“You are My
beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Luke 3:22).
The Father
expresses His love for Jesus and His pleasure in Him at Jesus’ baptism, and the
Father does the same with us, for as with the Head, so with the Body. Through
our baptism into Jesus Christ we have died and our lives are “hidden with
Christ in God” (Col. 3:4).
Justification is
not something that is given and withdrawn, given and withdrawn, given and
withdrawn; rather it is a completed work of Christ in which we stand, a
declaration of the Father, an entry in the annals of Heaven. Having been
justified, we “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1),
are being “saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10), and have received God’s glorious
reconciliation (Rom. 5:10 – 11).
“He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The righteousness of Jesus Christ is both imputed
to us and infused within us; it is both forensic and organic; we are justified
and we are made new creations in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
The Father’s
declaration of, “This is My beloved Son,” was under attack throughout the
earthly life of Jesus Christ, and the same can be true in our lives. In other
words, the identity of Jesus Christ was attacked and questioned, and the same
is true of us.
During the temptation
in the wilderness, the enemy twice challenged Jesus with the words, “If You are
the Son of God.”
In Nazareth the
people said, “Who does He think He is?”
In the Gospels
Jesus is accused of having a demon, His background is questioned, the fact He
comes from Nazareth is held against Him, and on the Cross He again is
challenged, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (We see this
attack on His identify particularly in the Gospel of John.)
Our movement
toward sin and death, into what we term “the fall,” began when Adam and Eve
doubted their identity in God, doubting the Word of God. The serpent tells
them, “You will be like God,” when they were already formed in the image of God.
The Word and work of God was not good enough for our first parents, they chose
not to rest in God and to be satisfied in Him. God was satisfied with them, they
were not satisfied with Him.
Ever since those
earliest times the enemy has attacked our identity in God, our salvation in
Jesus Christ. Hence, he is styled, “the accuser of our brethren” (Rev. 12:10). Yet, in Christ, we are justified, we are
called to live in open heavens in unbroken communion with God and with one
another. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom.
8:1).
A tragedy is
that our justification and identity are often challenged within our
congregations, and we hear the cry, “Who does he think he is? Who does she
think she is?”
We teach
justification, but do we truly accept one another as being justified, as being
holy in Jesus Christ? When we look at one another, do we affirm that the Father
has said of our brother and our sister, “This is My beloved son, this is My
beloved daughter, in whom I am well-pleased”?
O dear friends,
we are in Jesus Christ, hidden in Him, wedded to Him, buried with Him, raised
in Him, seated in the heavens with Him.
Yes, yes, it can
be easier to go with the flow in Nazareth and not speak up about our glorious
life in Jesus Christ. It can be easier not to fight the strong current of
condemnation and Law and accept that we will live in Egypt for the rest of our
lives. We may want to give up and agree that the idea of an open heaven is
unrealistic, and that the Father could not possibly say of us, “This is My
beloved child, in whom I am well- pleased.”
Yet, our Father
loves us too much for us to deny Him. We love Him because He first loved us.
Let us continue in God’s love, love for God, love for one another in Christ,
love for the people of the world. It is incumbent upon us to be faithful to our
Father, to not deny Him, but to confess our glorious salvation and sonship in
Jesus Christ - let us declare His Name to our brothers and sisters. (1 John
4:19; Hebrews 2:9 – 13; Romans 8:29 – 30).
O dear friend,
when the Father sees you coming up from the waters of baptism in Jesus Christ,
He proclaims, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased!”
Do not allow
anyone to deceive you into denying your Divine parentage – even those in your hometown
of Nazareth.
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