THE TRANSFIGURATION
[p. 212] THE TRANSFIGURATION
Matthew 17:1 - 5; Mark 9:1 - 4; Luke 9:28 - 32
CAC These scriptures bring before us what is characteristic of the present time — Jesus glorified. They show us how on the principle of selection certain brethren were admitted to have a vision of His glory. It seems to me that that is somewhat characteristic of the present time. While Jesus is glorified the kingdom takes character from that — “God ... has glorified his servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13); “This Jesus has God raised up ... having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2:32,33. In a practical sense receiving from Jesus is a matter of sovereignty and selection. One thought that God would stimulate our hearts greatly by the thought of it so that we might wish to be amongst those who are selected and have the vision of His glory now.
Ques The Lord had the three mentioned in these scriptures with Him at times apart from the others. Should we covet to be like them?
CAC That is what was in my mind. The Lord’s selection and apportionment of things are not purely or altogether in sovereignty; there is wisdom in it too. That is so in any distribution of divine wealth. In the talents the Lord gave, five to one, two to another and one to the third; it was according to their ability. While there is sovereignty in it there is wisdom in it too. There was the wisdom of divine love in the selection of Peter, James and John; they were selected for great spiritual privileges. It is part of the divine plan to secure things in a remnant.
Rem We see the confirmation of the Lord’s wisdom in [p. 213] the impression left upon Peter; he speaks in his epistle of the glory on the mount.
CAC Yes, the thing took a permanent character. The Lord must have had that in view in connection with the profession which He knew would come to pass — the tendency for things to become dim and forgotten. The Lord made a selection of those in whom His precious vision would have permanent effect. The Lord would bring an impression of Himself, a vision of His glory, to our hearts so that we might carry it through undimmed in the affections of our hearts until the moment when He appears. It is a very great thought and one that should stimulate our hearts; we should covet to be selected that we might have such a character under His eye that He should discern that we are suitable for such a privilege. It is not that any of us can lay claim to any title to divine favour, but there are spiritual possibilities.
Rem God acts sovereignly, not only at first in choosing us, but there is an inner circle that He selects from.
CAC Yes, and we ought to covet to be in that inner circle of all. We should aspire to the greatest thing possible in the vision of the glory of Christ so that its effect might be worked out.
I thought in connection with this that we see in Peter, James and John great need for corrective action in view of the glory. In Moses and Elias you see men in whom corrective action is completed and who are in full liberty, not only to hear what the Lord might say, but to speak with Him. They were in the liberty and intelligence of conscious sonship. That is the end of the kingdom; it comes in to adjust and correct in view of our passing on to know the Lord as the Son of the Father’s love and being in suited companionship with Him in the house. The kingdom leads to the house and has a practical bearing on our liberty with the Lord. Whilst sovereignty lies behind everything, yet [p. 214] everything depends on divine faithfulness. That is the great rock of eternity. Wisdom, fidelity and prudence go together.
Rem The Lord spoke to the disciples and then He left them six days to work out what He had been saying to them, and He noted that these three had listened to His intimation.
CAC I like that thought. The Lord gives a certain intimation and observes how it is going to work out in His people’s exercises; the Lord knows how things are working with each of us. We come to the meeting and say, ‘It was a good word’, but the Lord follows us home and takes note of how the word has entered our hearts and whether there is secret prayer. I have no doubt that is why some are selected above others; they are following the things up in secret. I believe the result always justifies the selection. Things today are worked out on this principle of selection; we are where we are on that principle. One would like to be selected for the very best and there is nothing better than what is set forth in the transfiguration, Jesus glorified; that is the climax of the gospel record.
Ques Is it like, “Many are called ones, but few chosen ones”?
CAC One would covet to be chosen; that is not the choice of sovereignty but of discrimination.
Ques Would you connect it with, “Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”, Revelation 3:11?
