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From Heaven With Love
of man. From the open heavens a voice was heard: “This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Endorsed by Heaven
These words were given to inspire faith in those who witnessed
the scene and to strengthen the Saviour for His mission. Notwith-
standing that the sins of a guilty world were laid on Christ, notwith-
standing the humiliation of taking upon Himself our fallen nature,
the voice from heaven declared Him to be the Son of the Eternal.
John had been deeply moved. As the glory of God encircled
Jesus and the voice from heaven was heard, John knew that it was
the world’s Redeemer whom he had baptized. With outstretched
hand pointing to Jesus, he cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.”
John 1:29
.
None among the hearers, not even the speaker himself, discerned
the import of the words, “the Lamb of God.” Many of the people of
Israel regarded the sacrificial offerings much as the heathen looked
on their sacrifices—gifts to propitiate the Deity. God desired to
teach them that from His own love comes the gift which reconciles
them to Himself.
The word spoken to Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I
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am well pleased,” embraces humanity. With all our sins and weak-
nesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. “He hath made us ac-
cepted in the Beloved.”
Ephesians 1:6
. The glory that rested on
Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power
of prayer—how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our
petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven. By sin, earth was
cut off from heaven, but Jesus has connected it again with the sphere
of glory. The light which fell on the head of our Saviour will fall on
us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke
to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in
whom I am well pleased.
Our Redeemer has opened the way so that the most sinful, op-
pressed, and despised, may find access to the Father. All may have a
home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare.
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