He was transfigured
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart.” (Matt. 17:1). A high mountain. I wonder where that mountain was. Israel has a few, Mt. Hermon and Mt. Tabor. But it was to be alone that Jesus climbed it, to be where people don’t live.
Jesus must have known what was going to happen there—a special meeting with His Father. Jesus had a heavier burden laying on Him than usual. He, just recently, had evoked a confession of faith in Him from Peter and the other disciples. Yet, Jesus knew that they needed a deeper faith than they were satisfied to have if they were going to survive the great disappointment of the cross. This was Christ’s heavy burden for His precious pillars of the new dispensation that must endure until He could purify His church and then return to destroy the works of Satan.
Peter, ever outspoken, and often unthinking, was slated to be the leading spokesperson of the gospel movement, as Aaron was for the new nation of Israel. But oh, how much sanctification he needed! He was wonderfully generous, but in a humanistic way. It wasn’t grace that steered his generosity, but self-sufficiency. Yet it was generosity and a trust and love for Jesus, the building blocks of character that Christ found usable in Peter for His work. Peter had a temper, also because he lacked grace. But this, too, would be put to good use when courage would be required to stand up against all odds, and when the church would need a man to look to who would demonstrate the power of God.
All this was on the mind of the Son of God as He led the way up the mountain. Then, as the three bedded down, Jesus went a stone’s throw apart to beseech His Father and unburden Himself on Him upon whose soul He so completely leaned. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1). Hour after hour, the communion continued. To no one else on earth could the Lord open His most private thoughts and concerns. He was a man and limited to a man’s sight; yet He had access to the Spirit without measure, and with that came His power to know the mind of God, His beloved Father.
He wanted no distractions; not even the wants and needs of the sick and poor. It was time to be apart. There is a time for everything, for every purpose under heaven, a time to die and a time to be born, a time to pluck up and a time to plant, a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to speak and a time to refrain from speaking. There is “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” and had Christ, even as the Son of God, not taken the time away from teaching and healing the people and even His disciples, He could not have finished His course. He needed His Father; and if He needed God, how much more do we need Jesus, to communion with Him through His word in meditation and in prayer.
John went with them—the youngest of the group. He was just a teenager. Yet, he snuggled in close to Jesus; he kept an eagle eye on Him, amazed at every sight and sound. The Son of God was the greatest thrill of his life. But he was just a “stripling” (1Sam. 17:56) like David was as a youth, a “tender plant” (Is. 53:2). Yet this sapling would grow into a mighty oak, more perfectly representing the Lord than any other apostle, except maybe Paul.
From watching Christ so happily and awfully, John copied the same gentleness he saw in Jesus, using the same appellation, “little children.” He upheld the Law of God because he saw the deepest love of God in Jesus. “O how love I Thy Law; it is the meditation of my heart all the day,” was the melody of his heart as much as it was David’s. John didn’t have the theological dissertation that Paul gave the church, but he had the deepest experience of it. His theology was in his mannerisms and actions. Like that part of Christ, his life was a very powerful force for the truth. He exemplified what Paul tried his best to explain. John had “perfect love” which had cast out “all fear.”
On and on Jesus pressed His burdens on His Father. More and more He yearned to have the natural, dead human condition set aside so that He could speak face to face again with God, His Father. His crucifixion and terrible night of blackness was already laying its shadow heavy upon His thoughts. Could He pass the test? Did He have the fortitude to finish the plan of redemption, upon which all heaven hinged? Was His courage perfect? Was his connection with His Father strong enough?
Oh, if only He could have more evidence from above than only the scriptures upon which He lived! He had only what fallen man has to hold on to faith, except for His naturally divine nature from conception. Yet, He carried the weight of humanity in His being and body, and the separation from God that came with that condition left Him with the same silence to open communication that we must endure.
However, it was His natural-born union and same-mindedness with His Father that kept Him from being blinded by this, Satan’s kingdom. Yet, in this Christ had no advantage over us. Yes, He had no bad track record to deal with; He had no inherited or cultivated tendency to evil or power of sin to battle with. Yet, He had no advantage we can’t have through justification.
When we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, He treats us as if we have never sinned. He blots out our past sinful life. He forgives and forgets. “All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him.” (Ez. 18:22). God sends His Holy Spirit to change our vile nature and we are born again as if we had never sinned. We are without fault from our second conception and own a new operating principle for all that we do and think.
