Matthew 3:17

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is - Mark and Luke give it in the direct form, "Thou art" --

My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, [ eudokeesa (G2106)]. The verb is put in the aorist to express absolute complacency, once and forever felt toward Him. The English here, at least to modern ears, is scarcely strong enough. 'I delight' comes the nearest, perhaps, to that ineffable complacency which is manifestly intended; and this is the rather to be preferred, as it would immediately carry the thoughts back to that august Messianic prophecy to which the voice from heaven play alluded (Isaiah 42:1), "Behold my Servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, IN WHOM MY SOUL DELIGHTETH" [raatstaah]. Nor are the words which follow to be overlooked, "I have put my Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to be Gentiles." (The Septuagint pervert this, as they do most of the Messianic predictions, interpolating the word "Jacob," and applying it to the Jews.) Was this voice heard by the by-standers? From Matthew's form of it, one might suppose it so designed; but it would appear that it was not, and probably John only heard and saw anything special about that great baptism. Accordingly, the words "Hear ye Him" are not added, as at the Transfiguration.

Remarks:

(1) Here we have three of the most astonishing things which eye could behold and ear hear. First, We have Jesus formally entered and articled to His Father, contracted and engaged, going voluntarily under the yoke, and by a public deed sealed over to obedience. Next, We have Him consecrated and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure (John 3:34); and thus thoroughly furnished, divinely equipped for the work given Him to do. Thirdly, We have Him divinely attested by Him who knew Him best and cannot lie; and thus publicly inaugurated, formally installed in all the authority of His mediatorial office, as the Son of God in the flesh, and the Object of His Father's absolute complacency. (2) That the Holy Spirit, whose supernatural agency formed the human nature of Christ, and sanctified it from the womb, was a stranger to the breast of Jesus until now that He descended upon Him at His baptism, is not for a moment to be conceived. The whole analogy of Scripture, on the work of the Spirit and of sanctification, leads to the conclusion that as He "grew in favour with God and man," from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood, His moral beauty, His spiritual loveliness, His faultless excellence, was enstamped and developed from stage to stage by the gentle yet efficacious energy of the Holy Spirit; though only at His full maturity was He capable of all that fullness which He then received. To use the words of Olshausen, 'Even the pure offspring of the Spirit needed the anointing of the Spirit; and it was only when His human nature had grown strong enough for the support of the fullness of the Spirit that it remained stationary, and fully endowed with power from above.' Knowing, therefore, as we do, that at His baptism He passed out of private into public life, we can have no doubt that the descent of the Spirit upon Christ at His baptism was for official purposes. But in this we include His whole public work-life, character, spirit, carriage, actings, endurances, everything that constituted and manifested Him to be the pure, inoffensive, gentle, beauteous "DOVE" - all this was of the Spirit of the Lord that "rested" - that "abode" - upon Him. How well may the Church now sing, "God, thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad!" (Psalms 45:7.)

(3) Here, in the baptism of our blessed Head, we find ourselves in the presence at once of THE FATHER, THE SON, and THE HOLY GHOST, into whose adorable name we are baptized (Matthew 28:19). The early Fathers of the Church were struck with this, and often advert to it. 'Go to Jordan,' said Augustine to the heretic Marcion, 'and thou shalt see the Trinity' [I ad Jordanem, et videbis Trinitatem]. Nor is it to be overlooked, as Lange remarks, that as it is at Christ's own baptism that we have the first distinct revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity, so it is at the institution of baptism for His Church that this doctrine brightens into full glory.