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Friday, February 9, 2018

THE GLORY AND MAJESTY OF CHRIST

THE GLORY AND MAJESTY OF CHRIST

“We were eye-witnesses of His majesty." 2 Peter 1:16


The books of Daniel and Revelation record visions of a glorious One which are remarkable for their similarity to the manifestation on the holy mount. Very little is said in Scripture concerning THE GLORY AND MAJESTY OF CHRIST. A stranger reading the Bible, especially the New Testa­ment, would be impressed far more with the MAJESTY of the Messiah's character, and the GLORY of His moral qualities, than in any other way. This, undoubtedly, was part of the Divine plan, for the search of men was rather for tokens of material glory, than for signs of moral excel­lence. His coming was principally for the display of the latter; and such signs, as might have appealed to the desire of the men whose only conception of glory had come to be that of manifested splendor, were denied. The word of the prophet spoken in another connection had a best fulfillment in the Person of Jesus, "There was the hiding of His power." (Hab. 3:4) Consequently, that which arrests a person in the study of the life of Christ, is not outward magnificence, not pageantry or pomp, but some­thing more wonderful, and without which mere outward pageantry and pomp would be nothing worth, even His moral glory. No man can study the life of this remark­able One, Who passed through the ways of men devoid of attributes that attracted the attention of the mob, with­out finding that the beauty of His character lays hold upon the inmost spirit, and commands its admiration. To see the Christ in the glories of His character is to be prostrate before Him in adoration.
Yet while the glory of His power is hidden, and the radiant splendors of His Person are veiled, occasionally during His visit upon the earth, they flashed into prominence. Here upon the mount, before the eyes of the disciples, there flamed forth the magnificence and the majesty of Him, Who, in order that the weakest and most trembling might hold interaction with Him had veiled these splendors behind the human.
What an outshining it was may be gathered from the accounts of the evangelists:
“He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as the light." (Matt. 17:2)
"And He was transfigured before them: and His garments became glistering, exceeding white so as no fuller on earth can whiten them." (Mark 9:2-3)
"And as He was praying, the fashion of His counte­nance was altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling." (Luke 9:29)
The accounts vary somewhat, and this is doubtless due to the different impression made upon the minds of the men who beheld the vision, and told the story to the evan­gelists. Yet in the DIFFERENCES there is UNITY.
Matthew describes the change that passed over Him as one of light: "His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as the light."
Mark gives the impression of snow: “His garments be­came glistering, exceeding white." The word "glister­ing" suggests the sparkling of the snow as light falls upon it.
Luke writes, "His raiment became white and dazzling," the word "dazzling" suggesting the blinding light of the lightning's flash.
That which is common to all the descriptions is the thought of whiteness and of light. "White as light" says Matthew's story. "White as snow glistering in the light" is Mark's utterance. Not as light merely, not even as snow glistering upon the mountain heights, but as light­ning flashing forth in glory, dazzling in its brilliancy, is Luke's account.
The one fact of white light is here declared in threefold statement—the beneficence of light, the purity of snow, the majesty of lightning.
With what overwhelming awe must these men have looked upon their Master! They had become familiar with Him as with a Man sharing their nature—His face lined with the furrows of care, His appearance sorrowfully marred, beautiful, yea, passing beautiful, and yet always overshadowed with the signs of sorrow. As they looked up from their bewildered sleep in the darkness of the night, they beheld Him white as the light, His raiment glistering as with the radiance of the snow-capped peaks behind Him, His whole Person standing out in clear relief against the dark background, like lightning flashing upon the bosom of the night. Long years after, Peter, writing of the vision, said, “We were eye-witnesses of His majesty." (2 Peter 1:16) The word "majesty" occurs three times only in Scripture. Once it is translated "mighty power," once "magnificence," and once "majesty." The thought it suggests is that of splendor, of overwhelming beauty and glory, and that which arrests and subdues the mind to the point of adoration and worship; and Peter, looking back to the splendors of that night scene, wrote, "We were eye-witnesses of His majesty."
This glory was not the light of heaven falling upon Him from above. Nor was it a merely reflected radiance which resulted from communion. When Moses descended from the mount, his face shone so that men could not look upon it. That glory was the reflection of the light in which he had dwelt in the solemn days of his absence, and even that was so brilliant that men could not look upon it, and he had to veil his face. Later on, when the first martyr was about to pass from earth to heaven, upon his face there rested a glory so that when men looked upon him "they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." (Acts 6:15) But these are very different matters from the radiant splendor of the Master on the mount. That was the glory of His own face, of His own Person, shining through the veil that had hidden it, until the very raiment of His humanity sparkled and glistened and flashed with the splendor of light and snow and lightning. The transfiguration was effected, not by glory falling on Him, but by inherent glory flashing forth. To depict that splendor is impossible with brush, or pencil, or pen. Today it may only be seen partially, when in some place of silent solitude, the spirit of man communes with the Christ, under the immediate illumination of the Spirit of God.


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