Through a vital connection with Jesus, through communion with Him through His word and prayer and doing His works, we are brought to the change of nature and we maintain that new nature. We are held in the palm of His nail-scarred hand, and He will never let us go without our determination to leave Him. Otherwise, our life is measured by His, His character infusing ours.
Through “transpiration” a daisy or a carnation can take on a whole new color. Just sit the flower’s stem in a solution of water and food coloring, and as the plant drinks up the colored water, the flower becomes that same color. Just like the flowers that turn blue by drinking up the blue food coloring, through our absorption of His sinless character and perfect life, through the new mind that comes with justification, the faithfulness of Jesus will be substituted for our sin-stains in our characters and lives.
Jesus finally supplicated His Father all the way to heaven. The barrier between heaven and earth became so thin that the power of God rested upon Him like the dew of night. His very human nature changed, and glory beamed from His face and body. This transformation will be known by us, when, in the day He comes in power, the Maker of suns and heavenly bodies, we will be predisposed to supplicate His presence beyond any other previous effort to have Him near. When, due to the circumstances of a world which is wicked and wholly demon-possessed and plagued with rampant sinfulness and disease, we in faith surmount the insuperable separation from heaven, then we will be brought face to face with God. On that powerful day our life will be preserved only by His grace, and our allegiance to the kingdom of righteousness will be indelibly stamped into our new, permanently divine natures. Eternally we will be worthy to walk before our Father in white. “And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:4).
Jesus “was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” “And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” (Matt. 17:2;Lk. 9:30,31). What a beautiful message of love for Jesus from His Father. The Father surrounded His Son in a divine embrace as They had had before the Son’s incarnation, even from eternity. Like Moses, the type of Christ, feeding off of the Son’s eternal life on Mt. Sinai, without needing food or drink, now Christ fed off of His Father’s life-giving presence and heavenly atmosphere of holy love and pure righteousness.
Not only was the Father present to embrace His Son and to let His Son know that He was surrounding Him, but He brought Moses and Elijah with Him, too. Men who suffered in the same weakened nature as Jesus was yoked with, men “subject to like passions” (Jas. 5:17) as Christ, encouraged Him on in the similar but much more dominant of all self-sacrifices as the baptism of fire He must pass through for our redemption. As a human, Jesus needed to hear from other humans, men whose hearts were knit with His, whose minds had been transformed into His. He couldn’t count on His disciples in their present state, nor was Saul of Tarsus yet converted and in the truth. He must have the encouragement of the two greatest burden-bearers from the past.
Suddenly, the light woke up the three students of the great Master Teacher. Never had they ever seen Jesus of Nazareth look like this! Their Master was a great teacher and healer, but this was definitely not earthly! Imagine the face of your friend shining like the sun! It would get the same response of fear that the Israelites had toward Moses when he came down from Mt. Sinai.
The Master’s clothing was shimmering white like the moon. Isn’t this what we will have some day? We will be given heavenly bodies that will shine like the sun. Paul explains:
“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1Cor. 15:39-49).
The three disciples were dead asleep, “heavy with sleep.” (Lk. 9:32). “And when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him.” Peter opens his eyes, and then opens his mouth. It seems, the moment his brain began to function, he began talking. But he was talking without thinking. “For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.” (Mk. 9:6). Startled from deep slumber and rushed directly into fear of the unknown, James and John froze, but their friend began a torrent of verbiage.
What was he really doing? He was, yet again, playing the dupe of Satan to disrupt Christ’s struggle to redeem the fallen human race. If only Satan could get and keep Jesus discouraged and weakened, Christ would not complete the perfect life exemplifying perfect righteousness by a son of Adam. Thus, the whole argument of Satan could be proven true, that no one can perfectly obey God’s Law.
Peter interrupting Christ’s communion with Moses and Elijah shortened the time the Lord had with these men who had also suffered under discouragement but were brought through it by the grace of God. But, even though the meeting was shortened, Christ’s love for Peter overlooked His lessened blessing by losing the special closeness to His Father so quickly.
After Peter voiced his recommendation for three lean-to’s for the Three, a strange “bright cloud” moved in, and as they found themselves entering into this strange ether of light, their fears heightened still more. Then came “a voice out of the cloud”—the voice of God! “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” (Matt. 17:5). Stop talking; and listen to My beloved and perfect Son!!!!!!!!
Then, at the words of the Father, all three disciples ducked for cover. Wouldn’t you? Faces in the dirt, bodies trembling, breaths bated, brains perfectly upright and expecting an early judgment day, no more careless chit-chat with the royal Son of God and the two heavenly visitants. The Creator had spoken. All creatures beware!
