In the opening of John’s Gospel we see the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in past ages. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “The beginning” is put there because our finite minds must start somewhere, but there was no beginning with Him. From all eternity He was daily the delight of the Father.
But in v. 14 we read that He Who throughout eternity was with God, and was God, became flesh. Oh, how marvelous that He should leave those heights of glory, where all was perfect joy and happiness, to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as Man to be seen here! Though unbelievers knew (and know) Him not, He was made flesh and dwelt among us, the blessed Son of God! Those who believed in His Name beheld something the world could not see in Him: they “beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And what they saw, we, in God’s mercy see. Think of Him here among sinners, the holy Son of God; hear them revile Him, and He reviles not again! God manifest in flesh, in all the perfection of moral glory found in Jesus! We may trace His way from the manger to the Cross; and every detail of that path, every action, every word demonstrates one fact: “the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!” When His eye saw one passing through trial, whether affliction of body or of soul, how He “had compassion,” and bade them “weep not”; how He spoke words of cheer and comfort, and gave strength to the weak, sight to the blind, life to the dead! In all His ways He was distributing mercy and truth—the eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, Who at last hung on Calvary’s cross as the Lamb of God, Who suffered in the sinner’s stead, and Whose precious blood was shed that your sins might be washed away.
But in Mark 9 we see His official glory. He led three of the apostles up “into a high mountain apart by themselves.” They had beheld His moral glory, and were following Him. “And He was transfigured before them.” Is my soul occupied with the world, or with Him? If I am occupied with Him away from earth and earthly things, then I see before me that blessed Person in both His moral and official glory. “And His raiment became shining,” glittering, with all the brightness that belongs to Him, the Son of God, with all the glory associated with Him. Man would not have Him, but God will give Him glory; it is His title and His right. So His very raiment became “shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.” There was something that was not natural, something which belonged to Him, and the One Who was giving Him glory. We read in Daniel of the Ancient of Days, Whose garment was white as snow; and in Revelation 1 there is the same characteristic. Here He is brought before us in the supernatural glory God had given Him. And the same blessed Face Peter, James, and John had known and loved when they companioned with Him, they see it shining as the sun!
“And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.” What were they talking about? Luke tells us it was that which heaven is most concerned about; that which all the coming ages of eternity will never exhaust: “they spake of His decease which He should accomplish in Jerusalem.” It was the death of Christ these men were speaking of! To think that the One Whose moral glory these disciples had seen should be talking to these strangers from heaven about His death!
Throughout both Old and New Testament God ever brings one theme before us, the glory of Christ. And never did His glory shine out with such beauty and excellence as when He suffered on the cross. Never was such love or such sorrow as met then. Can you, dear reader, say with me: “The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me?”
But when Peter speaks he shows he does not appreciate the Person of the Son of God as he should. He puts Moses and Elias on a par with Him. Good men as they were, they were only sinners, only men; but the Person of the Christ is beyond all men, He is God, God and Man.
Then the Father comes out. The Cloud which led them through the wilderness, the Cloud which told the presence of Jehovah, and which had not been seen since the people went into captivity, that Cloud is seen again. And it “overshadowed them.” No wonder they “feared as they entered into the Cloud!” Then the Father’s Voice is heard saying: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.” It is not the law now, nor the prophets; their glory is surpassed by Another, by the Only Perfect One Who walked this scene entirely to the glory of God; the One Whom the world rejected and cast out. But the Father’s testimony is “This is My Beloved Son; hear ye Him.” That Person is everything to the Father. Soon His glory will be manifested; and though earth spurns Him today, God has highly exalted Him, and has decreed that all in heaven, earth, and hell shall acknowledge He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Eternal Son is He Who came from God, and went to God; and God presents Him today with His finished work, to the sinner. That glorious Person is the One Who died for the sinner, and is risen again; Who alone can meet the heart’s desire, and fill the soul with peace and joy; an Object too big for the soul, Who can fill it to overflowing, so that the believer is lost in the beauty, excellency and glory of the Person of the Christ!
QUARTUS.