Daily Word of Grace # 127 (September 9, 2020)
Jesus’ baptism is often considered the beginning of his earthly ministry. All three Persons of the Trinity were present and active as Jesus, God the Son, was anointed by the God the Holy Spirit as God the Father proclaimed from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17). Before Jesus performed a single miracle or cleansed a single leper, before Jesus walked on water or calmed the stormy sea, before Jesus preached a single sermon or healed a single blind person, before Jesus befriended outcasts or forgave notorious sinners, before Jesus did any of those things God the Father proclaimed to the world that Jesus was his beloved son with whom he was well pleased. And the same Holy Spirit who anointed Jesus that day assures us in our hearts that we too are God’s beloved children with whom God is well pleased (Romans 8:14-16; 1 John 3:1) with a love that precedes anything we may do to try to earn that love. This is because God is love (1 John 4:14), and the ultimate demonstration of God’s love occurred on Good Friday: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). That same love of God is the beginning of your earthly ministry…and the beginning of your eternal life.
Love and Prayers,
Dave