Like Job after meeting the Lord God face to face, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:2-5).
“That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). No one is exempt from this. Our entire race stands guilty of telling God how to run His business. Its time we stop presuming upon the grace of our Mediator and start to take Him seriously. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14:7).
I heard someone say that the Father didn’t mean to sound condemning to Peter or that Jesus Himself wasn’t rebuking Peter when He said, “Get thee behind me Satan!” But, reproof and punishment don’t conflict with the Law of love. Without truth and justice, mercy and grace mean nothing except feeling or emotion. Mercy without justice destroys justice. I’m glad God spanks us. We need it.
It’s like what Paul said, that “sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it [the commandment] slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:11,12). Paul took comfort in knowing that he needed to be slain by the Law. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Heb. 12:11).
“We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:3-5). But, of course, none of this can happen without “being justified.” (vs. 1). So, one evidence of whether or not we are justified is how well we accept rebuke and correction. Did you ever wonder if you were right with God? Do you really want to know how you can tell? Answer the question, How well do I accept punishment and persecution? How do I take character assassination and gossip and false witness? How is my patience?
After being scathed by the Ancient of days, and cowering for a bit, the three heard that familiar warm, melodic voice of their Master. In the same familiar loving, majestic tones, they heard, “Arise, and be not afraid.” (Matt. 17:7). They cautiously raised their heads, and found the whole episode to be over. “When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.” (vs. 8).
Yes, Peter had ruined the special gathering sent for the strengthening of his Master. Yet, Jesus was quiet and subdued. He had gleaned from that short experience what He had prayed for so earnestly. His Father was still the same toward Him. He had not defiled Himself by exposure to a sin-filled world. He was still accepted and beloved. Nothing had changed; the plan of salvation was still on track. And He had conferred with other men, though only mortals, redeemed mortals awaiting the confirmation of their redemption in their Lord’s propitiatory sacrifice.
And another concern was relieved in Christ, that of solidifying the faith of His disciples. The very voice of His Father struck a sharp arrow of truth deep into their bones—one more advancement in their training to become the stable and settled leaders of the new movement that would continue for the next 2,000 years. In the mouth of two or three witness shall every word be established. What their Master had been teaching them had been confirmed by God. Jesus was vindicated; all His words must be true. Now, Christ could go forward with establishing judgment in the earth, His apostles more ready to fulfill their part in God’s plan of salvation.
Jesus must have known what was going to happen there—a special meeting with His Father. Jesus had a heavier burden laying on Him than usual. He, just recently, had evoked a confession of faith in Him from Peter and the other disciples. Yet, Jesus knew that they needed a deeper faith than they were satisfied to have if they were going to survive the great disappointment of the cross. This was Christ’s heavy burden for His precious pillars of the new dispensation that must endure until He could purify His church and then return to destroy the works of Satan.
Peter, ever outspoken, and often unthinking, was slated to be the leading spokesperson of the gospel movement, as Aaron was for the new nation of Israel. But oh, how much sanctification he needed! He was wonderfully generous, but in a humanistic way. It wasn’t grace that steered his generosity, but self-sufficiency. Yet it was generosity and a trust and love for Jesus, the building blocks of character that Christ found usable in Peter for His work. Peter had a temper, also because he lacked grace. But this, too, would be put to good use when courage would be required to stand up against all odds, and when the church would need a man to look to who would demonstrate the power of God.
All this was on the mind of the Son of God as He led the way up the mountain. Then, as the three bedded down, Jesus went a stone’s throw apart to beseech His Father and unburden Himself on Him upon whose soul He so completely leaned. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1). Hour after hour, the communion continued. To no one else on earth could the Lord open His most private thoughts and concerns. He was a man and limited to a man’s sight; yet He had access to the Spirit without measure, and with that came His power to know the mind of God, His beloved Father.
He wanted no distractions; not even the wants and needs of the sick and poor. It was time to be apart. There is a time for everything, for every purpose under heaven, a time to die and a time to be born, a time to pluck up and a time to plant, a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to speak and a time to refrain from speaking. There is “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing” and had Christ, even as the Son of God, not taken the time away from teaching and healing the people and even His disciples, He could not have finished His course. He needed His Father; and if He needed God, how much more do we need Jesus, to communion with Him through His word in meditation and in prayer.
John went with them—the youngest of the group. He was just a teenager. Yet, he snuggled in close to Jesus; he kept an eagle eye on Him, amazed at every sight and sound. The Son of God was the greatest thrill of his life. But he was just a “stripling” (1Sam. 17:56) like David was as a youth, a “tender plant” (Is. 53:2). Yet this sapling would grow into a mighty oak, more perfectly representing the Lord than any other apostle, except maybe Paul.
