Unveiling The Glory Through Sonship

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than Yourself, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. Psalm 8:3-8

There is glory to be discovered and seen in all the works of God. In this psalm David asks the question: “What is man...?”, as he recognised the majesty of God’s creation and how small man was in comparison. However, his next statement indicates that He knew man’s place in God’s order: “Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and majesty!” The King James renders the phrase “a little lower than the angels”, yet the Hebrew word is elohim, meaning God not angels. Nowhere in scripture is it said that angels have dominion over the earth. Man was the only created being that has been given that right. So we can see that the text should read, ”You have made him (man) a little lower than God.”

This is an amazing statement that God created man a little lower than Himself! Not only did He create us a little lower than Himself but the Word says, He “crowned us with glory and honour.” In other words, He created us to rule and He gave us the power and authority to do it. The word “glory" in this passage of scripture is the Hebrew word kabod which means the full weight of something. Kabod refers to a visible manifestation of the nature, character, greatness and reputation of God.

Everything God created exists to manifest the glory of God. Psalms 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of His hands.”

Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Paul, in referring to the glory, states in 1 Corinthians 15:41, “The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.”

All of creation was created and designed to display glory, but only man was made in the image of God. Man was created to be like God in nature and character. All that God created us to be, we already possess. God created us to display Himself in the earth, which is why we are created in His image and have the capacity to rule and have dominion. After God gave man dominion (Genesis 1:26) He said, “now be fruitful and multiply.” To “be fruitful” means to reproduce or to bring out that which is on the inside. Being fruitful is producing and reproducing the nature, character and reputation of God in the earth, which is His glory.

The radiance of the Father

As sons of God we are created with the inherit ability to display the radiance of the Father’s glory. Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

In John 17:1 & 5 there is a reference to two glories which we need to take a close look at. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: 1“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Jesus was saying, “I’ve completed what was required of Me and I’m asking You to restore to Me the glory I had before the world was formed.” So there was a glory He had before he was sent to the earth. He then goes on to say in verse 22, “I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are One.” Let’s break this down. He’s returning to the glory of being God, which he left when He was sent to the earth to be man. Yet the Father gave Him a certain glory while He was on earth, that glory He was not returning to. He was leaving that glory to enable and benefit His sons and those who would believe in Him through their word. So it is clear that there are two glories Jesus was referring to. The glory before the foundations of the world and the glory He was given while on earth. The later glory has been given to us!

What is that glory? In verse 23 it says, ”I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one”. He is following on from verse 22 stating what the glory was that His Father gave Him: You in Me and I in You. Jesus is saying that the Father chose to live as Himself in man! We can often overlook the magnitude of this reality - God confining Himself in an earthen vessel. That’s why Jesus said, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father, for the Father and I are One.” This is the glory that Jesus was given! And that glory He did not take to heaven but transferred the rights to His sons.

This is why Paul states in Colossians 3:3-4 “For you died, and your life is now hidden with God in Christ, so when Christ who is our life appears, you will appear with Him in glory.” Paul is not talking about the end of the age when Jesus returns. He is speaking about your life NOW; about Him being manifest to you and in you where you are. Remember that the glory He is speaking of relates to the glory He transferred to His sons, which is the Father being one with His sons. He is not referring to us going to heaven to experience glory!

Revealing the glory

We are designed to be the primary source by which the Father can reveal His glory! This is something that we cannot do of ourselves but rather He lives to do in us. So how does this happen? The key is found in John 17:18, As You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world. This is a simple yet profound statement and it is the key to unlocking and releasing the glory in the earth.

Looking at the life of Jesus as the ‘pattern Son’ we can draw out key conclusions in relation to the glory. We understand that Jesus was One sent of God but He emptied Himself of the glory He had before He was sent to the earth and became a man. He then had to ‘learn’ how to grow into a new glory. The key to unlocking that glory was sonship. When he was as young as twelve, Jesus said to His earthly Mum and Dad, “Did you not know that I was about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). For the first time in scripture Jesus acknowledges His sonship. Even though He was a son, the glory was not fully released through Him, why?, because he hadn’t ‘come of age’. He had not yet matured as a full grown son. Eighteen years later we see Jesus at the Jordon being baptized and the heavens opened to Him, and the voice of God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17). The Father was acknowledging and decreeing, “My Son has come of age and as a result I am now able to give Him the keys to My kingdom.

Jesus had matured to a state of sonship by which He was now one with the Father and as a result the Father’s glory could be demonstrated through Him. Maturing as a son is a true principle to the heavens opening to us and the glory being released. Like Jesus, the seed of our heavenly Father is in us. We are sons by birth, yet we are still maturing into sonship. Several times in scripture Paul writes to the various churches and addresses them as babes or children in God. He was identifying that they were sons of God but that they were immature. Even though they were sons, based upon their immaturity they were hindering and holding back their inheritance from manifesting. (Refer to Galatians 4:1-7-1; Corinthians 3:1-3 and Ephesians 4:14-15)

The kingdom of God has an order to it. Sonship is the basis of which the kingdom operates. The purpose of God putting man into the earth is to ultimately have a son so that His glory can be manifest in the earth.