Luke 3:22b: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased,”
God the Father says Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and He is well pleased with Jesus. The word ‘beloved’ in Greek is ‘agapetos’, which comes from the word ‘agape’, the greatest form of love, God’s love. ‘Agapetos’ therefore means ‘dearly loved by God, God’s dear, God’s beloved’.
God the Father also says “in You, I am well pleased.” What exactly does ‘well pleased’ mean? In Greek, it is ‘eudokeo’, which means ‘approved, accepted, have good pleasure of.’ So Jesus is not only the beloved of God, He is also approved of God, accepted of God, and have good pleasure of God!
Today, if you have believed and received Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, God also says this to you, “You are My beloved son/daughter, and in you I am well pleased.”
Now, notice in Luke 4:3, when Jesus was led after that by the Spirit into the wilderness, the devil tried to omit the word ‘beloved’ from Jesus. The devil only called Jesus ‘Son of God’, instead of ‘beloved Son of God.’ The devil was trying to tempt Jesus by saying, ‘If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ The devil omitted the word ‘beloved’ when he talked to Jesus, trying to cause Jesus to forget that He is the beloved Son of God.
Today, the devil’s strategy is still the same. He wants to divert you from knowing that you are actually God’s beloved. The devil will say this to you, “Hey, how about this sin you committed just now, how about that sin you committed yesterday? You think God is still pleased with you? You think God still love you? You are filthy, how can you be a beloved of God?” Well friends, this is a blatant lie of the devil.
When we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are already a beloved of God. We are also already made joint-heirs with Jesus (Romans 8:17), and already made to sit together with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). In short, we are already made righteous in Christ. All our sins have already been forgiven when Jesus died on the cross, once and for all. And now on account of Jesus and His finished works on the cross, you have also become a beloved of God, and God is also well pleased with you!
So the next time the devil tries to make you doubt if you are really a beloved of God, look to Jesus again and His finished works on the cross. You are already made joint-heirs, sitting together with Jesus. You have already been accepted of God, not by your own works, but by what Jesus has already done for you on the cross.
