Beloved and Well-Pleased: The Trinity's Love Story
How the Father's Love for Jesus Extends to Believers
The Father is "well pleased" with His beloved Son. He loves you like He loves His beloved Son. John 17:23. He is well pleased with you as His beloved Son.
"Well pleased" means
to be happy with something or someone,
to find someone worthy of choice,
to delight in something or someone,
to approve of something or someone,
to enjoy something or someone,
to find pleasure in something or someone,
to be content with something or someone, and to prefer and choose something or someone.
That is how our Father sees His Son Jesus.
God says this to Jesus before He works a miracle, raises the dead, and even before He is tempted, tested, and tried. The Father loves Jesus like Himself. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are One. They are the same, but not. God never swallows up Jesus; Jesus is God but never takes over the personality of the Father.
God, the Father, found pleasure in Jesus, in who He was, and in what He had done. Remember, He spent 30 years in virtual obscurity. He only showed who He was at 12 years of age. We see that He lived 30 years as a normal human, a carpenter, a son, a brother, a cousin, a fellow citizen, and God was still well pleased.
God has made it clear by the proclamation in Matthew 3:17 that Jesus is His beloved Son. God finds extreme satisfaction and pleasure in Jesus.
God rejoices because Jesus, God incarnate, fulfills the Trinity's will and accomplishes God's plan of salvation. Jesus will give His life and bear our sins.
Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's love. God came in human flesh to redeem man from the consequences of sin.
God calls Jesus His beloved Son and states that He is well pleased.
I am sure you know all of that, but I want you to make the connection: God loves you like He loves Jesus.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and
hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
God loves us as He has loved Jesus. Do you realize what that means? He loves you first because He is love. God loves you as you live your everyday life, as Jesus did for 30 years. He loves you being you. The Father loves you before you prove yourself. True Christianity is not about what you do, but what Jesus did.
God's love for you is not contingent on your actions or behavior. He doesn't love you because you're good or do certain things and avoid other things. He loves you unconditionally and without reservation. This is the profound truth of His love for you.
You may feel unworthy of God's love, and you are. But remember, God loved us when we were at our weakest, when we were ungodly and still sinning. His love for us is not based on our goodness, but on His grace. It's a love that we don't deserve, but that He freely gives. This is the essence of grace, and it's what defines our relationship with Him. Romans 5:6-8.
God loves you. He comes to you where you are. Without His grace, we would be nothing. It is never about what you do or your good works, but about the grace of God at work in your life.
Are you so foolish that you think it was grace to save you, but you can live out the Christian life? Don't be that proud or foolish. Galatians 3:3.
Quote
God wants to please you. He is pleased when you are His child, when you’re surrendered, when your will is His will and His will is yours, when you are not in rebellion and not seeking your own will. God loves to please His people. Did you ever see a father bringing gifts to his children? Did you ever see a lover bringing gifts to his bride? He wants to please the people He loves, and the people that love Him. The idea that God must always make you miserable is not a biblical idea at all. Jesus Christ knew God and He suffered from the irritations and persecutions of the world, the bitterness of their polluted hearts. They made it hard for Him. But He was pleased with God and God was pleased with Him. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” Matthew 3:17. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” Matthew 25:21. God can say that now to His people. God isn’t pleased by your being miserable. He will make you miserable if you won’t obey, but if you’re surrendered and obedient, the goodness of God has so wrought through Jesus Christ that now He wants to please you. And He wants to answer your prayers so you will be happy in Him. . . . Did you ever stop to think that God is going to be as pleased to have you with Him in heaven as you are to be there?
A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God