“The Beloved”
Ephesians 1:6
I cannot imagine a title, or name more appropriate for our Redeemer. This sweet, golden name is the one name that suits our Savior in all his relationships with the triune God, the angels of heaven, and his people in heaven and upon the earth.
The Lord Jesus Christ
is the Beloved of the Father’s heart (Matt.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the blessed Holy Spirit. It is the office work and good pleasure of God the Holy Spirit, in all his gracious operations and influences, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:13-14). The Holy Spirit never draws attention to himself. He came to glorify Christ. When he is present, when he is working, Christ is preached, Christ is worshipped, and Christ is exalted.
The Lord Jesus is the Beloved of all the heavenly angels. I am not stretching the Scriptures when I assert that the heavenly angels, those holy spirits who wait constantly before his throne look upon the Lord Jesus Christ as the Beloved. It is before his throne that they bow. It is his praise that they sing. It is his will they wait to perform (Isa. 6:1-3).
Without question, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Beloved of all his people. Saved sinners everywhere, in heaven above
and scattered throughout all the earth, look upon the Son of God as their
Beloved (Song 1:14, 16; 2:3, 8-10, 16-17; 5:2, 4, 9-1; 6:2-3; 7:10; Isa. 5:1).
Never was the term “beloved” so full of meaning, so well deserved, and yet so
incapable of expressing all that is meant by it, as when it is applied to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Beloved. “We
love him because he first loved us” (I John
Don Fortner