SHARING THE FATHER’S DELIGHT IN CHRIST
Alfred J Gardiner
Luke 3: 21, 22
2 Peter 1: 16-18
I think these scriptures would give us an impression, dear brethren, first of all of the positive delight which the Father has in Christ, and then how He would share that with us. That is a wonderful thing to contemplate, how the Father is prepared to share with us the pleasure that He Himself finds in Jesus. So we find in this third chapter of Luke’s gospel that Jesus was baptised, “baptised and praying”. It says, “all the people having been baptised and Jesus having been baptised and praying”. Well now, these are simple statements but they mean a good deal; “Jesus having been baptised”, it is a wonderful thing that Jesus should be baptised. There was no necessity for it from a personal point of view, but the people had come in a spirit of repentance and had accepted baptism as the expression of that repentance, and Jesus in wondrous grace identifies Himself with them, so that He Himself was baptised. It says, “and Jesus having been baptised”; and then it adds, “and praying”. Jesus having been baptised in identifying Himself in wonderful grace with the repentance that marked the people who had come to be baptised, and then it says, “and praying”: “Jesus having been baptised and praying”.
Well now, prayer, if it is genuine prayer, is the expression of dependence on God; but where do you get the most complete expression of dependence on God? I believe you get the most complete expression of dependence on God when Jesus came into the world as a newborn Babe. That has impressed me greatly, dear brethren: I doubt if you can find anywhere any greater expression of dependence on God than you see in a newborn babe. A newborn babe is dependent on others for everything, everything, and hence a newborn babe is the absolute expression of dependence; and when One of the Godhead came into human condition He came in in that way: not in self-confidence, not in self-sufficiency or self-assertiveness but as a newborn Babe. Now that should impress us, dear brethren; if any of us tend naturally to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-assertive, let us recognise that the way that Christ came into the world was as a newborn Babe; and that means that dependence, I think I am right in saying, is the first feature of moral excellence in the human condition. You might say, ‘Well, surely obedience would be the first expression’. Well, I would not quarrel with that, but you do not expect a newborn babe to be obedient. You cannot look for obedience in a newborn babe; it is not capable of it; it needs to be developed a little before the sense of responsibility is there. But a newborn babe is essentially an expression of absolute dependence; and that shows that dependence is the first feature of moral excellence in the human condition that God looks for. What a contrast to the world around where men are self-assertive and self-reliant, and what God loves to see is dependence.
Well now, let us just allow that to sink in, dear brethren. I realise that as I say these things you may say to me, ‘Well, are you dependent?’. And that is the normal result of having these things brought before us; they present a challenge to us, and we seek grace to accept the challenge; because if God sets out that a certain feature of things is morally excellent in His sight in manhood, then it is for us as His creatures taken up in infinite grace to see to it that the Spirit is allowed liberty to develop those features in us. So it says here, “Jesus having been baptised and praying, that the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven. Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. But now, that is a positive statement on the part of God that He found in Jesus positive delight, and it was in Jesus in human condition and as praying; notice that, as praying. “Jesus having been baptised”, that is He identified Himself in baptism with the repentant people. A wonderful thing - He has done that in the most absolute way when He gave Himself for us, and bore those sins that repentance expresses acceptance of, a wonderful thing, and so Christ has gone that way. And then it says, “a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”.
But then Peter, in his epistle, carries us somewhat further; he says, “he received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice”, such a voice; not merely a voice, but such a voice, as though on the holy mount Peter and James and John were privileged to hear the very tones of the voice in which the Father spoke to Jesus; “such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory:Thisis my beloved Son”. At the baptism of Jesus the voice says “Thou”, but now on the holy mount the voice says “This”; that is to say, the Father is addressing Peter, and James, and John; He is, if I may so say, addressing us and calling our attention, calling the attention of others, Peter, and James, and John, to the pleasure which He Himself found in Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. So Peter says, “this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. Before that he says, “such a voice”. When we think of what actually happened on the holy mountain, we can see the change that has come over Peter. What actually happened on the holy mountain was that Peter said, “it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said” (Luke 9: 33); that is what scripture says, “not knowing what he said”. But Peter rejects all that, he lets all that sink into oblivion, and so we do not want to bring it back again from that point of view; what we want to concentrate on is the exceeding moral glory of what actually happened when it is divested of all the wrong thoughts that Peter at one time attached to it. We are allowed now to see that Jesus “received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice” - such a voice, the Father’s own voice and the Father’s own tones of voice, “being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight; and this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. Well, we have not been literally with Him on the holy mountain, but I think in this day of the Spirit we are privileged to have some entrance into what Peter, and James, and John were given entrance into. We can get some impression by the Spirit of what that voice was - “such a voice”, and of what it said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. It means that the Father is willing to share His own pleasure, His own joy in Christ; He is willing to share it with us. He wants to share it with us. That is the wonderful thing; that is what is possible in virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit; wonderful thing.
The more we touch of these things, dear brethren, the more we increase in our appreciation of the Holy Spirit Himself, that He has taken His abode in us in order that these holy things of God might be known by us in actuality. Well, that is our portion through grace. We can well rejoice in it, and God grant that we may increase in our appreciation of it. We do not want to be occupied with things that are not worth being occupied with. Christ has already gone “up above all the heavens, that He might fillall things”, Eph 4: 10. That day is not far distant, and there is not going to be room for anything that is not of Christ. Let us bear that in mind. Let the younger brethren here bear that in mind that it may regulate their outlook that there is not going to be anything remaining that is not of Christ. He has gone up already “above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”.
So let it be that He obtains the place in our hearts that the Father intends that He should obtain, and as He does obtain that we shall find that we are more and more at home in the Father’s presence because we are being given to share by the Holy Spirit that in which the Father Himself finds His full delight.
ABERDEEN
September 1969