There are different aspects in Scripture of the relationships in which the Lord Jesus was with His Father in Manhood, some of which are found in the types and prophecies of the Old Testament. In the Psalms the Lord is viewed as Man in relation to God, as seen in Psalm 16, while in Psalm 2 He is brought before us as God’s Son and God’s King. Isaiah, in different chapters, writes of the Lord as the Servant of God, and as the Arm of the Lord, the Spirit of God resting upon Him as God’s anointed. Among the many ways in which the Son of God is presented to us, we shall look at Him as God’s beloved Son, the One in whom His pleasure is found.
“Thine only Isaac”
When God tried Abraham, He said to Him, “Take now they son, thine only Isaac, whom thou lovest…and offer him…for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Gen. 22:2). Here we have the relationship of father and son, which very pointedly indicates the relationship of the Father and the Son. Moreover, Isaac is referred to as Abraham’s only son, surely bringing out the relationship of an only-begotten of a father. Isaac was not the only son of Abraham, but he enjoyed a peculiar place in sonship that Ishmael did not have. Jesus as God’s only-begotten Son had not only this relationship in time, but it was His in eternity, for He lay in the Father’s bosom in relationship with Him “before the foundation of the world.
God also indicated His deep affection for His Son when He said to Abraham of Isaac, “whom thou lovest.” It was the love that rested upon one who enjoyed a peculiar place of relationship and affection in the father’s heart as being his appointed heir. How blessedly these things express what Jesus was, and is, as the loved Object of His Father, loved in eternity, and responding to His affections before the world was. This is the One whom the Father, in the greatness of His love for us, offered up as a sacrifice, a burnt offering, that we might be accepted in all the efficacy of the perfect sacrifice of infinite worth.
“Israel loved Joseph”
The special place that Jesus as God’s Son has in His Father’s affections is also typified by Jacob’s love for Joseph. Israel had twelve sons, but there was one who had a special place in his heart, and this was Joseph, and the affection of Jacob for Joseph was shown in that “he made him a coat of many colours” (Gen. 37:3). God in His wondrous grace has brought His saints into relationship with Him as children and as His sons, and has given us “the Spirit of His Son…crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6), but we must never forget that the Son has His own peculiar place in the bosom of the Father that is His alone. His eternal relationship with the Father as the eternal Son is only His, but He has come into Manhood as Son that we might be sons with Him before the face of the Father.
Even as the coat of many colours belonged only to Joseph, so there are glories that belong to the Son alone. As Son of Man He will come out “in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels’ (Luke 9:26). Personally, the Son is “the Firstborn of all the creation,” and “the Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15, 18), and this as God’s “dear Son” (verse 13); and if we are His brethren, according to the Father’s purpose and grace, He takes His place as “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). We may have the privilege of sitting with Him upon His throne, but the throne is His, and He is the appointed heir of all things, in all things having the pre-eminence.
“Solomon...the Lord loved Him”
David had many sons, but it was of Solomon that the Lord said, “He shall build an house for my Name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:13-14). Later, in 2 Samuel 12, we read that David called his son’s name “Solomon: and the Lord loved him…and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord” (verses 24, 25). Not only have we Solomon shown to be loved of David, but as loved of the Lord, and the relationship of son to father spoken of, for in this Solomon was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is quoted in regard to this in Hebrews 1:5.
As the loved one of Jehovah, Solomon was chosen to sit on the throne of his father, and to build the house of Jehovah, being also the figure of Him who is Son over God’s house. Even now we see God’s beloved Son sitting upon His throne, waiting for the time when He shall sit upon His own throne. He too is the One who shall build the temple of the Lord. Long after Solomon’s temple had been destroyed, it was prophesied of Messiah, the beloved Son of God, “Behold the Man whose name is The BRANCH…He shall build the temple of the Lord: even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a Priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zech. 6:12-13).
“This is my beloved Son”
Leaving the types of the Old Testament we come to the Son of God in Manhood in this world, and find Him about to emerge on His public ministry in service to His God and Father for the blessing of men. John Baptist, His forerunner, had been preaching repentance, and many had been baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Jesus desired to be associated with the godly remnant of Israel, and asked to be baptized of John, but “John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee” (Matt. 3:14), for John understood something of the greatness of the Lord’s Person, but understood not the reason for His desire to be baptized. After Jesus had said, “thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness,” John baptized Jesus. Those who had come to John for baptism confessed their sins, but Jesus had no sins to confess, nevertheless, it was a righteous thing in His eyes to be associated with those who had done what was right in the sight of God, for He was Man as well as God.
