After Christ’s baptism, the voice of God the Father was heard “from the excellent glory” announcing, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Here was the Son, in our nature, about to enter on His public ministry, which would culminate in His offering Himself up as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, on behalf of all the sinners whom He was representing. But, already, the Father was intimating that He was altogether satisfied with His Son as perfectly suited in His Person, both in His divine and His human natures, for the whole work He was to undertake. And well did the Father know that this work would be carried out to perfection – that, by doing so, He would lay a basis for the salvation of the innumerable multitude of individuals who were given to Him in the everlasting covenant; He would “not fail nor be discouraged” (Is 42:4).
Again, on the Mount of transfiguration, after the conversation with Moses and Elijah about His “decease”, there came the same voice from heaven, intimating in the same terms: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Yet at Calvary there was no such voice; nor could there be, for Christ must tread the winepress alone.
May we then look for such a voice after He rose from the grave? In fact, it was not necessary. By raising Jesus from the dead, the Father was bearing authoritative testimony to the fact that He was well pleased with the whole work of redemption. Justice was indeed satisfied; Christ had borne away all the sins of all His people, as the scapegoat in the Old Testament ceremonial typically bore away all the sins of Israel “into a land not inhabited”, where it could never be found again.
Isaiah’s prophecy had now been clearly fulfilled in Christ: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Is 42:21). In both His active and His passive obedience – in His keeping of the law, as the substitute of His people, and in His suffering of its penalty on their behalf – He had honoured the law to the fullest extent. If that sin had not been fully atoned for, if there had been the slightest defect in His offering up of Himself as a sacrifice or in His obedience to any other part of the divine will, the Father could not have been well pleased. But every such defect was impossible, given the perfection of His Person. And because there was absolutely no defect in any part of the Saviour’s work, justice was fully satisfied; the Father was indeed well pleased. And so He raised Jesus from the dead; by doing so He was announcing to the world that He was well pleased with Christ’s redemptive work.
Can we say that the Holy Spirit was well pleased with Christ and His work? The first point we may note is that the Spirit also was present after Christ’s baptism, in the form of a dove. It was evidence of the entire harmony within the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – on the work of redemption which Christ was to accomplish. But, further, every time the Holy Spirit works faith in the heart of a sinner, He is intimating that He is altogether well pleased with Christ and His work of redemption.
Had we been present at the little gathering of women by the riverside near Philippi, after Paul and Silas joined them, we might not have noticed Lydia reacting to what she heard. But there was a very significant response, for the Lord opened her heart; the Holy Spirit took of the things of Christ and revealed them savingly to her; she trusted in the Saviour. What exactly Paul said in his address to the women we do not know, but we can be sure that he proclaimed Christ and His finished work as altogether suited to their needs as sinners. And the Holy Spirit applied to Lydia’s soul the truths that Paul declared, for the Spirit was well pleased with the Saviour and His finished work. It was the Spirit who brought Lydia to a sense of her need as a sinner; and the Spirit, well pleased with the work of Christ as the one suitable remedy for her in her need, opened her heart so that she was able to receive the truth about that work.
On the Day of Pentecost, however, there were visible signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the tongues of fire which descended on the believers. These tongues were symbols of the Spirit’s power, that was to accompany the words of the disciples as they proclaimed salvation through Jesus Christ, first in Jerusalem, then throughout Palestine and, before long, well beyond its borders. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit brought 3000 individuals to see that the redemption purchased by Christ was perfectly suited to their need as sinners – for the Spirit was well pleased with that redemption.
The Spirit is still, of course, well pleased with the work of Christ; He sees that it is perfectly suited to the needs of sinners today, whatever their circumstances – no matter how great their sins, no matter how hard their hearts, no matter how ignorant they are. We need never despair of sinners who hear the gospel, or even read the Scriptures; the Spirit is able and willing to apply to sinners of every kind the truth which speaks of Christ and His finished work.
He is able and willing to make them spiritually alive, to open their hearts and apply to them these wonderful truths about the Saviour, so that they too become well pleased with Him and His finished work.
Nearly 240 years ago, in Wales, the Spirit opened the heart of young Thomas Charles, later to become a noted minister in Bala, so that he was brought to admire the greatness of the glory of Christ Jesus. He became well pleased with “a Saviour so infinitely great and all-sufficient, whose merits are of such inestimable value, whose faithfulness is so inviolable, whose love, grace and mercy are so great, so unsearchable and eternal, and His power so immense”.1
The question for us is: Are we well pleased with Christ and His finished work? The Father is; Christ Himself is; the Holy Spirit is. Besides, we can be sure that the holy angels are well pleased; we are told that there is joy in their presence when one sinner repents – a fruit of the work of Christ. Again, all the people of God in heaven are well pleased, which they make plain as they sing sinlessly to the praise of Him who loved them and gave Himself for them. And all believers on earth are satisfied with Him. That satisfaction began when the Holy Spirit put life in their souls, opened their hearts and made them willing to look to Christ as the One who did everything necessary for the salvation of sinners like them. And it will continue for ever.
Clearly, unbelieving sinners are not well pleased with Christ as a Saviour; otherwise they would trust in Him. Thus Isaiah prophesied of Him: “He is despised and rejected of men . . . and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not” (Is 53:3). And thus it will always be, apart from the work of the Spirit making sinners willing to receive Christ in response to the call the gospel: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). That call has all the authority of God the Father behind it also. After drawing attention on the Mount of transfiguration to the Saviour as the One in whom He is well pleased, He said, “Hear ye Him”.
What encouragement there is for sinners to come to Christ! They have the authority of the Father directing them to listen to Him, to obey His call; Christ’s finished work provides them with a perfect basis on which to trust Him; there is also the willingness of the Spirit to apply the blessings purchased for sinners like them and His gracious power to make unwilling sinners ready to receive Christ and all His blessings. And what encouragement there is for believers to come to Him again and again – whatever their doubts and fears, their sins and their weaknesses! He is able to save to the uttermost.
1Edward Morgan, ed, Thomas Charles’ Spiritual Counsels, Banner of Truth Trust reprint, 1993, p 122.