Matthew 3:17

This is] This represents the form in which the Baptist heard the words. 'Thou art' (Mk, Lk) represent the form in which Jesus heard them. My beloved Son] cp. Matthew 17:5. The highest sense is to be given to these words. The Father bears witness, not only to Christ's Messiahship, butto His eternal and divine Sonship, in virtue of which He is from all eternity 'in the bosom of the Father,' loving and beloved. In whom I am well pleased] cp. Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18. Lest the Baptism of Christ should be thought to indicate that He was a sinner like ourselves, the Father was pleased to pronounce Him absolutely sinless. The tense of the Gk. is difficult. The Revisers (also Plummer) regard it as a timeless aorist. But it may be an ordinary historical aorist, and thus point to Christ's preëxistence—'in whom I was well pleased,' viz. before the Incarnation and before the creation of the world. The words are also a message full of grace to mankind. As the Son is ever well pleasing and acceptable to the Father, so also are all those who are found in Him.