From watching Christ so happily and awfully, John copied the same gentleness he saw in Jesus, using the same appellation, “little children.” He upheld the Law of God because he saw the deepest love of God in Jesus. “O how love I Thy Law; it is the meditation of my heart all the day,” was the melody of his heart as much as it was David’s. John didn’t have the theological dissertation that Paul gave the church, but he had the deepest experience of it. His theology was in his mannerisms and actions. Like that part of Christ, his life was a very powerful force for the truth. He exemplified what Paul tried his best to explain. John had “perfect love” which had cast out “all fear.”
On and on Jesus pressed His burdens on His Father. More and more He yearned to have the natural, dead human condition set aside so that He could speak face to face again with God, His Father. His crucifixion and terrible night of blackness was already laying its shadow heavy upon His thoughts. Could He pass the test? Did He have the fortitude to finish the plan of redemption, upon which all heaven hinged? Was His courage perfect? Was his connection with His Father strong enough?
Oh, if only He could have more evidence from above than only the scriptures upon which He lived! He had only what fallen man has to hold on to faith, except for His naturally divine nature from conception. Yet, He carried the weight of humanity in His being and body, and the separation from God that came with that condition left Him with the same silence to open communication that we must endure.
However, it was His natural-born union and same-mindedness with His Father that kept Him from being blinded by this, Satan’s kingdom. Yet, in this Christ had no advantage over us. Yes, He had no bad track record to deal with; He had no inherited or cultivated tendency to evil or power of sin to battle with. Yet, He had no advantage we can’t have through justification.
When we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, He treats us as if we have never sinned. He blots out our past sinful life. He forgives and forgets. “All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him.” (Ez. 18:22). God sends His Holy Spirit to change our vile nature and we are born again as if we had never sinned. We are without fault from our second conception and own a new operating principle for all that we do and think.
Through a vital connection with Jesus, through communion with Him through His word and prayer and doing His works, we are brought to the change of nature and we maintain that new nature. We are held in the palm of His nail-scarred hand, and He will never let us go without our determination to leave Him. Otherwise, our life is measured by His, His character infusing ours.
Through “transpiration” a daisy or a carnation can take on a whole new color. Just sit the flower’s stem in a solution of water and food coloring, and as the plant drinks up the colored water, the flower becomes that same color. Just like the flowers that turn blue by drinking up the blue food coloring, through our absorption of His sinless character and perfect life, through the new mind that comes with justification, the faithfulness of Jesus will be substituted for our sin-stains in our characters and lives.
Jesus finally supplicated His Father all the way to heaven. The barrier between heaven and earth became so thin that the power of God rested upon Him like the dew of night. His very human nature changed, and glory beamed from His face and body. This transformation will be known by us, when, in the day He comes in power, the Maker of suns and heavenly bodies, we will be predisposed to supplicate His presence beyond any other previous effort to have Him near. When, due to the circumstances of a world which is wicked and wholly demon-possessed and plagued with rampant sinfulness and disease, we in faith surmount the insuperable separation from heaven, then we will be brought face to face with God. On that powerful day our life will be preserved only by His grace, and our allegiance to the kingdom of righteousness will be indelibly stamped into our new, permanently divine natures. Eternally we will be worthy to walk before our Father in white. “And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:4).
Jesus “was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” “And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” (Matt. 17:2;Lk. 9:30,31). What a beautiful message of love for Jesus from His Father. The Father surrounded His Son in a divine embrace as They had had before the Son’s incarnation, even from eternity. Like Moses, the type of Christ, feeding off of the Son’s eternal life on Mt. Sinai, without needing food or drink, now Christ fed off of His Father’s life-giving presence and heavenly atmosphere of holy love and pure righteousness.
Not only was the Father present to embrace His Son and to let His Son know that He was surrounding Him, but He brought Moses and Elijah with Him, too. Men who suffered in the same weakened nature as Jesus was yoked with, men “subject to like passions” (Jas. 5:17) as Christ, encouraged Him on in the similar but much more dominant of all self-sacrifices as the baptism of fire He must pass through for our redemption. As a human, Jesus needed to hear from other humans, men whose hearts were knit with His, whose minds had been transformed into His. He couldn’t count on His disciples in their present state, nor was Saul of Tarsus yet converted and in the truth. He must have the encouragement of the two greatest burden-bearers from the past.
