Ⅱ
God's good pleasure, God's heart's desire, is what makes God happy:
A
God is happy with the creation of the earth; His kingdom will be set up on the earth—Job 38:4, 7; Matt. 6:10; Rev. 5:10; 11:15; 21:1; Zech. 12:1.
B
God is happy with the creation of man; for each of the items that God had created, He said "good" (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 21, 25), but for the creation of man, He said "very good" because man had God's image and had been given God's dominion for the glory of God and the kingdom of God (vv. 26, 31; Isa. 43:7; Matt. 6:10, 13b).
C
God is happy with the incarnation (Luke 2:9-14); Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, and the Prince of Peace to be the unique Governor, and the government of the Triune God is upon His shoulder (Isa. 9:6-7); He is our Savior and our Emmanuel, the God-man, the One who is united, mingled, and incorporated with man (Matt. 1:21, 23; John 14:9-11, 16-20).
D
God is happy with Christ's baptism; when He was baptized to begin His public ministry, "the heavens were opened to Him.... And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight"; the Lord Jesus, taking the standing of a typical man, was baptized to fulfill all righteousness and to allow Himself to be put into death and resurrection so that He might live and minister in resurrection—Matt. 3:13-17.
E
God is happy with the resurrected and glorified Christ; when Christ was transfigured, as a foreshadowing of His resurrection, "behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!" (17:5); God took pleasure in the resurrection and glorification of His Son (Luke 24:26).
F
God is happy when His prodigal sons return to Him; the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 may be called the parable of a happy father; after the father "ran" to his returning son (v. 20), he told his servants to bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and he said, "Let us eat and be merry" (v. 23); here we see the merriment of God.
G
God is happy when His Son is revealed in us—"It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15-16)—and when we are fully brought into the sonship of God (4:4-6; Eph. 1:4-5); this fulfills God's good pleasure to have many sons for His corporate expression; the Son revealed in us has brought us into the meaning of the earth, of man, and of the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Lord.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 3:16-17 And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him…. And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.Gal. 1:15-16 …It pleased God, who set me apart…, to reveal His Son in me…
God’s good pleasure was expressed first in the creation of the earth [cf. Job 38:4, 7].
God’s kingdom will be set up on earth, not on any other planet (Matt. 6:10; Rev. 11:15). The eternal universe will be called the new heaven and the new earth (21:1). God’s eternal kingdom will not be on the moon or on Mars. The earth is where His pleasure lies, even unto eternity. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Life Messages, Volume 1,” pp. 418-419)
Today’s Reading
As God saw man in the midst of the rest of His creation, His love toward man prompted Him to say “very good” [Gen. 1:31]. Man is the delight of God’s heart. God loves the earth because it was prepared for this man in whom He delights.As happened when the foundations of the earth were laid, the heavenly hosts rejoiced also at the incarnation. The angel of the Lord brought “good news of great joy” to the shepherds [Luke 2:9-14]. What made God so pleased with the advent of the “Savior…, who is Christ the Lord” (v. 11)? Before the incarnation the earth was the earth, man was man, and God was God. But at this point God made Himself one with man. Jesus is the mingling of God and man. “’They shall call His name Emmanuel’ (which is translated, God with us)” (Matt. 1:23). When Jesus was living on this earth, He was a wonder. He was the great God mingled with His creature.
Christ began His public ministry by being baptized….The word delight [in Matthew 3:17] is from the same root in Greek as good pleasure in Ephesians 1:5 and 9. The Father took pleasure in this One who turned Himself over to John the Baptist to be baptized. By receiving baptism He was symbolically receiving the cross. This is apparent from His questions to the sons of Zebedee much later: “Are you able to drink the cup which I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38). By baptism He meant His crucifixion. In the eyes of God, then, the death of Christ was pleasant. God delights in the crucified Christ. From week to week as we have the Lord’s table, we display this pleasant death to the universe (1 Cor. 11:26).
God’s good pleasure is wrapped up with us [cf. Gal. 1:15-16]. There was joy in heaven the day we were saved because the Son of God was then revealed in us. This pleasure of God relates to all the other things that made God happy. If there had been no earth, how could Jesus have lived in Nazareth? Without the creation of man, how could there be Emmanuel, God with us? Without the earth and man, there could not have been the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Son of God. It was by His mingling with man that He became the Son of Man, instead of remaining as only the Son of God.
When He came into us, the meaning of the earth, of man, of the incarnation, of the crucifixion, and of the resurrection all became our portion. Where is Christ today? He is universal. He is both God and man. He is in the heavens and on the earth. We are one with Him. At one time we were ordinary people, insignificant sinners. But now there is something wonderful about us. It is hard for us to explain to others what we are, who we are, and even where we are! The Son revealed in us has brought us into the meaning of the earth, of man, and of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Lord. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Life Messages, Volume 1,” pp. 419-421)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1978, vol. 2, “Life Messages, Volume 1,” chs. 33-38; CWWN, vol. 50, “Messages for Building Up New Believers (3),” ch. 49