“THE FATHER LOVES THE SON”
I feel confirmed to say a brief word as to the Father’s love for the Son, and how the Father has found everything in Him, in that one Man. Our brother has referred to Him as God’s anointed, the Man of God’s choice. I was affected by this yesterday, when we read in Genesis as to how the word of God came to Abraham in chapter 22. God said, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac” (v.2). It struck me as never before as to the love of the Father for the Son. We may become accustomed to speaking about the fact, because it is a fact, that the Father loves the Son. It may affect us less than it should. But I would like to gain for myself a deeper appreciation of the extent of the Father’s love for the Son.
We often refer to the mount of transfiguration, when the Father expressed His delight in Him (see Matt.17:1-5). That expression of delight must involve the Father’s love. The Father’s love for Christ is perhaps an even deeper thought than His delight in Him: “The Father loves the Son”. We read in John’s epistle that “God is love”, 1 John 4:8. Love is God’s nature, the very essence of what God is. And “The Father loves the Son”: everything that the heart of God desires is found in Christ.
These three short portions of scripture might give us distinct impressions as to why the Father loves the Son. It says, a few verses earlier, “He who comes from above is above all. He who has his origin in the earth is of the earth, and speaks as of the earth. He who comes out of heaven is above all”, John 3:31. In Isaiah 53, He is spoken of prophetically as “a root out of dry ground” (v.2). He did not derive anything from this scene; He is entirely from above. Think too of what the Scripture says, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, Col.2:9. This is the One that the Father loves. The Father loves the Son, and the Lord Jesus in His pathway here expressed God’s love towards His creature, man. This scripture brings out that the Father loves Him because of who He is as His Son. His greatness and glory mark Him out, that One who is the Son.
In John 5, there is a suggestion that the Father loves the Son because of what the Son has done. The Son expressed the love of God when He was here upon the earth. This passage is in the context of the man who wanted to get into the pool, but was unable. Well, the Lord healed him: that man did not have to wait for the moving of the waters. Jesus moved in complete accordance with His Father’s will, giving the Father fresh cause to love Him. You get the sense, confirmed in the scripture here, that there is perfect accord between how the Father was working and how the Son was working. The Father loves the Son because of that; there was further cause for the Father to love the Son.
In the last passage, we have, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. Think of what the Son has secured for the pleasure of the Father! An eternal answer in the form of praise from men has come out of His death. He says as to His life, “that I may take it again”. What power lies behind that, but think too of the fruit from His death. The Father loves the Son because He was prepared to lay down His life, and the object in view was that He might take His life again. And now His life is beyond the grave. It says, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”, Heb. 10:9. The “second” is established in Christ.
On this account the Father loves the Son; everything has been secured in Him. We sometimes sing:
‘And now Thou art there, the Beginning
Of all that shall be for God’s rest’
Hymn 39
The Father loves the Son because of what He has secured for the Father. I would like to have a greater appreciation of how the Father loves the Son. The Father has found His full delight in Him; His full pleasure was found in Him. He is entirely satisfied in Christ, and He loves Him. What affection flows from the Father to the Son.
May we have a greater appreciation of this, for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Witney
15 September 2025
Eddie McKay