Jesus as the Beloved of God
I am blessed with a clear sense of being loved. It’s not that everyone loves me. I’m just not that lovable. I know some people find themselves unable to love me at all, but a few valiant souls have made the effort and now I find myself secure in the knowledge that I am loved. This makes a huge difference in my life. Knowing we are loved allows us to tolerate almost anything.
I have friends, who, though they are loved, have no deep knowledge of that fact. They feel unloved. Their lives are marked with cycles of effort and disappointment as they struggle to win love, only to find that the kind of love we all need does not depend on our performance, but rather on the loving heart of the other.
Jesus was beloved of God and He knew it. I suspect that the knowledge of this fortified Him to stand firm in His earthly mission. We know God the Father loved Jesus because He said so on numerous occasions. Here are a couple of references:
- Matthew 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
- Matthew 12:18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.”
- John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.”
- John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”
- John 10:17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.”
What difference does it make to me that God loved Jesus and, for that matter, that Jesus loved His Father? It matters because it explains the act of self-sacrifice which Jesus performed during His mission on earth. It explains the power that Jesus was free to demonstrate while on his earthly mission. It explains how God can receive all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It also helps me to understand how God the Father can loved rebellious, sinful people like me. He can do that because He sees me “in” His Son, the Son that He loves. That’s a stretch for our intellectual capabilities, but we find the idea expressed repeatedly in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Over and over, Paul refers to our being “in Christ.” In the first verse he establishes that Christians are “in Christ Jesus.” The next few verses are a veritable catalogue of what we have because we are “in Him.” In Christ, we are:
- Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (3)
- Chosen according to His plan (4, 11)
- Lovingly adopted as His children (4-5)
- Recipients of His grace (6)
- Redeemed and forgiven (7)
- Sealed by the Holy Spirit (13)
Because of the love the Father has for the Son, when we, through faith, are placed “in Him” we benefit from that love. Instead of being merely a theological fact, that Jesus is beloved of the Father opens the way for me know Him and experience His love for myself.
Ron Hughes
© January 2008
