780 proof that Jesus of Nazareth was the Mes siah of God. The Supernatural Phenomena. 1. The open heavens. Never before had the heavens been thus opened to any one. Four times only in the New Testament do we read of the heavens being opened to any one and then Christ is always the object of vision: In the scene of the baptism it is “to Him” that the Heavens are opened, and the mes sage of the heavenly voice concerned the deity of the Christ (John i. 33, 34). In John i. 50, 51 we -have the second instance of the open heavens. Here, too, Christ is the object and subject of the vision. It is by and through Christ that all heavenly ministrations come to us. This is true whether we look upon Christ as being the ladder or the object of angelic ministrations, as in the case of Jacob. Christ is the principal subject of the open heavens. The third instance is Acts vii. 55, 56. Here Stephen sees the heavens opened, and the one all-absorbing vision that breaks upon his wondering sight is the glorified Son of Man. In Revelation xix. 11-16 we have another picture of the open heavens, and the object that meets our sight here is the Lord Jesus Himself, coming forth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Of course, in a certain sense, the trans figuration, too, gives us the vision of an open heaven, but how quickly Moses and Elias disappear when Peter would put them on a level with Christ. Thus we see that Christ Himself is the center of the trans figuration scene. In the baptism narrative, theerfore, Christ is the object of heaven’s gaze, and not heaven the object of His gaze, as in the case of others. On or to no other one of the sons of men had heaven been able to look with' such complacepcy and say, “well pleased.” In the Old Testament we often hear the people cry, “Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down.” Now the heavens have been rent and God has come down.
THE KING’S BUSINESS
The Messiah is Immanuel—God with us. 2. The heavenly voice. Out of the rent heavens came the voice of God, saying, “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We are told that Christ was praying at His baptism, and one sometimes wonders if the heavenly voice was an answer to the prayer of the Son. We remember that in John xii. 28, 29 the heav enly voice was the direct answer to the prayer of Christ. May it not have been so in this case? What did this heavenly voice signify to Christ? “This is my beloved Son” takes us back to the second Psalm where this person is addressed as the ideal King of Israel. The last clause—“in whom I am well pleased” —refers to Isaiah xlii., and portrays the Servant who is aniointed and empowered by the endowment of God’s Spirit. We must admit that the mind of Jesus was steeped in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and that He knew to whom these passages referred. The ordinary Jew knew that much. The Targum comments on Psalm ii. 7 as follows : “Beloved as a son to his father art thou.” There can be no doubt but that it was from this expression that John understood Christ to be the Son of God. Is it too much to say that on that baptismal day Jesus was keenly conscious that these Old Testament predictions were fulfilled in Him? We think not. Of course we always remember in this connection that even as early as thè visit of the Christ-child to the temple, there-is an indication of His own Messianic consciousness. There are three instances in the gospels in which the heavenly voice is heard, wit nessing to the deity and Messianic work of the Christ. These three instances occur at criticai points in the Saviour’s life : His baptism, Matthew iv.; Mark i.; Luke iii.; His transfiguration, Matthew xvii.; Mark ix.; Luke ix.; and John xii. 27-30. Doubt less the heavenly messages, coming at such times, were of greatest comfort to the Sav iour in connection with the carrying on of His redemptive work.
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