It is recorded in Mark's Gospel that as Jesus came up out of the water, having been baptized of John, "he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
To each one as he is baptized of Spirit, as he apprehends the fullness of his stature as a child of God, there comes something of the experience which came to Jesus in that hour. For him also the heavens are opened, purity and peace descend upon him in their exquisite benediction; he is conscious not only of his love for God, but of God's love for him, directing and sustaining his mounting footsteps.
We know that nothing which took place in the realm of human experience after that proclamation of their divine relationship was able to rob Jesus of or separate him from what the Holy Ghost had revealed. The union of fatherhood and sonship had been pronounced and sealed. Sonship as expressed by man, fatherhood as expressed by God, were here for all men to behold, and beholding, understand. The Word had been made flesh. Thus does Mind bear witness to itself in showing forth the ideal man. Beloved, affiliated, endowed, this is the status of Son; proclaiming, maintaining, confirming, this is the status of Father. What wonder that from henceforth their relationship was ever in the thought of Jesus and the affirmation of it seldom off his lips! In its unfolding interpretation every forward step was taken; on it every decision was based. As he came up out of the water, Spirit had borne witness to him in loving approbation. In his contacts with mankind, no less than in his own inner spiritual communion, he was to show continual awareness of this approbation. In all his actions he was to acknowledge no kinship, no authority, no law, no evidence, but the divine.
