In the Old Testament there are types of the relationship of the Father and the Son, and of the deep affection of the Father for His Son. Among these is the great affection that Abraham had for Isaac, expressed in the words of God to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest” (Gen. 22:2). We see the same thing set forth in Genesis 37:3, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children…and he made him a coat of many colours.” It is recorded of Solomon when he was born that “the Lord loved him,” and David “called his name Jedidiah (Beloved of the Lord) because of the Lord” (2 Sam. 12:24-25). God had already spoken to David regarding Solomon, saying, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:14). The mystical words of Proverbs 8:30 also convey to the hearts of God’s people the love of the Father for the Son in the past eternity, “Then I was by Him, as One brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.”
“Thou Art My Beloved Son”
For about thirty years the holy Son of God had lived in obscurity, but the time had come for Him to carry out His public testimony for the Father, and just before doing so He identified Himself with the godly remnant of Israel in baptism. For those who came to John, his baptism was of repentance for the remission of sins, and John knew that Jesus had no sins of which to repent, and would have hindered Jesus from being baptised (Matt. 3:14), but the answer of Jesus, “thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness” overcame the difficulty of John. The only sinless One would, through and in baptism, in lowly grace be identified with those who sought to do the will of God.
It was at this moment “the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22). The form of the peaceful dove in which the Holy Spirit came upon the Son of God indicated the character of His mission on earth, and the voice of the Father, as given in Luke, spoke of the Father’s pleasure in His Son, His beloved, as Man on earth. How deep must the Father’s delight have been in all the perfections of the Son, under His holy eye, during the years of His obscurity, when His desire was to be about His Father’s business.
Was not this voice to the Son from the Father the expression of His approbation on what the Son had been for Him? as also His pleasure in His beloved One stooping to do His will and to identify Himself in grace with those who sought His will? And was it not a word for the heart of the Son when the Father spoke of Him as His beloved? and the declaration of His confidence in Him in relation to all that lay before Him in His mission for the Father?
“This Is My Beloved Son”
As Matthew 3:17 shows, the Father’s voice was not only for the delight of the heart of His Son, but also a public declaration and testimony to who Jesus was as the beloved Son of the Father. Was it not to this Jesus was alluding when, in John 5:37, He said, “And the Father Himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me”? Not only did the Father’s voice bear witness to Jesus as His beloved Son, but also to His delight in Him, for He said, “in whom I am well pleased.” In God’s Son on earth was the answer to the frankincense of the meat offering, which ascended to God as a sweet-smelling savour.
On the holy mount, where Jesus was transfigured in the presence of three of His disciples, who had a preview of the coming kingdom of the Son of Man, the voice of the Father was again heard from out the cloud that signified His presence and glory. the same words as had been spoken at the baptism of Jesus were again heard, but with a few added, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matt. 17:5). It was the Father’s testimony to the three favoured disciples concerning His relationship to Jesus, and what Jesus was to Him as His beloved One in whom all His pleasure was found.
Moses and Elias had been conversing with Jesus regarding “His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), and the Father’s voice spoke of His delight in His Son who was about to glorify Him through His death upon the cross. The voice was the answer to the suggestion of Peter to make three tabernacles, one for the Lord, one for Moses and one for Elias. Peter did not know what to say, did not know what was appropriate for such an occasion, and he learned, as we have to learn, the unique relationship of Jesus as the beloved Son of the Father, the One in whom His pleasure rests.
Peter and his fellow disciples had also to learn the beloved Son of the Father was the One to be listened to. Jesus had a special revelation from the Father to communicate to men. God had already revealed to Peter who Jesus was as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), now He tells Peter that Jesus is loved by Him, and that he is to hear what Jesus has to say. The wonderful words of the Son of the Father have been left on record for us in the Gospels, and we do well to ponder them, for, as Peter said, they are the words of eternal life.
“The Father Loves the Son”
John was one of the favoured three who had been with Jesus on the holy mount, and had heard the Father speak of Jesus as His beloved Son, and John had the privilege of writing of Jesus in this way. In John’s Gospel, the evangelist wrote, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). None but the eternal Son of God, who ever dwells in His bosom, was capable of making Him known to men. In the Son, God had been revealed in His nature of love and the Name of the Father has been declared to the men whom the Father gave Him out of the world.
