Mk.1:9-11 – In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This is one of the most important and moments of Jesus Christ shown to us in the New Testament. When the heavens are torn open the Father’s love is expressed and poured out on God’s only begotten Son. Jesus had enjoyed this love from eternity with His Father which He was not experiencing in the same way as a man, this is part of what changed when He took on the human nature. When Jesus was baptized in water this love was poured out on the Son of God. This phrase ‘beloved Son’ is described in the CWSB Dictionary.
“The phrase huiós agapētós, son; agapētós, inherently beloved – means the only son as being the object of peculiar love. In the NT, spoken only of Christ, the Son beloved of God.”
As we follow Jesus into the waters we can taste the greatest of all revelation, the revelation of the Trinity. Here we see distinctly the Father, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit; one God, three persons, being revealed to us. Here is how Adam Clarke describes this.
“This passage affords no mean proof of the doctrine of the Trinity (In modern terminology ‘no mean proof’ means a huge proof). That three distinct persons are here, represented, there can be no dispute. The person of Jesus Christ, baptized by John in Jordan. The person of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape, like a dove.
The person of the Father; a voice came out of heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son. The voice is here represented as proceeding from a different place to that in which the persons of the Son and Holy Spirit were manifested; and merely, I think, more forcibly to mark this Divine personality.”
When you begin to taste for yourself the beauty of God revealed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit you will taste the edge of the greatest of all mysteries. I a always touched when reading about the Lord’s baptism, to me its as if the Father cannot contain Himself and pours out His love as He declares that Jesus is His beloved Son. The Holy Spirit is the Father’s love for His Son, the very expression of God’s love for Jesus is the beautiful person we call the Holy Spirit. Step into the River and drink in this love for yourself, it is absolutely breathtaking.
