Best Beloved, April 8

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”—Matthew 3:17JNN 108.1

The result of hastening or hindering the gospel, we think of, if at all, in relation to ourselves and to the world. Few think of its relation to God. Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that sin, from its very inception, has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach God’s ideal, brings grief to Heaven. When there came upon Israel the calamities that inevitably followed separation from God—subjugation by their enemies, oppression, cruelty, and death—it is said of God, that “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (Judges 10:16). “In all their affliction He was afflicted ... and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).JNN 108.2

His Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). As the “whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain” (Romans 8:22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar-house, a scene of misery that no pen can picture, misery that we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all. In order to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put it in our power, by co-operation with Him, to bring this scene of misery to an end. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).—General Conference Bulletin, 4th quarter, 1902.JNN 108.3

Further Reflection: When God broke through the atmosphere that day to declare that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, He knew what lay ahead for Jesus—a life of suffering and death. As Ellen White noted, all of heaven suffered with Jesus. If I was in heaven during the time when Jesus was suffering on earth to save fallen humanity from sin, what might I say or do to comfort God the Father?JNN 108.4