The confidence of the Father in His Son is shown by the Father giving all things into His hand, and this also expresses that “The Father loves the Son” (John 3:35). Jesus was the true Isaac, to whom all his father’s possessions were given (Gen. 24:36), but the type falls far short of the antitype, for the Father had given all the universe into the hands of the Son, for He is the “appointed Heir of all things,” and will yet take up all things on this ground, and also as the Redeemer of all and the One who will reconcile all things to the Godhead on the basis of the great work He has accomplished on the cross.
Again it is written, “For the Father loves the Son” (John 5:20), and it is added, “and shows Him all things that He Himself does.” The Son had healed the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, and this as making known the words of the Father; and the Son would yet quicken whom He would with the sound of His voice, would execute judgment, for this had been committed to Him as Son of Man, and as Son of God would raise the dead, both at the resurrection of life and at the resurrection of judgment. The love of the Father for the Son is indeed shown in committing all to Him, and although all was not seen to be in His hand except by those the Father had given Him, the time will surely come, at the last day, when all will be seen to be in the hands of the risen Son of God (John 6:38–40).
“Therefore Doth My Father Love Me”
Already the Father had expressed His delight in His Son, and spoken of Him as His beloved One, both at the waters of baptism and on the glory mount where Moses and Elias had been speaking to Jesus about His death. Now, in John 10:17 the Son of God says, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” The laying down of the life of the Son was a voluntary act, and yet it was in obedience to His God and Father, and in laying down His life that Son gave the Father a new reason for loving Him. Such was the perfection of the Son’s obedience that He would go to the cross, with all it meant for Him, in order that the Father might be glorified.
Jesus would be “crucified in weakness,” would be subject to all the shame of the cross, would be troubled in His soul and spirit, would be rejected by the leaders and the nation of Israel, would be subjected to scorn, mockery and every indignity by the creatures of His hand, would be betrayed by one of His disciples, would be forsaken by His disciples, and finally crucified and slain, dying under the hand of God in judgment. All this that was involved in His rejection and death the Son was willing to undergo in submission and obedience to His Father’s will. Well might the Father love Him, and how the knowledge of this aspect of His Father’s love sustained the Son in the time of His deepest trials and sorrows.
Loved Before The Foundation of the World
Not only would the Son die to secure the Father’s glory, but He would rise from the dead, and take His place in the presence of the Father to glorify Him there. The Son had authority to take His life again, even as He had authority to lay it down, and could take His place on high in His own Personal rights as a divine Person. Yet, having become Man, he asks the Father for His glory on high. What He relinquished as a divine Person, He asks for as Man from the Father, saying, “glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee,” and, “O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:1, 5).
In verse 24 of John 17 the Son can speak of His request as answered, for He says, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me: for Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The glory into which the Son has entered as Man, that which He had before the world was, is the glory that displays the eternal love of the Father for the Son. How very wonderful that the Son will have us at home in the Father’s house to see that divine glory that shows Him to be the eternal Son of the Father’s love.
The Son of the Father’s Love
Well might we give thanks unto the Father “which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:12-13). Our fitness for the courts of heaven, and our deliverance from the dread power of Satan under which we were once held, we owe entirely to God. Moreover, in His wondrous grace, God the Father has brought us under the authority of the Son of His love, so that we might serve Him with the same character of love in which the Son served Him when here on earth.
It is as under the authority of the Son that we learn how to serve God in the way that is pleasing to Him. The commandments of the Father to the Son on earth were not grievous to Him. All that the Son spoke and did was at the command of the Father, but Jesus delighted in the One He came to serve, and delighted in His will expressed in His commandments to Him. Under the authority of the Son of the Father’s love we have the privilege of answering to His commandments, and these commandments are not grievous to us if we are walking to please Him. What a blessed privilege it is to be seeking to please the Son of the Father while waiting for Him to take us to Himself and to the Father’s house.
R. 31.12.70