How Do We Show True Acceptance of the Father’s Authority?

But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:33)

Today’s big question: how do we show true acceptance of the Father’s authority?

Jesus came into this world as the full representation of the Father’s glory (Hebrews 1:3). In one sense, if we want to see the glory of the Father, we need to look at Jesus (John 14:9). Humanity is unable to see God’s glory in all its splendor and live (Exodus 33:20). Since Jesus came in the likeness of man, we do not get a full sense of that glory in Jesus’ physical body.

However, we do see the Father’s glory in Jesus as we observe His infinite wisdom, His overwhelming grace and mercy, and His perfect and holy nature. Many did not recognize Jesus’ glory even while He walked among them. They saw His great and miraculous acts of healing, and they heard Him teach the Scriptures with total command and authority. They even witnessed His sinless life.

To many Jesus was a great teacher, and others thought He was simply a sensation to behold. Yet few beheld His true glorious reflection of the Father—even among His disciples there was one who ignored Jesus’ true glory for his own selfish gain.

While instructing His disciples, Jesus stated that whoever confessed Him before men would be confessed by Him before His Father (Matthew 10:32). Similarly, whoever denies Jesus will also be denied before His Father.

We often separate the Father from the Son and the Holy Spirit in our thinking. When we want to look at the Father, we often go to the Old Testament, and when we want to look at the Son, we often read the Gospels. Considering our finite capacity to comprehend the infinite Trinity, it is understandable that we frequently make these distinctions.

We know from Scripture that there is one God—and that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Colossians 2:9; Acts 5:3–4). When we behold the glory of Jesus, we behold the glory of the Father and the Spirit.

Jesus is the direct representation of the Father’s glory and our only access to the Father. If any person desires to know or even to respect the authority of the Father, we have to know and respect the authority of the Son. Whoever denies the Son denies the Father.

Jesus focused on bringing glory to the Father through the redemption of His children. He also perfectly displayed the Father’s glory through His person and works. Those who were illuminated by that glory and beheld Jesus through true faith also beheld the marvelous glory of the Father in its entire redemptive splendor.

Today’s big idea: when you know and love the Son, you know and love the Father.

What to pray: call upon Jesus that you might truly desire the Father’s glory.