Luk. 3:22 ... "The Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and a Voice came from heaven, 'You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased'."
Only of Jesus could God ever say, "With You I am well pleased." The Father commended His Son in the flesh without reservation. The unique way in which Jesus conducted His life evoked this unique commendation. Although He was the prime target of Satan's attempt to seduce with temptation, He never for an instant yielded to the allurements. We are assured that Jesus "in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin," (Heb. 4:15). There are a few godly men who discipline themselves enough to hold temptation at bay, but from time to time even they will to some degree yield and commit sin. Paul declared that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23). All, that is, except one -- Jesus Christ! Never did one of the "flaming darts of the evil one" (Eph. 6:16) penetrate His spiritual armor.
Jesus, in the status of man, pleased God without reservation because He always fulfilled the will of His Father. Jesus is quoted as having said to His Father, "Behold, I have come to do Your will," (Heb. 10:9). The guiding principle of His journey on earth was to do the things that God had sent Him here to do. Anything that detracted from this policy was excluded from His conduct. When Satan suggested He do otherwise, Jesus rebuked Him firmly by saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God," (Mat. 4:4). Many people do the will of God some of the time; a few people do the will of God most of the time; but only Jesus did the will of God ALL of the time.
Jesus pleased God without reservation because all that He ever did was good. As Peter was introducing Jesus to the Gentile strangers in Cornelius' household, he declared that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good," (Acts 10:38). Doing good was the norm of Jesus' life. It was a norm, however, that was not a mean of variation. That is, doing good was not the average of the merits of His activities. In other people there is a blend of good deeds and bad deeds, so that the average may come out to the value of "good." It was not so with Jesus! EVERYTHING He did was good! There was no good-to-bad spectrum through which His conduct ranged. The people who were His contemporaries and observed His activities first hand "were astonished beyond measure, saying, 'He has done all things well'." (Mrk. 7:37). Notice carefully the inclusive "all things"!
When God evaluates our lives, He cannot find in them the unqualified source of pleasure that He found in Jesus. But when He looks upon our lives and sees them centered in Christ, He will find in us the pleasure that will persuade Him to draw us unto His presence forever. It is written of God that "it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist" to "bring many sons to glory," (Heb. 2:10). Jesus is the Son of God, but when we obey the gospel and live by faith as loyal disciples of Christ, then we are claimed by the Father as sons of God. Identity with Christ is the only key to God's looking upon us as "sons" and being pleased with us. Jesus once said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love," (Jno. 15:10). When a person surrenders his will to Christ and lets the commandments of Christ rule his life without exception, he will always remain in the aura of Jesus' love. And since the union of Jesus and His Father is perfect, there can be no doubt that when someone is the object of Jesus' love, he is also the object of God's love. And not only of God's love, but of God's good pleasure. There can be nothing greater for a human than to possess God's special love and be unto Him a source of pleasure, for it will be only unto such a person that the Lord in the end will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant ... enter into the joy of your Master," (Mat. 25:23).
