DIVINE APPROVAL

LIGHT ON THE HIDDEN YEARS AT NAZARETH

The baptism of Jesus separated between His private and public life. At that baptism the opened heavens, the descending Spirit, and the voice of the Father alike bore testimony to the perfection of the Son.

The Divine voice had special significance as a declara­tion concerning the character of Christ as He emerged from the seclusion of the hidden years. Three times during the period of public ministry did this Divine voice break the silence of the heavens, announcing the Father's approval of the Son of His love. On each occasion the silence was so broken for the bearing of testimony to the perfection of Jesus.

The first occasion was the one now under consideration, when the voice declared, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." (Matt 3:17)

The second was when upon the mount of transfigur­ation, the same voice was heard saying, "This is My be­loved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." (Matt 17:5)

The third was when Jesus, drawing near to His Cross, the shadow and sorrow thereof failing over His life, prayed, "Father, glorify Thy name," and the answer came, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." (John 12:28)

In each case the breaking of the silence of the heavens was for the announcement of God's commendation of Christ, as in some fresh crisis of life He set His face towards the death, which was to culminate the work of redemption, according to the purposes of God. He went into the waters of Jordan, and was numbered with the transgressors in the baptism of repentance, taking His place with them in that symbol of death, as He would finally associate Himself with them in actual death. So far as the Person and character of Christ were concerned, He had no need of the baptism of John. The prophet was perfectly right when he said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” (Matt. 3:14) By His action He signified His consent to identification with sinners, even to death. Here then, at once becomes evident the value of the Divine statement. It was a declaration of the perfection of Jesus, and conse­quently of the value of that sacrifice which He would ulti­mately offer.

This indeed was the signification in each of the three cases quoted, for on the mount of transfiguration, He spoke with the heavenly visitors of His coming exodus, thus in the light of that wondrous glory facing His death for men. And on the third occasion it was when He troubled in Spirit, at the prospect of death, yet deliberately declared that for death He had come unto that hour, and prayed only for the glorification of the Divine name. In three crises He faced and consented to death, and on each occasion heaven sealed the sacrifice as being perfect, and therefore of in­finite value.

This statement of the perfection of Jesus made at His baptism is a window through which light falls upon His Person and character in the years that had been spent at Nazareth.

In the account of the creation in Genesis, it is declared that man, created in the image of God was appointed master of all created things, the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and the beasts of the field. He was, moreover, placed in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it, that fact indicating that all the wonderful possibilities lying within the new creation were to be realized by the atten­tion and work of man. The psalmist, overwhelmed by the majesty of the heavens, asks in astonishment,

“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” and then answers his question in words that recall the Di­vine intention as revealed in Genesis: "For Thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor.

Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;

Thou hast put all things under his feet:

All sheep and oxen,

Yea, and the beasts of the field,

The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." (Psa. 8:4-8)

Man, in the first Divine intention, is master of creation. He is born to have dominion. This psalm is quoted by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews:

“But one hath somewhere testified, saying,

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, And didst set him over the works of Thy hands:

Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet.

For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.” (Heb. 2:6-9) That is a declara­tion of the original purpose of God. The writer then proceeds, “But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold . . . Jesus." Without seal­ing with the full purpose or intention of the writer's argument, it is evident that he intends to declare, that while man as he is today has failed to realize the Di­vine intention, this Man was an exception to the general failure, in that He perfectly realized it. To Him all things were in subjection. He was Master of the fish of the sea, and knew where to find them, when the disciples had been baffled in their all-night fishing. He understood the habits of the birds of the heavens, and drew some of His sweetest lessons from them. The very beasts of the field recognized His Lordship. Of this there is a glimpse in the account of the temptation as chronicled by Mark, "He was WITH the wild beasts;" (Mark 1:13) the preposition used indicating close contact, and therefore also suggesting that He was unharmed by them. He was indeed God's perfect Man, having dominion over the things of His Father's creation.

To facilitate the meditation on the perfections of Jesus as Man, fall back upon the simplest analysis of human personality that of spirit and body, dealing with the mind as the consciousness of this compound personality. In­ferentially the New Testament has much to say concern­ing the perfection of Jesus in spirit and body during those years of seclusion in Nazareth.