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

The concept of Sonship has tripped up many. How could Jesus Christ be God if He is God’s Son? The mystery of the incarnation by its nature challenges our mental capabilities. How could the Creator God of the universe become part of His creation, while remaining fully God? Then, to express the relationship between God incarnate and God who is not incarnate using Father-Son terminology stretches things further.

On the surface, one assumes it is certainly within the power of the Creator God of the universe to enter into His own creation. And it would naturally follow that this would be incomprehensible for us who are finite, created beings. Additionally, the Sonship relationship that the incarnate God (Jesus Christ) has with the non-incarnate God (the Father) existed long before the creaturely birth of Christ (the incarnation). In the Upper Room Jesus prayed, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). The Father-Son relationship existed before creation, that is, eternally.

When confronting the mystery of God becoming man, we must rely on God’s revelation, for there is no other way that finite creatures can bridge the gap, unless it is revealed by the infinite Creator. And God tells us to think of this in one of the most intimate of human relationships, that of a Father and Son. This goes beyond the incarnation, but exists in the Godhead from all eternity past and into eternity future.

God the Father was pleased with God the Son. What a beautiful picture: the proud Papa and the Son who lives to please His Father. Like Father, like Son. We can use all the proverbial sayings to help us appreciate this imagery that God gives us. Yet, we dare say, the reality is even greater than that. Since God is perfect in all He is and all He does, then this pleasure in His Son is absolutely perfect and complete. There is nothing the Lord Jesus Christ does that displeases the Father—even during His questioning in Gethsemane, where He prayed three times, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39). Asking three times pleased God because three times the Son refused to turn away from “the joy set before Him” (Heb 12:2a), and He “endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2b). Before and after the cross, Father and Son have immensely enjoyed their relationship.

Lord, I want to enjoy my relationship with You as Your Son does.