SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2020
9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Confirmation
by the Father”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 3:17
Message of the
verse: “17
and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in
whom I am well-pleased.’”
As we look at verse 17 we can
determine that all three Persons of the trinity participated in Jesus’
baptism. Jesus, the Son had confirmed
His own kingship by saying “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”
as seen in verse 15, and then the Holy Spirit had confirmed His right of messiahship
by resting on Him as seen in verse 16.
Now the final aspect of Jesus’ coronation or we could say commissioning,
was the Father’s confirming word. Not
often do we hear the Father speak from heaven, but He does here as seen in
verse 17, our verse for this SD.
MacArthur writes “For a sacrifice to be acceptable to God it must be pure,
spotless, without blemish (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 1:3; Deut. 17:1; etc.). Of this One who willingly identified Himself
with sinners by His baptism and who was marked by the Holy Spirit as the dove
of sacrifice, the Father now said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well-pleased.’”
When we think about the Old
Testament sacrifices we know that none of them were perfect, and at best their
blood was only symbolic as seen in Hebrews 10:4 “For it is impossible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Let us also look at Hebrews 9:12 “and not through the blood of goats and
calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all,
having obtained eternal redemption.”
However the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross would be as
Peter describes in 1 Pet. 1:19 “but with precious blood, as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” So the result would be that the Father could
say that He was well pleased with the perfection of Jesus Christ. I mentioned that the Father did not speak
from heaven much, but we can see Him speak from heaven from Matthew 17:5; and
John 12:28.
John MacArthur writes “Beloved’ (agapetos) connotes a deep, rich and
profound relationship. It is use here of
the Father’s great love for His Son, but it is also used elsewhere of His love
for believers (Rom. 1:7) and for what believers’ love toward each other should
be (1 Cor. 4:14). Jesus is the Father’s
beloved above all those He loves, the beloved apart from whom no other could
ever be beloved (cf. Eph. 1:6). Only in
His Son could the Father ever be fully ‘well pleased’ (eudokeo). God had examined,
as it were, His beloved Son, who would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the
sins of those with whom He was willing to identify Himself. No imperfection could be found in Him, and
God was delighted.”
We as believers are a delight to the
Father also, and the reason is because we are now in the Son. Because the Father finds no imperfection in
His Son, He now by His brace will find no imperfection in those who trust in
Him.
We will continue to look at this
section in our next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I read
that there is no imperfection in my because I am in Christ, and I believe it,
but at times, like most believers I don’t act like it all of the time.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have a
test to go through this afternoon, something I have had before, but something I
am not looking forward to and so I pray that the Lord will give me peace, and
that there will be no issues in the results of it.
1/28/2020 10:26
AM
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