Context No. 4104 of 4322 · Luke

Luke 3:18-22: in context

18Then with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people, 19but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, 20added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison. 21Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized and was praying. The sky was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”

At the baptism of Jesus, before he has performed a single miracle or preached a single public sermon, heaven opens, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and the Father's voice declares: you are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. It is a moment of profound significance, the whole Trinity present, the Father speaking, the Spirit descending, the Son affirmed.

What stands out is the timing and the substance of the Father's words. They come at the start of Jesus' ministry, before his public work, and they speak not of what he has done but of who he is: my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Father's delight in his Son rests on their relationship, not on accomplishments yet to come. There is a deep truth here for those who are in Christ. Because we are united to the beloved Son, the Father's words become, in a sense, words over us: we too are beloved children in whom God is well pleased, not because of what we have achieved, but because we belong to his Son.

Do I know myself as a beloved child of God in whom he is well pleased because I belong to his beloved Son, rather than striving endlessly to earn a belovedness that is given in Christ before I do anything to deserve it?

Sources

Luke 3:22: "The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying, You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased."
Luke 3:21: "Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized and was praying. The sky was opened."
Ephesians 1:6: "To the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved."