as worthless but through Christ's mission, merits and infinite sacrifice is accepted in the Beloved. The glory resting on Christ is a pledge of God's love, and the voice that spoke to Jesus also assures every believer that they are God's beloved child and pleasing to Him, brought back into favor and made children of God and sons and daughters of the Most High. Christ's steps of repentance and baptism were taken for people, clearing the way for their prayers to reach heaven, so every sincere prayer offered in faith in His name is accepted in the Beloved and enters the sanctuary above. That acceptance is a pledge to the whole human family that through Christ they also may be accepted, and the light from heaven that rested on Christ falls on those who pray for help to resist temptation.
The promise comes to each who will believe in Christ as personal Saviour and take the requisite steps Christ took on humanity's behalf to fulfil all righteousness — repentance, conversion, faith and baptism. By those steps believers enter covenant relation with God, are buried with Christ in baptism as an emblem of His death and raised as an emblem of His resurrection to live as newborn souls. Those who walk in His footsteps and come in God's appointed way fulfilling every requirement He has given are accepted by God in Christ, for in Christ is the only hope of salvation. Those who receive God's Word intelligently and understandingly will see the salvation of God, while merely knowing about Him is not enough and all who believe in Him must also obey His commandments.
By taking human nature with all its possibilities and uniting it with the divine while fighting its battles against Satan, Christ bridges humanity to God. His divine and human nature joins the Infinite to the human race, with human arm encircling the race and divine arm grasping the throne. This union gives special moral power to withstand every temptation including perverted appetite, so that through His merits people can gain victory over every temptation. Since sin had separated humanity from God, His self-sacrifice opened the way back into harmony with Him and opened heaven to Adam's sons and daughters, so that through faith in Him and obedience to God's commandments all who accept His offered mercy may be saved, become sons and daughters of the Most High, and be brought back to their Eden home.
Open Heaven and Prayer
The opened heavens and the Father's address at the Jordan signify that heaven was becoming more directly accessible to humanity. The communication from God's throne identified Jesus unmistakably in the crowd as the beloved Son, with the light of the Father's glory overshadowing Him, and at the same time marked heaven's opening to humanity and the connection between earth and heaven through Christ. The voice signaled that God was drawing nearer to humanity and would unite people more fully to Himself, giving them power to overcome Satan and his devices. After sin had cut off direct communion, God now communicates with humanity in Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh, and through accepting Christ as humanity's representative He signifies that He will accept people through His Son if they meet the conditions laid down in His word.
Christ's prayer on the banks of the Jordan passed through the darkness into God's presence, and heaven opened in response to assure that heaven is open to human petitions through Christ. With His human arm encircling the human race and His divine arm grasping the throne of the Infinite One, He as Surety and Substitute has opened the way to the Father, overcoming the separation from God caused by sin. The glory given to the Son is shared with all who believe in His name, so the same glory that flashed from heaven's threshold and the glory in Jesus shines toward every tempted person, and their petitions are heard in heaven because God answered His petition.
Because Christ prayed as humanity's representative and took the steps of repentance and baptism for people, God answered Him, clearing the way for their prayers to reach heaven. That answer is a pledge that God hears and accepts the prayers of every believing soul, so every sincere prayer offered in faith in His name is accepted in the Beloved, and through Jesus as Intercessor and Substitute believers receive grace and power. As Christ's prayers ascended through the dark shadow of the powers of darkness, so believers' prayers cleave through Satan's hellish shadow and enter the sanctuary above. Through Jesus even the most needy, sinful, suffering, despised and weakest may approach the Father and take hold of His strength and make peace with Him, with fragrance given to their prayers, and God's words to Jesus assure those who come in His name that they are His beloved children pleasing to Him.
The glory resting on Christ is a pledge of God's love, showing that human prayer can reach God and be accepted in heaven because Jesus has restored the connection between earth and heaven. That light from heaven that rested on Christ also falls on those who pray for help to resist temptation, and the same glory is revealed to every earnest seeker of Christ. Through Christ's merits they can gain victory over every temptation, for Jesus joins humanity to divinity and brings moral power to withstand temptation while honoring and elevating humanity, and the open heavens show that light and power are available to help overcome sin. By His taking human nature and fighting its battles against Satan while united with the divine, Christ bridges humanity to God, enabling believers to be lights to the world and opening the way for every bereaved heart, since as sin-bearer He takes sins in His body.
The voice and the Spirit like a dove of burnished gold resting on Christ after close communion with God were God's richest blessing and great honor, a more than usually clear revelation of His presence and compassion and love and assurance of His blessing, witnessing to sonship and commission to a special work. God gave this revelation to prepare Christ for the storm of temptation that fell at once afterward, and He does the same for His people, so the Spirit's witness to adoption and a special commission are nearly always followed by a day of sore trial that darkens the soul and tempts to doubt God's goodness. Such blessing must not lift the receiver in self-estimation but lead to exalt God, walk humbly with Him, and draw near by prayer and fasting, knowing sufficient strength for the trial is given and victory comes in Christ who was tempted in all points as we are and conquered.
Prophetic Timing and Voices
The anointing by the Holy Spirit at baptism marks the moment Christ became the Messiah in A.D. 27, fulfilling the 69 weeks of prophecy. That voice at the Jordan was the first of three occasions on which God publicly testified to Jesus from heaven, followed by the voice at the transfiguration and a third voice near the close of His ministry shortly before His betrayal. Together these three testimonies affirmed His mission and Messiahship, confirmed that He spoke the truth, and declared His divinity as the Son of God, the Messiah Israel rejected. By contrast, at the cross no voice from heaven spoke in His favor while He endured abuse and mockery alone.
The same heavenly voice was heard again at the transfiguration, with the added command to hear Him. That addition marked Him as the Prophet and teacher to be received and obeyed, confirming His authority for His work as teacher and instructor revealing saving truth as the True Light amid moral darkness, superstition and error. Since God had already testified that Jesus was His Son, to ask for further proof of His sonship puts God's word to the test. The testimony already given is the ground of trust in God rather than a demand for additional evidence.
Example and Moral Claim
Though wholly righteous and sinless, having never sinned, Christ submitted to baptism not to confess any personal guilt but to take on humanity's behalf the steps sinners must take in conversion. In doing so He fulfilled all righteousness and showed how to become children of God and heirs of heaven. His baptism and the patient endurance that followed stand as an example for all to follow in receiving baptism themselves.
Heaven's declaration of Him as God's beloved Son, well pleasing to God, was a pledge for humanity, since He prayed on our behalf and through Him acceptance with God is secured. Those who receive the principles of truth and obey them are to have life, spirit, inclinations and habits conformed to His life and to God's will, for His life and will are perfectly pleasing to God. This should move believers to strive earnestly and persistently to please the Saviour and to live so that His death for them is not in vain.
Unlike Isaac, who was spared at the last moment, Jesus as the well-beloved Son given to die for the sins of the world received no reprieve and no angelic announcement that He need not die. He endured humiliation, mockery and crucifixion to the end. God's giving of His beloved Son to suffer and die in this way is the greatest proof of His love, and it lays a corresponding claim upon people for complete, willing obedience and whole-hearted devotion.