3 Expressions of the Father’s Delight in the Son

In Shining like the Sun

God’s pleasure is first and foremost a pleasure in his Son. The Bible reveals this to us while showing us the face of Jesus shining like the sun of our solar system. In Matthew 17 Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain. When they are all alone something utterly astonishing happens. Suddenly God pulls back the curtain of the incarnation and lets the kingly glory of the Son of God shine through. “His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Matt. 17:2). Peter and the others were stunned. Near the end of his life, Peter wrote that he had seen the majestic glory on the holy mountain and that he had heard a voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (2 Pet. 1:17–18; Matt. 17:5).

When God declares openly that he loves and delights in his Son, he gives a visual demonstration of the Son’s unimaginable glory. His face shone like the sun, his garments became translucent with light, and the disciples fell on their faces (Matt. 17:6). The point is not merely that humans should stand in awe of such a glory but that God himself takes full pleasure in such glory—in the radiance of his Son. He reveals him in blinding light and then says, “This is my delight!”

A memory is fresh in my mind that makes the radiance of God’s Son very real. Our staff took a two-day retreat for prayer and planning at the beginning of 1991. The retreat center was a former mansion now made into simple accommodations for people who want to seek God. On our second day there, I got up early and took my Bible to the garden porch, a glassed-in nook of the house overlooking a steep drop-off and the Mississippi River to the east. The sun was not yet up, but there was light.

My appointed reading for that morning was Psalm 3. I read,

You, O Lord, are . . .
     my glory, and the lifter of my head. (Ps. 3:3)

And as I pondered this, the red pinpoint of the sun pierced the horizon straight in front of me. It startled me because I hadn’t even realized I was facing east. I watched for a moment as the pinpoint became a fingernail of fire. Then I read on. “Arise, O Lord!” (Ps. 3:7). And I looked up to see the whole red-gold ball blazing just over the river. Within moments there was no more looking at it without going blind. The higher it rose, the brighter it got.

I thought of John’s vision of Christ in Revelation 1: “His face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Rev. 1:16). My glimpse that morning lasted maybe five minutes before the strength of the rising sun turned my face away. Who can look upon the sun shining in full strength? The answer is that God can. The radiance of the Son’s face shines first and foremost for the enjoyment of his Father. “This is the Son whom I love; he is my pleasure. You must fall on your face and turn away, but I behold my Son in his radiance every day with love and never-fading joy.”

I thought to myself, surely this is one thing implied in John 17:26—that the day is coming when I will have the capacity to delight in the Son the way the Father does. My fragile eyes will get the resurrection power to take in the glory of God’s Son shining in his full strength just the way the Father does. The pleasure God has in his Son will become my pleasure, and I will not be consumed but enthralled forever.

In Meekness

Again, the Father speaks words of endearment and delight about his Son on another occasion. At Jesus’s baptism, the Spirit of God descends like a dove while the Father says from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16–17). The image is very different from the transfiguration in Matthew 17. Not a flaming sun of intolerable brightness but a soft, quiet, vulnerable dove—the kind of animal poor people offered for sacrifices in the temple. God’s pleasure in his Son comes not only from the brightness of his majesty but from the beauty of his meekness.

The Father delights in his Son’s supremacy and in his servanthood.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. (John 3:35)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. (Isa. 42:1)

Matthew quotes this Old Testament testimony of the Father’s joy and connects it with the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the meekness of Jesus’s ministry.

Behold, my Servant whom I have chosen,
     my beloved in whom my soul delights.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
     and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
     nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering flax. (Matt. 12:18–20)

The Father’s very soul exults with joy over the servant-like meekness and compassion of his Son. When a reed is bent and about to break, the servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals. When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left, the servant will not pinch it off but cup his hand and blow gently until it burns again. Thus the Father cries, “Behold, my Servant in whom my soul delights!”

The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty or just from his meekness but also from the way these mingle in perfect proportion. When the angel cries out in Revelation 5:2, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” the answer came back, “Weep not; look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Rev. 5:5). God loves the strength of the Lion of Judah. This is why he is worthy in God’s eyes to open the scrolls of history and unfold the last days. But the picture is not complete. How did the Lion conquer? The next verse describes his appearance: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6). Jesus is worthy of the Father’s delight not only as the Lion of Judah but also as the slain Lamb.

One of the sermons of Jonathan Edwards that God used to kindle the Great Awakening in New England in 1734–35 was titled “The Excellency of Christ.” In it Edwards unfolds the glory of God’s Son by describing the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ.” His text is Revelation 5:5–6, and he unfolds the union of “diverse excellencies” in the union of the Lion and the Lamb. He shows how the glory of Christ is his combining of attributes that would seem to be utterly incompatible in one person.

God also loved his Son in the very act of creating the universe.

In Jesus Christ, he says, meet infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite glory and lowest humility; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence toward God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self-sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.¹

As Happy Co-Creators

Although the Son’s qualities of lowliness and meekness were not manifest until the incarnation, they were nevertheless part of the Son’s character from all eternity. He did not undergo a conversion before he submitted to the Father’s will that he die for sinners. This is why the love that the Father has for the Son goes back before creation. “Father . . . you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). There never was a time when the Father was denied the pleasure of delighting in the glory of his Son.

God also loved his Son in the very act of creating the universe. He enjoyed his Son as his own Word of Wisdom and creative power in the act of creation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1–3). The Son was the wisdom of God creating, with God, all that is not God. And, as the Proverbs say, “A wise son makes a glad father” (Prov. 10:1; 15:20). God was glad in the wisdom of his creative Son.

In fact, Proverbs is even more explicit concerning God’s delight in his wisdom—his Son. Proverbs 8 personifies wisdom at the beginning of creation as a master workman delighting the heart of God.

When he [God] established the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; . . .
     beside him, like a Master Workman;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always. (Prov. 8:27, 30)²

The Son of God was the Father’s delight as he rejoiced with the Father in the awesome work of making billions of stars.

I wonder if there was a faint resemblance of this creative camaraderie between Father and Son when Joseph and Jesus worked together in the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth. I picture Jesus about fifteen years old, humming as he worked. The plank is cut with masterful strokes, carved with three small posts protruding in their appointed places, and then fitted perfectly into the joining board to make a solid bench. Jesus smiles as he smacks the wood with pleasure. All the while Joseph has been standing at the door watching the hands of his son. He sees the image of his own workmanship and his own life. The skill of his adopted son is the evidence of the father’s skill. The humming of his son is the endorsement of the father’s joy. And when they put their energy together to lift a finished table for the synagogue, their eyes meet with a flash of delight that says, “You are a treasure to me, and I love you with all my heart.”

I have four sons. I have seen them make good grades in school, letter in varsity sports, memorize long portions of Scripture, and slay dragons with plastic swords. I have seen them build businesses, father children, write books, and compose poetry. When I see their skill, I think of all the hours we have played and prayed and thought and worked and fought (the dragons!) together over the years. And my heart is filled with a sense of wonder that I was creating things through my sons. When they rejoice in this, and when they smile at me on the sidelines or in the audience, they are a great pleasure to me.

Perhaps we may be allowed to see in this a faint echo of the shout of joy the Father had in the Son when together they created the universe out of nothing. Imagine the look they gave each other when a billion galaxies stood forth at their command.

This article is adapted from The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God by John Piper.

Related Articles