MARK 1.9-11: In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (10) And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. (11) And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (ESV)
Psalm 29 affirms that God is One who speaks. God spoke the universe into existence. He spoke to Moses by means of the burning bush. And in this case of verse 11 above, God spoke from heaven for the first time in the New Testament. God also spoke from heaven during the transfiguration of Jesus, and He spoke through a voice from heaven in John 12.28, when Jesus asked God the Father to glorify God’s own name.
In the verses above Jesus is at the completion point of His preparation to begin His public ministry. All of these thirty years of training will now transition into action. Luke 2.41-52 does give us the one glimpse into Jesus’ childhood and the progress of His preparation in His early years, when He met with the religious scholars in the Temple. And His interaction with them indicated His extraordinary understanding of God’s word.
And in verse 11 God expresses His approval of Jesus when He says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (ESV). But the expression recorded in the original language seems a little unusual because it literally says, “in whom I was well pleased.” Some grammarians call this the “dramatic” use of this verb form. It is used in this context in a way that doesn’t technically apply, but its purpose is to grab our attention and draw us to intently listen to the message being spoken.
Jesus, as God’s beloved Son, means that God took action by the Holy Spirit at the moment of Jesus’ conception and actually became Jesus’ Father. John 3.16 refers to Jesus as God’s “only begotten Son” in some translations to express the idea that God the Father made the way for Jesus’ birth. For those of us who put our faith in Jesus, we are children of God as “adopted” children, and thus we are adopted into God’s family by faith in Christ. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians writes about this in chapter 4.1-7.