The Son is the radiance of God’s glory
Ask yourself, “What is the most precious thing to God?” Of all things that exist, what does He value most highly? That which is most precious to God is infinitely valuable to Him. Of greatest value to God is His only begotten Son. After all, what in creation could be more valuable than the one who created it all (Colossians 1:16)? But while He is infinitely valuable just because of who He is, we must not miss the fact that He is infinitely valuable in the eyes of His Father. Everything within God screams that Jesus, the Son, is everything to Him. “As you come to Him, the living Stone–rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him” (I Peter 2:4). Because the Heavenly Father values His Son more than anything else, He takes notice of how people speak and think about Him. Luke records an event that contrasts the love two different people each had for Jesus. “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so He went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them…Then He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet” (Luke 7:36-38, 44-46). From this story, we clearly see that the woman felt deep adoration for Jesus while the other person did not. If we do not possess for every moment of our lives the degree of adoration this woman had for Jesus, then Jesus is not receiving the honor due Him. We see from the book of Revelation the type of worship and attention that He will spontaneously receive forever from all His creatures in glory. “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-14). This heavenly picture demonstrates the type of worship and attention that God has in mind for Jesus and He is going to bring it about. Jesus said that the Father has “given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:22-23). The Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth takes notice of how His precious Son is treated. This is why the writer of Hebrews rightly warns, “How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:29-31). To offend the Son is to offend the Father. Consider the heated passion of God expressed in the second Psalm: “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” ‘Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. ‘Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 2:7-12).
An attempt has been made here to convey something of the worth that the Father places on Jesus though His worth cannot be conveyed with all the words in the world. The passages immediately above serve chiefly as warnings to those outside of Christ but they speak volumes about the honor that Jesus deserves from all people, especially those of us who know Him. He deserves all honor because of who He is, the infinitely valuable Son of the Most High God. Consider again the myriads of people pictured in the fifth chapter of Revelation and the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Neither these people nor the woman were worshiping Jesus out of a sense of duty. This was spontaneous affection and the deepest adoration overflowing from within their hearts. Now, can you imagine this woman not speaking about Him with all her friends, relatives and everyone she meets? If you tried to keep the woman from testifying about Jesus, there is no doubt that she would burst. Or, can you imagine any of the myriads of people pictured in the Revelation passage not speaking continuously about Jesus? We see from these things that it is only fitting for those who know Him to continuously proclaim the Excellencies of Jesus as loudly as possible. Because of who He is, the Wonderful Son of the Most High God, such proclamation should spring forth spontaneously from hearts full of praise for Him. We also see that this loud proclamation of Jesus’ worth does indeed take place whenever Jesus possesses all of our hearts. To the degree that we adore Him, we spontaneously testify of His great worth to all. And the more we treasure Jesus as the Father treasures Him, the more zealous we will be for His exaltation in all the earth. Like the Father, we will be jealous for His glory to be revealed because He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3). Truly, to the extent that our hearts are enthralled with Him, we will be witnesses of Jesus to the uttermost parts of the world.
Father, give us eye salve so we will see This Radiance of Your glory so that we will love Him more than life!