If God did not infinitely and fully delight in his own worth reflected in the image of himself in the face of his son.

There would be no bounty, there would be no joy,

there would be no fountain from which has spilled out everything you have and from which our redemption comes.

Why is it essential that God eternally delights in his son?

That's the question John Piper answers from Matthew 17-5 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached

at Bethlehem Baptist Church on January 25, 1987.

Today's message goes back to the beginning.

It goes back as far as I'm able to go in my little human mind to where the

delight of God began and the object in which it began and I want to develop this in five affirmations.

Affirmation number one is this.

God has pleasure in his son.

God has pleasure in his son.

Peter James and John were granted the unspeakable privilege of going with Jesus up on the mount where he was

transfigured, which is a big fancy word for something simply unutterable that happened.

Peter tells us about it in his second letter.

He says that God came and glorified the sun.

God came and it says Christ's face shone like the sun. Now today it's a little hazy outside but on one of these

glorious clear days better in the summertime when the sun has gotten back up

where it belongs here instead of hanging way down there in Texas.

Try just for a half second to look at it.

No longer than that because you'll be blinded in five seconds by the sun.

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