“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON”
Matthew 17:1-8; 2 Corinthians 4:6
It is remarkable that the day will soon come when we will see Jesus as He is. What we will see then is what already shines in Him, which is the glory of God. I was thinking about what it says in Colossians, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, Col.2:9. The glory of that Man is such that the fulness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell there and shine out in His face.
Here in Matthew 17, what the disciples saw was the glory of the Person. We cannot understand anything of God that we do not see in Jesus, but here it says, “Jesus takes with him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart”. The Lord takes them, as it were, into His own area and it is secret from the world. The Lord took them apart into this area where He could speak apart from the world, indeed in a certain sense, apart even from what was testimonial. What came out in this place of seclusion was the outshining of His own personal greatness. It does not say that the Lord changed His garments, but they became part of the outshining of what was true of Himself – that is the glory of this Person. In the Old Testament, there was a time when Moses’ face shone and he had to cover it with a veil (Exod.34:29-35), but what was there was a reflection of where he had been on Mount Sinai. In this scripture, the shining was not a result of where Christ was, it was because of who He was. So it says here “And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as the sun”. What a glorious Man! This is descriptive language; it is written for our understanding. Think of being in the presence of a Man whose face shone as the sun.
What came out there was the glory that is inherent in the Lord Jesus shining through the reality of His manhood. It says in Colossians 1, “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”, Col.1:19. That was what the disciples saw here. Peter said, “let us make here three tabernacles”, but while Peter was still speaking, God marked Jesus out. It says, “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son”. Beloved brethren, there is no one to compare with Christ and there is nothing to compare to the shining of this glory in Him either. If we want intelligence in anything that is of God, we must get it by looking on Jesus. The knowledge of the glory of God shines in Him. Our brother has spoken about the eyes of faith. Beloved brethren, I say this very carefully – it is important to go into the presence of God and ask to see Jesus. Then you will understand something of the outshining of the glory of God, and you will also take in something of the glory of the Person through whom it shines.
In 2 Corinthians 4, it says “Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine”. That goes back to the beginning of Genesis, to the beginning of the operations of God in relation to man. God created the whole sphere in which He would shine out in Christ. “Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. What a glorious thing it is that the whole scope of what God is to us, all the affections that are resident in Him, shine in the face of Jesus. We have been reminded that two people saw Him after His ascension; one was Stephen and the other one Paul. Paul could speak about his intelligence as to the mystery (Eph.3:4), his intelligence in the things of God, but where did he get it? He saw it in Jesus. He saw the outshining of all that God was going to accomplish in man for Himself and he saw it in a Man. What a glorious thing that is, beloved brethren!
That is why we should be so delighted to have the ability by the Spirit of God to go into the presence of God and ask to see Jesus. We need the eyes of faith to see Him, but what delight it is to God to show us His Son. Have you ever thought how it pleases the heart of God to have somebody ask to see Jesus because of the glory that shines there in Him, somebody who wants to see this Man as God sees Him? “This is my beloved son”.
That is what comes out here and you get the whole scope of the feelings of God who reveals Himself shining in the face of a Man. What a glorious Man He is, beloved brethren. When we hear His voice, we shall go to be forever with Him and we shall see Him. But we have been well taught that, in eternity, we will not know God better, as to His affections and the revelation of Himself, than we know Him now. Christ will not shine any brighter then, beloved brethren, than He shines now, although our apprehension of Him then will be without limitation on our part. How important it is for us to see the face of Jesus. It needs holiness and righteousness to be found with us, such that God has the liberty to show us the face of Jesus.
What a wonderful thing it is that by the grace of God we can see this. May it be our exercise and may it be our joy to see the face of Jesus, for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
7 January 2020
Terry W Lock
Edited and published monthly by John Brown and Paul Martin
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