This Is My Son Whom I Love (Luke 3:21-22)

“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22)

Why was Jesus baptized by John the Baptizer? The baptism of water is the symbol of death, burial, and resurrection. It pictures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The word of God came to John in the wilderness who began preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In fact, Jesus never needed of the water baptism by John because he was sinless according to the Scripture. Matthew’s account tells that John was reluctant to baptize Jesus because he knew well of Him as a cousin. Being a close relative to Him in the early childhood must have given ample opportunities of knowing each other well enough to tell what kind of person was.

So, John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14) Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) The coming of Jesus Christ on the earth was to die in our place. He came to release mankind from the bondage of futility and confusion and to give true life. It is not easy and simple to solve the problem of mankind as many intellectuals suggest. Even God cannot simply say, “Okay, I forgive you and from now on live freely.” It is against the law of God. God is love and light. He is unbending and unchanging by any degree and in any circumstance. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, says the Scripture.

The wages of sin is death and so mankind must die once and then face the judgment of God. Despite the phenomenal improvement regarding human health, the death rate of mankind remains without fail 100%. God cannot simply lift up the death sentence on mankind without any cause. Hence, in order to save the world, God sent His begotten Son Jesus in the likeness of man that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. What does it mean to believe in Him? It means to believe in His death, burial, and resurrection to bring us the forgiveness of sins and most of all eternal life.

Christ Jesus was a perfect man with one exception that He was sinless. He came in the world as the Second Adam whom God intended man to be before the creation of the world. So, when He stood before John the Baptizer, He was baptized as man in our place. Although He was completely free from being baptized as John testified, He stood up before the Father as a condemned man in our place. Apostle Paul reveals the true humility and obedience of Jesus Christ in the Epistle to the Philippians, saying “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8)

It was the willful choice of Jesus Christ to be baptized by John the Prophet. When He obeyed the Father to fulfill the righteousness of God, the heaven opened and a voice came to Him. “And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Luke 4:21b-22) In this way, God ordained the Son as the Promised Messiah by the Holy Spirit, saying “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The Father was so pleased with the Son who emptied Himself and obeyed to take the stand of sinner’s position unto death, even death on the cross that He exalted the Son above every name in heaven and on earth.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11). 

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:23-38)

“Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli…” (Luke 3:23)

The genealogy of Christ Jesus appears in Matthew and Luke which are quite different from each other. Matthew’s account pictures Christ Jesus as King and Luke’s account does Him as Man. Four Gospels draw Jesus Christ four-fold, King, Servant, Man, and God. The Gospels of Mark and John do not include His genealogy. Matthew traces back to Abraham who was called by God with a promise that he would be a great nation and his name would be great and became the father of many nations through the faith in the promise of living God. God promised him to send the Messiah through his offspring. “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

Luke’s account on the genealogy of Christ Jesus traces all the way back to Adam. The names listed are not complete but selectively chosen inspired by the Spirit most of whom are unknown and ordinary people. It is part of the book of life. Regardless of weaknesses and fragility in humans, God faithfully kept His promise to send the Savior of the world two thousand years ago. Christ must become a man so that through His death He might deliver His people. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

There are so many who are not listed here but written in the book of life. For example, God told Prophet Elijah that He reserved for Himself seven thousand who did not bow down to Baal (Romans 11:4). Apostle John saw a vision of a great multitude who were saved through the tribulations. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (Revelation 7:9) Although we don’t remember all the names of saints God never forgets the names written in the book of life. That’s an encouraging truth which God remembers our names.

The genealogy of Jesus shows real hope in humanity. Note each individual in the list and see who they were. No one was perfect and flawless at all but filled with constant struggles and failures. Abraham faced a famine in the land of Canaan and fled to Egypt where he lied to King Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister. He did it in another occasion to Abimelech King of Gerar. His nephew Lot left him and lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. He took Hagar as a concubine in order to bear his successor, accepting the counsel of his wife, which caused unceasing quarrels and conflicts among families. He received the promised son after twenty five long years of waiting even when he and his wife were unable to bear a child. Some say, “Christians are completely fearless, continually cheerful, constantly in trouble.”

Nevertheless, when he was told to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering, he obeyed the Lord God blamelessly. The Scripture says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:7) The names in the genealogy of Jesus were fragile, weak, struggling, ordinary humans just like anyone else, yet they lived not by sight but by faith. So, God was pleased to put their names in the line of the Son Jesus Christ. When the disciples were sent out to the villages and towns of Israel, they experienced the power of God working mightily, driving out demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Coming back from the extraordinary journey, they reported all things happened to the Master. Remember what the Lord Jesus said, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)

Christ Jesus came to fulfill the promise to save the world from the bondage of darkness, futility, confusion. It was the only way for the fallen race to be saved through the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. What a blessing it is to be written in heaven and remembered by God forever!  

Through His Poverty We Might Be Rich (2 Corinthians 8:9)

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Why should we denounce anything other than the humiliation of cross? In other words, why was Christ Jesus the Lord born in an animal’s shelter and cut off all power on the cross like that? Why does the Scripture say that God opposes the proud but compassions on the humble over and over? The proud mind says that he can handle life without any help. The modern science mind says proudly as if they can solve all human problems. They say it’s a matter of time. Needlessly say it’s not true. Human problem resides within. Jesus says that what comes out of man defiles a person.

“He went on: ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.’” (Mark 7:20-23)

The Scripture consistently and faithfully tells the promise of restoration from the fall of race. The restoration cannot be done by humans for the whole race fell in Adam. The only way possible for the race is inevitably death, says the Scripture. But the problem of death is that it is not the end but after death judgment follows. No one can escape the judgment of God and henceforth no one will be saved. As Apostle John says this is what God has done to fulfill the promise of restoration. “God so loved the world He gave His begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus’ death is the eternal substitutionary death of everyone who believes in Him. He became the victim sacrifice in our place and the high priest at the same time who brought the blood in the heavenly tabernacle. Although Jesus the Son of God was given all power in heaven and on earth, when He was reviled He reviled not. Instead, He submitted Himself to the Father in heaven who will judge righteously. Apostle Peter tells that the Son of God died in our place by His stripes we were healed, so that we might live for righteousness to God.

“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth’; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21-25)

There is no other way to come to the Father except through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to receive Christ except through the humiliation, guilt, and shame of the cross. The Scripture tells that we are from dust and will return to dust. Man is not designed and made without God. Man is not made to have what it takes. But man is made to be the indwelling place of Immortal God in Jesus Christ. Man is made to live on with the total and complete dependence upon God. The Sermon on the Mount starts with this truth, saying “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)