Suddenly, the light woke up the three students of the great Master Teacher. Never had they ever seen Jesus of Nazareth look like this! Their Master was a great teacher and healer, but this was definitely not earthly! Imagine the face of your friend shining like the sun! It would get the same response of fear that the Israelites had toward Moses when he came down from Mt. Sinai.
The Master’s clothing was shimmering white like the moon. Isn’t this what we will have some day? We will be given heavenly bodies that will shine like the sun. Paul explains:
“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1Cor. 15:39-49).
The three disciples were dead asleep, “heavy with sleep.” (Lk. 9:32). “And when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him.” Peter opens his eyes, and then opens his mouth. It seems, the moment his brain began to function, he began talking. But he was talking without thinking. “For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.” (Mk. 9:6). Startled from deep slumber and rushed directly into fear of the unknown, James and John froze, but their friend began a torrent of verbiage.
What was he really doing? He was, yet again, playing the dupe of Satan to disrupt Christ’s struggle to redeem the fallen human race. If only Satan could get and keep Jesus discouraged and weakened, Christ would not complete the perfect life exemplifying perfect righteousness by a son of Adam. Thus, the whole argument of Satan could be proven true, that no one can perfectly obey God’s Law.
Peter interrupting Christ’s communion with Moses and Elijah shortened the time the Lord had with these men who had also suffered under discouragement but were brought through it by the grace of God. But, even though the meeting was shortened, Christ’s love for Peter overlooked His lessened blessing by losing the special closeness to His Father so quickly.
After Peter voiced his recommendation for three lean-to’s for the Three, a strange “bright cloud” moved in, and as they found themselves entering into this strange ether of light, their fears heightened still more. Then came “a voice out of the cloud”—the voice of God! “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” (Matt. 17:5). Stop talking; and listen to My beloved and perfect Son!!!!!!!!
Then, at the words of the Father, all three disciples ducked for cover. Wouldn’t you? Faces in the dirt, bodies trembling, breaths bated, brains perfectly upright and expecting an early judgment day, no more careless chit-chat with the royal Son of God and the two heavenly visitants. The Creator had spoken. All creatures beware!
Like Job after meeting the Lord God face to face, “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:2-5).
“That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). No one is exempt from this. Our entire race stands guilty of telling God how to run His business. Its time we stop presuming upon the grace of our Mediator and start to take Him seriously. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14:7).
I heard someone say that the Father didn’t mean to sound condemning to Peter or that Jesus Himself wasn’t rebuking Peter when He said, “Get thee behind me Satan!” But, reproof and punishment don’t conflict with the Law of love. Without truth and justice, mercy and grace mean nothing except feeling or emotion. Mercy without justice destroys justice. I’m glad God spanks us. We need it.
It’s like what Paul said, that “sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it [the commandment] slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:11,12). Paul took comfort in knowing that he needed to be slain by the Law. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Heb. 12:11).
“We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:3-5). But, of course, none of this can happen without “being justified.” (vs. 1). So, one evidence of whether or not we are justified is how well we accept rebuke and correction. Did you ever wonder if you were right with God? Do you really want to know how you can tell? Answer the question, How well do I accept punishment and persecution? How do I take character assassination and gossip and false witness? How is my patience?
After being scathed by the Ancient of days, and cowering for a bit, the three heard that familiar warm, melodic voice of their Master. In the same familiar loving, majestic tones, they heard, “Arise, and be not afraid.” (Matt. 17:7). They cautiously raised their heads, and found the whole episode to be over. “When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.” (vs. 8).
Yes, Peter had ruined the special gathering sent for the strengthening of his Master. Yet, Jesus was quiet and subdued. He had gleaned from that short experience what He had prayed for so earnestly. His Father was still the same toward Him. He had not defiled Himself by exposure to a sin-filled world. He was still accepted and beloved. Nothing had changed; the plan of salvation was still on track. And He had conferred with other men, though only mortals, redeemed mortals awaiting the confirmation of their redemption in their Lord’s propitiatory sacrifice.
And another concern was relieved in Christ, that of solidifying the faith of His disciples. The very voice of His Father struck a sharp arrow of truth deep into their bones—one more advancement in their training to become the stable and settled leaders of the new movement that would continue for the next 2,000 years. In the mouth of two or three witness shall every word be established. What their Master had been teaching them had been confirmed by God. Jesus was vindicated; all His words must be true. Now, Christ could go forward with establishing judgment in the earth, His apostles more ready to fulfill their part in God’s plan of salvation.
posted by David | 7:07 AM
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