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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