METAMORPHOSED-TESTED

Metamorphosed-Tested

        In the essential glory of the Divine creation there is no death, transition rather. Had Adam never wandered from the pathway of the Divine command, or sinned, had he never died; but having come to the end of his probationary life, and completed his course, he would have been metamorphosed, changed, in the same manner as Christ on the mountain, and prepared for the super-earthly life that lies beyond the probationary-that life which we know so little, and which in anxious moments sometimes we doubt altogether, but which surely exists, infinite in its mystery.

        Jesus at the hour of the transfiguration came to that point of the perfecting of His human personality. By an infinite mystery God created a new Man in the creation of Jesus.

        Through all the years of youth and manhood up to this moment He had faced all the temptations to which men must be subject, mastering them, being victorious over them-physical, spiritual, and last and most subtle of all, vocational temptation.

        The last breath of that temptation had come to Him when Peter had said, "God have mercy on Thee, not the way of the Cross."  With stern and resolute heroism Jesus replied, "Get thee hence, Satan, thou art an offense to Me."

        Then, immediately passing to the Mount, His life perfect, complete; every temptation having been met and mastered; the whole citadel of His manhood held through all the prior period of years, pure; He transfigured before them.

        Our life now is a probation, a testing time which shall one day be over when the magnificence of one's own being comes into full view; and when the work is done, we change, the transition happens, when we take up our new work in the kingdom of the eternal (Psa. 8:5-8), fulfilling the purpose of God. [Transition from a life of fleshly control to that where spirit reigns. Spirit is utmost, even over death, as Christ proved, coming out of the grave.]

5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!   6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,   7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field,   8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.