CAC Yes. What a crown this transfiguration scene was to those three! When Peter was about to put off his tabernacle he was carrying his crown. He had not lost a bit of it; he writes of it as an old man.
Ques Would James represent those whose service is less conspicuous?
CAC James represents devotion that will soon attract the attention of the enemy. He was the first to be killed.
Ques “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed”, 2 Corinthians 3:18. Is that the way it works?
CAC I thought so; the saints had moved up from the first epistle, where they were not on a high mountain apart. The apostle says in the first epistle, “Are ye not men?” They were on a level with men, but self judgment having been brought about they move on to a high mountain. He can speak in 2 Corinthians of a glory and ministry of the Lord that subsists in glory, and of a radiancy.
Rem Stephen saw this glory.
CAC There have been two witnesses in the church period who actually saw the Lord in glory, Stephen and Paul. They were selected for the special privilege of having a special vision of the glory of the Lord. I do not think that we should look at these things as merely doctrine; a spiritual vision of the glory is possible as suggested by these scriptures.
Ques What does the high mountain suggest today?
CAC I thought it suggested separation from men according to flesh and all their thoughts. All that has a place in the thoughts of men is something for us to flee from.
John represents that the vision of the glory is to have a permanent place. It is not to be lost for all that belongs to the highest spiritual privileges is open to us if we are prepared to go in for it.
Ques Why do we get a full account of the transfiguration in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and yet John, who was present, does not mention it?
CAC I thought that John gives you the spiritual substance of it; he says, “We have contemplated his glory”, that is spiritual substance. In chapter 14 He says, “But ye see me”; I believe that answers to the transfiguration. The transfiguration corresponds spiritually to the Lord [p. 216] manifesting Himself to the faithful lovers which John speaks of. Those who love Him keep His commandments. The manifestation has certain grounds, obedience and love. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me ... and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”, John 14:21. Those are the selected ones for the supreme privilege of a vision of Himself personally.
Matthew presents the thought of what the Lord is personally; Mark presents the thought of what He is morally; Luke presents the thought of Him in character and pattern for us. In Matthew “His face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light”. The privilege available for those who are selected is the privilege of seeing the effulgence of God in a blessed Man.
Ques Does responsibility come in in the selection?
CAC These things bring to light the underlying work of God. I would stress that line. The work of God seems to take more definite form in some than in others. It is well for us to lay ourselves out in relation to the work of God that that attitude of soul may be formed in us that was found in Mary. She said, “Be it to me according to thy word”, Luke 1: 38. She was sovereignly selected for unique glory. Her affections, spirit and will were all identified with the divine proposal. The blessed God and the Lord take account of how our spirits are affected. He has brought marvellous things before us and He is looking that there should be that state that falls into line with His proposal. Introduction to this vision of glory brings about correspondence as seen in Moses and Elias. It says in Luke, “Two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elias, who, appearing in glory, spoke ...”. In Moses and Elias you see those in whom a corresponding work had been reached and come to completion; they were in the good of sonship. The practical gain of sonship lies in how we are able to speak to [p. 217] divine Persons.
Ques How do you regard that in Peter?
CAC There are permanent results, something that can pass into glory actually in suitability to it, because the glory has been assimilated spiritually beforehand. It is a wonderful thing that the assembly is clothed with glory now! We can come into a company of persons where all the corrective work of the kingdom has been brought to completion. How far short we are of that! The epistle to the Romans shows how the power of the kingdom comes in when everything is contrary and wrong to adjust it and put it right. In Romans 8 we have everything adjusted, so the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God; there is nothing more to be adjusted; what we are inwardly has reached complete moral adjustment. We then come out as children of God; if not, we can know little of sonship. The idea of children is as great as that of sonship, for “children” involves nature, and sonship includes the dignity of position in which the relationship can be enjoyed. It supposes that moral adjustment is complete and that the children of God are just waiting to be manifested as sons of God.
Ques Can this be fully reached down here?
