Matthew 3:13-17: in context

Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. John hesitates, feeling the reversal of it: I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me? But Jesus insists, to fulfill all righteousness, and John consents. As Jesus comes up from the water, the heavens open, the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven declares: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Before his public ministry has begun, before a single miracle or sermon, the Father speaks his love and delight over the Son.

The Father's words at the baptism are worth pondering for their timing. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, the voice declares, and it is spoken at the very beginning, before Jesus has begun his public ministry, before the miracles, the teaching, the cross. The Father's love and pleasure are not a reward for what the Son has accomplished, for he has not yet begun; they are grounded in who the Son is, his beloved. The Father delights in the Son not first for what he does but for who he is, a beloved Son. This is grace at the foundation of Jesus' ministry: he goes out to serve from the security of the Father's love already spoken over him, not to earn it. And this points to a hope for those who are in Christ. For Scripture tells us that in Christ we too are made beloved children of the Father, accepted in the Beloved. The love the Father speaks over his Son is, in Christ, spoken over us: not as a reward for our achievements, but as a gift grounded in our being made his children in Christ. See what love the Father has given us, John writes, that we should be called children of God. We are beloved not because we have earned it by our accomplishments, but because we are in Christ, the Beloved, in whom the Father is well pleased. This frees us from the exhausting effort to earn a love that is already given. We can live as though the Father's love and pleasure must be won by our performance, striving to achieve enough to be accepted. But the Father spoke his love over the Son before the Son had done anything publicly; and in Christ, he speaks his love over us not as a wage for our achievements but as a gift to his children. We are beloved in the Beloved, accepted not for what we have done but as the Father's own. This changes how we live and serve. Like Jesus going out from the Jordan under the Father's spoken love, we serve not to earn God's love but from the security of a love already given, beloved children in whom, through Christ, the Father is well pleased. The Father's word over his beloved Son is, in Christ, the Father's word over us; and we are freed to live as the beloved, delighted in not for our achievements but as his own.

Do I live as though the Father's love and pleasure must be earned by my performance, striving to achieve enough to be accepted, or can the Father's word over his Son at the baptism, this is my beloved Son, spoken before Jesus had accomplished anything publicly, assure me that in Christ, the Beloved, I too am a beloved child of the Father, accepted not for what I have done but as his own, and freed to serve from a love already given rather than to earn it?