[B]ehold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

“Beloved” by His Father, what a description of Jesus Christ! Religionists and legalists have a difficult time understanding this, for to them spirituality has to do with laws and rituals, things one does to gain God’s favor. But genuine love is core to who God is.

Notice, this voice from heaven (which is clearly the Father’s) proclaimed Jesus as His beloved before He went to the cross! While His obedience (Heb 5:8) was exemplary, and there was joy in it (Heb 12:2), the Father’s love preceded all that. These were the outcomes of His love, not the cause.

The Father was “well-pleased” with His Son. Often Christians will know theologically that God loves them, but whether God is pleased with them is a different question, and somewhat unsettling. In Christ, God’s love and pleasure go hand in hand; there is no division between the two. To be sure, Jesus did not sin, in contrast to we who do sin (1 John 1:8). But if we are in Christ, and Christ is beloved and God is “well-pleased” with Him, then we must conclude by faith and by reason that we are, too. God is well-pleased with us.

God is not pleased with lack of faith or blatant sin. But our sin doesn’t mean God stops loving us, for our sins do not remove us from being “in Christ.” Interestingly, Paul writes to the carnal Christians in Corinth,

[Y]ou are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Cor 1:7–9)

Yet Paul also wrote, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor 5:9). He wanted to be like Christ, and that meant becoming well-pleasing to God. The important thing here is that this is only possible because we have been called into fellowship (that is, to the sharing of all things) with Christ. In other words, as believers, we are invited into the full pleasure of God that Jesus Christ enjoys. Why? Because He is beloved by God. And therefore so are we.

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

Lord, let my life be pleasing to You, for I am beloved by You.