CAC It is doubtful if we ever fully enter into the divine plan. To secure it in perfection would require such power on God’s part that responsibility would cease. We shall never reach the point where we shall not want kingdom truth any longer; it will always be necessary. While down here we shall always need the kingdom in its corrective and adjustive power, but it has in view that things should be so in harmony with God that we shall be able to enter into another region and we shall be able to speak to God as companions of Christ in sonship.
Ques Would that be like Paul in the third heaven and John in Patmos?
CAC Those scriptures suggest the thought of ecstasy.
[p. 218] Paul speaks of being beside himself, showing that it is possible for a spiritual man to be in God’s presence in the thoughts of divine love entirely apart from the question of responsibility; when that is reached it is a moment of ecstasy. We should look for that in the assembly.
Mark helps us by bringing out the kingdom in power, and that is marked by purity. The Lord’s garments are spoken of by Mark as being exceeding white. There can be a people on earth who are so clearly marked, they are “pure in heart”. It is the kingdom marked by the features of righteousness and holiness. This is a progressive thing with us; there are always things arising which call for adjustment. The Spirit is spoken of as identified with fire in Acts 2; the Spirit is the power for self judgment for the destruction of what is not of God. Any persons who go on without self judgment are not going on with the Spirit of God. In many cases the lack of self-judgment is really caused by people not having the Spirit at all. It is important to see that almost the first mention of the Spirit in the New Testament is when He is identified with fire. As the fire operates in consuming power you get the purity that surpasses all earthly thoughts of purity — “such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”. It is very important to take account that the Lord’s first thought of the saints in Matthew 5 is that they are pure in heart. Everything that is contrary to purity is contrary to the lessons of the kingdom. Everything inconsistent with the established rule of God in the affections is contrary to the rule of the kingdom. As we come under the glory of that One we are changed.
That brings us to Luke where the Lord goes to the mount to pray “and as he prayed the fashion of his countenance became different”. The Lord suggests there the way in which the vision of His glory becomes effective; He is the Pattern. Here is a Man who is changed as He prays,
[p. 219] by His intercourse with God. It is wonderful that the Lord should have taken such a place; He is changed as He prays in Luke’s gospel. It is a suggestion of how the vision of the glory should affect us; it should make us praying men and women, so that our countenances would be changed and our whole bearing changed. There is nothing more delightful than to move among the brethren and find how they are changed, how different they are in the way that they carry themselves; they are different in spirit. That is the transforming power of the glory and it would be more manifest if we went in for it more.
Rem It says when they had fully awoke they saw His glory.
CAC Peter’s remarks were very unintelligent; he was like an impulsive brother who speaks out his feelings without intelligence. He would have spoilt the whole scene by not recognising the glory that was shining or the propriety with which Moses and Elias could speak with Jesus. It is a great thing for young brethren to observe those who speak with spiritual intelligence to Jesus; there is nothing so characteristic of sonship as spiritual intelligence. The highest amount of sonship in scripture is seen in Paul’s two prayers. There you see a man speaking suitably to God; he turns aside in the midst of his writing to speak to God and to the Father and he gives the saints an insight into the true privilege of sonship. One would covet this, to be able to speak to divine Persons, whether to the Lord or to the Father, intelligently and affectionately. The Lord is to be listened to; it says, “Hear him”. He would bring us into the presence of His Father as we listen to Him, and we can also speak, as being His companions, to the Father. What an elevation!
Then one thought should not be left out and that is that Moses and Elias spoke of His departure. They understood the situation, all that was in the divine mind in His going [p. 220] out from the world. It is necessary that we should go out, that we should make our exodus too. We cannot touch these privileges and remain in the world; we must go out of it.
Ques What does being received up in glory suggest?
CAC It suggests the glory with which He was received up, the glory He took with Him, not what He entered into. He took the glory with Him, He was received up in glory. He was received up in all the blessedness that was expressed in Him here, and all that which was substantiated in Him here, so He carries a glory up that was never there before.