Immediately Jesus had been baptized, “the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him” (verse 16). Like Noah’s dove that found no rest for the sole of its foot but on the ark, so the Holy Spirit found One upon whom He could rest where all around was waste and ruin. Then there was “a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” The Father’s eternal pleasure was in His Son, but the Son had come into the world, and associated Himself with those who sought God, and the Father’s pleasure was found in Him down here, and in what He had done at this time. It was surely too the expression of the Father’s confidence in His Son as His Anointed, the Spirit as the seal of the Father in relation to all that He was about to do for the Father in this world.
Again the Father’s voice is heard proclaiming His delight in His Son on the holy mount (Matt. 17:1–5). The voice from heaven, from out the glory cloud, delighted to own Jesus as His beloved Son, to speak of His pleasure in Him, and to direct the three disciples to hear Him. There was much for the disciples to learn from the wonderful vista of glory that shone in the face of Jesus, and from His companions’ conversation, as they spoke of His departure. It was a pre-view of the coming kingdom of the Son of Man, as Jesus had told the disciples (Matt. 16:28), when He would have men with Him in heaven, and a remnant of Israel on earth in special relationship with Him, but they were to hear Him, for He was the depository of the Father’s counsels through whom along His mind could be learned.
“The Father loves the Son”
The Apostle John delighted to present Jesus as “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), the eternal object of the Father’s affection, but come into the time scene to make the Father known. By the Spirit John also penned, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand” (John 3:35). Putting everything into the hand of the Son manifested the greatness of the father’s love for Him, and the confidence of the Father in the One He loved. All the resources of the Father were given to the Son to carry out all the Father’s will, so that He might finish all the work the Father gave Him to do.
It was impossible for the Son in Manhood to act independently of the Father, even as Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself,” and all that was done by the Son expressed what was in the heart and mind of the Father for Him, “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel” (John 5:19-20). The actual raising of the dead, as in the case of Lazarus, and the spiritual quickening of those who were morally and spiritually dead, by the communication of divine life to them, expressed the mind and heart of God, and showed the greatness of the love of the Father for the Son to whom He had committed this great work.
Coming into Manhood, the Son gave the Father fresh cause to love Him, even as He said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17). The Father’s complacent love ever rested on the Son, for He was from all eternity in relationship with His Father, and ever delightful to Him. On earth the Son ever did the things pleasing to the Father, and His entry into death was for the accomplishing of the Father’s eternal counsels, as was also His rising from among the dead. If we find our deepest pleasure in contemplating the love of the Son of God giving His life for us, is it any wonder that the Father loves the Son in a new way because of His going into death for Him.
“The Son of His love”
The Father’s voice had announced to John Baptist and those at the Jordan that Jesus was His “Beloved Son,” and the same announcement was made by the Father to Peter and his fellow disciples on the mount of transfiguration. John the evangelist, who had heard the Father proclaim His love for His Son, wrote of Him as the only-begotten and of the loved One of the Father, the Lord Himself referring to the Father’s witness to Him in John 5:37. Now in Colossians 1:13, Paul writes of Jesus as God’s dear Son, or as it has been translated “the Son of His (the Father’s) love.”
Paul had learned much of the Lord Jesus, and the deepest longing of his heart was “that I may know Him” (Phil. 3:10). To the saints at Colosse he presents Jesus as the Son of the Father’s love, then shows some of His wonderful glories. He is the One “in whom we have redemption…the forgiveness of sins,” for all the efficacy of His work on the cross abides in Him where He is in the presence of the Father. All that God is can only be found in Him, for He is “the image of the invisible God,” all God’s nature, His thoughts, and His purpose shining out from the Son in heaven above.
As the Creator come into His creation, He takes the first place as “The Firstborn of all creation,” the One who “is before all things, and by” whom “all things consist.” According to God’s will, and in richest grace, He has become “the Head of the body, the church,” and stepping out from death into the resurrection world, He has taken His place as “the Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15–18). What a wonderful Person the church has for its Head; and how blessed for us to be in His kingdom.
R. 13.2.70