The voice of Godhead
“You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
The early chapters of Luke’s Gospel record the baptism of the Lord, His testing in the wilderness and the beginning of His wonderful ministry. We have a tendency to look at these events in isolation. I think it is vital to see the links between these critical moments in the life of the Lord Jesus, and to hear the voice of the Godhead.
The first voice we hear is the voice of God the Father, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” God the Father opens the heavens at the commencement of the Lord’s public ministry to declare the deity of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and the joy He has in Him. It is the voice of love, authority and power. Luke then traces the Lord’s family back to Adam, the first man who is called the son of God. Luke uses this genealogy as a backdrop to the coming of the perfect Man coming into this world to do the will of God and bring salvation.
Luke 4 begins with the testing of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. Just as he did in Genesis chapter 3, Satan questions God. But this time he wasn’t challenging the instruction of God to man. He was questioning the relationship between the Father and the Son: “If You are the Son of God”. Satan from the beginning of time has destroyed relationships between God and people, husband and wife, parents and children, families, communities and nations. We don’t have to look very far to see his work. But there is a relationship he can never damage or destroy: the relationship in the Godhead. We hear the voice of the Son of God, in all His lowliness and obedience to the Father, asserting the power of the word of God, “But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Jesus overcomes the power of the devil by God’s word. So, why would we ever doubt it? The first man was disobedient to God in the most beautiful place God created on earth: the garden of Eden. In a wilderness, without any sustenance, Jesus dismisses Satan by the power of His word. At last, a Man who was stronger than Satan was present in this world!
Following this victory, Jesus goes to Nazareth. The Son of God grew up in this despised town. In these few words, “where He had been brought up”, Luke describes the greatness of the grace of Christ. He not only entered the world He made, but lived in its poverty. Where does Jesus go first? He goes to the synagogue where the word of God was read. He reads from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” The Father’s voice has been heard, and the Son’s voice was heard. Now the Spirit’s voice is heard. The Spirit of God announces Jesus as the preacher of the Gospel, the healer of the broken-hearted, the deliverer of captives, the recoverer of sight, the bringer of liberty (Luke 4:18-19). The Holy Spirit has never ceased to glorify the Person of the Son of God.
May the Lord empower us to have a voice in words and actions which witness to who Jesus is, and to be faithful and obedient to the living word of God. May the Holy Spirit of God work in our hearts to demonstrate the love that has redeemed us and seeks to transform us into the likeness of our Saviour. And may we never forget that Satan cannot destroy the relationship into which the love of God has brought us.
