The transfiguration may be viewed both as a fact and as a type. As a fact, it was a means of comfort for our Lord's holy soul in prospect of death, for death was already before Him at this juncture, if so be that it was not ever present to His mind. In the ninth chapter of Luke, before going up with three of His disciples into the mountain to pray, He speaks of it in the most explicit language, “The Son of man,” says He, “must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.” So in the other Synoptic Gospels (Matt. 16:2121From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (Matthew 16:21); Mark 8:3131And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)). The language is plain enough, yet the disciples understood not. It may seem very strange to us, but it was not so. Not a creature on earth could apprehend the necessity of Christ's death before it took place. The prophets, chiefly David and Isaiah, largely speak of it by the Spirit; yet were they themselves, as it were, staggered in the face of what they wrote. “They inquired and searched diligently.” Nor is it said that by their inquiry and diligent search they found out the bearing of their declarations. “Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us, they ministered the things which are now reported unto you by them that preached unto you the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Both in type and in plain language, the sufferings of Christ were announced from the earliest day of man's history, but the meaning of the types and of the language remained impenetrable.
There was at least one reason for it, which is this, that on man's side the notion of sin was very incomplete, and the character of sin, as God saw it, not fully unfolded. Hence it was that there was scarcely any room in the minds of the Jews for the thought of how the fundamental question of sin was to be settled. They had a law, both moral and ceremonial; and they imagined this was enough, if more or less faithfully observed to keep them on good terms with God. Then they had prophecies announcing the coming of Messiah, and being but little burdened by a conscience of sins, they retained only the bright side of that coming. In the days when He came they were in subjection to the Romans, and they persuaded themselves that He would at once deliver them from that humiliating yoke, set up again David's throne, and as Messiah sit on it for their glory as well as His own. Such was the current teaching of their scribes and lawyers. And the disciples themselves could not but have been much imbued with these notions, although God in His sovereign goodness gave them grace and faith to follow Christ in His path of humiliation. True, indeed, before the Spirit was sent down from heaven, the risen Lord graciously opened theirs understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and the needs-be for His sufferings and resurrection; but it seems that at that moment they hardly entered into the full bearing of His words (Luke 24).
The apostle Peter tells us how the necessity and meaning of Christ's sufferings unto death came to be understood, viz., by the preaching of the gospel unto you “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Before going away the Lord had said to His disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever fie shalt hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” It was from this Spirit of truth that the disciples learned fully the meaning of Christ's death, and by the same Spirit it was that they made this death—followed of course by His resurrection—the great subject matter of the gospel they preached.
But before they received the Spirit, the death of Christ was an enigma to them. “We trusted that it had been He which would have redeemed Israel.” All they looked for was a temporal deliverance by power. Even after His resurrection they saw nothing beyond (Acts 1:66When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)). On the contrary, in the 9th chapter of Luke, death with its unutterable sorrows, was foremost in the thoughts of the Lord, and, as said before, there was not a creature on earth that could share in His grief. Had He not said in the words of the prophetic Spirit, “I looked for some to take pity, but there was none! and for comforters, but I found none?” So He went to seek them in heaven. First of all when on the mountain-top, He prays, that is, He pours out His holy soul into the bosom of His Father and God. Here all is secret, unknowable, unfathomable for mere creatures. Next, He meets with two glorified saints, and these, contrasted with those on earth, will understand Him. They know why they were admitted into the bliss and glory of heaven. They know it was not through their own works, faithful and mighty as their testimony had been. They know that their sins have been forgiven them in virtue of Christ's propitiation—a propitiation then yet future, but in anticipation of which God, in His righteousness, could forbear (Rom. 3:24-2624Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24‑26)). And so these two glorified men spake of His decease, which He should accomplish in Jerusalem. They spake of His decease—an all-important particular given only by Luke.
This is precise, not vague. It was not a matter of eventuality or probability but of certainty. The subject was one that Moses and Elias were qualified to enter into. Wondrous favor! They went deeper into it than even angels, of whom it is written that, in the face of the accomplished fact, they “desire to look into” it. And one can understand how this is. Angels did look, with amazement and with adoration, on the holy Sufferer, upon the work of the cross, but they could not say it was done in their benefit. A believer can say, “He loved me and gave Himself for me.” Moses and Elias could say the same. They were, like ourselves, sinners once, now saved by grace, through faith; and for that reason initiated into the mysteries of a work done for sinful man to the glory of God. Oh, that we might value more, far more then we have done hitherto, such a marvelous prerogative!
To understand the “must,” so often repeated by the Lord when speaking of His forthcoming sufferings unto death, is to go deep into the deepest counsels of God.
Typically, the transfiguration is a perfect and lovely picture of the future kingdom. This cannot be disputed, for we have the Lord's word for it (Matt. 16:2828Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:28); Mark 9:11And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. (Mark 9:1); Luke 9:2727But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:27)). It starts with the coming of the Lord in power and glory. So we read in 2 Peter 1:16-1816For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (2 Peter 1:16‑18), “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,” says the apostle, “when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” Here we have an over-abounding testimony—that of three men, each of them, I need not say, fully worthy of credit. They saw and heard: it was no dream, no fanciful picture. And the apostle shows how it bears upon, and agrees with, the prophetic word, of which it is a confirmation, making it, as it were, more sure, by adding the testimony of three trustworthy disciples to that of holy men of God moved by the Holy Ghost.
In this scene, therefore, we have all the elements. of the coming kingdom, with truth additional to the word of the prophets. Being here on New Testament ground, it was to be expected that a fuller radiance would lighten the scene. The prophets spoke of the earthly side of the kingdom, of Messiah sitting on David's throne in Jerusalem, and extending His dominion over the whole world with the Jews as His favored people. This, of course, is truth, but it is not the whole truth. The Lord before His death, lets us know that He will be attended by angels, His servants, but this is not yet the heavenly side of the kingdom, although angels are certainly a heavenly family. By the full revelation of God's purpose we learn that there are men in the kingdom nearer to the Son than even angels, blood-bought men, for whom He suffered infinitely. Most wonderful is it that God puts their title to reign with His Son on the ground of their having suffered with Him, not in atonement (I need not say) but in testimony. Thus have they become His associates and companions in the heavenly glory of the kingdom.
But here it is that Peter, however well-meaning, is signally at fault when he says, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,” not knowing what he said. In what he said he certainly thought to honor the Lord. Was he not putting Him first? First He assuredly must be and is, but this is not all. Scripture says, “Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” These may be seen sitting on thrones around Him, but. He is the central object for all and the throne on which He sits is the highest. If they are kings, He is “the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” They may wear a crown of gold, but on His head are many crowns. This was beyond Peter's apprehension. In fact, he was putting Moses and Elias on a level with the Lord, and that God will not have. The three disciples must learn that, in the estimate of the Father, Christ has not His equal in creation, on earth or in heaven. Hence the voice to Him from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” —which means, Do not confound Him with others, however much these may be blessed in And by Him. “And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
Thus we have in the future kingdom of God an earthly side described in the prophets and where Israel is principal, as represented in the scene of the transfiguration by Peter, John and James; and a heavenly side where the saints of the heavenly calling are seen reigning with the Lord, as represented by Moses, the prototype of those who, having died in Christ, are raised at His coming ("for we shall not all sleep” [or die]), and by Elias, the prototype of those who shall be changed without passing through death (1 Cor. 15:5151Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51); 1 Thess. 4:15-1815For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑18)).
P.C.