My Baptism in the Jordan

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

August 1, 2019

My Baptism in the Jordan

Page 45

Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22, 4:1a

God’s message to Jesus, the Messiah, at his baptism is both endearing and chilling: “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you.” The endearing part is obvious.

The chilling part is in the similarity of the words to the witness of two other Biblical passages. In Isaiah 42, the Messiah of God is revealed as the suffering servant, “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me” (Isaiah 42:1).

In Genesis 20, God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son, “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much . . .” (Genesis 20:2).

Ultimately, God provided a ram for this sacrifice, and Abraham did not sacrifice Isaac.

However, God did sacrifice his beloved Son, with whom he was fully pleased.

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to save the world. When a person is reconciled to God through faith in the Messiah Jesus, God speaks into the life of the believer the same words He spoke to Jesus,

“You are my beloved son/daughter, and I am fully pleased with you.”

My Takeaway: I rejoice in the endearing affirmation that I am a child of God and my Abba Father is pleased with me. I must confess that I am not as quick to own the chilling part of that affirmation. That’s the part where I own my responsibility as God’s child to live a sacrificial life proclaiming God’s saving grace in Christ Jesus.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.