“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. 3:17; 17:5). Who can enter into the relationships of the three
divine Persons in the eternal Trinity? We cannot imagine the kind of love the
Father has for his Son; but we have abundant evidence of it and many
illustrations of it in the Scriptures. God the Son was one with the Father and
beloved by him, as our Surety in the counsels of grace in eternity (Pro.
8:22-31). In the covenant of grace, all the blessing of grace were bestowed
upon chosen sinners only in the Beloved (v. 3; II Tim. 1:9). When the Lord God
stooped to create all things out of nothing, the Father called to the Son and
said, “Let us make man in our image and
after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26), “For without him was not anything made that
was made” (John 1:1-3). Everything that God the Father has done and decreed
to be done has been done to glorify the Son, “that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). And
God the Son lived upon the earth as a man, died as our Substitute, and lives
again as our exalted King and Priest in heaven that he might glorify the
Father.
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 4:19); but we do truly love
him. How our hearts rejoice to look up to heaven upon the Son of God and call
him “Beloved!” The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
His love for us has kindled in our hearts a flame of undying love for him that
neither life nor death can quench. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of our
souls because he is our Savior.
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #656
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net