Freedom is Good News Part 34

Did you read 2 Peter 1:16-18?  You did?  Well good; then you know that Peter was talking about his experience with the two brothers, James and John, when Jesus was transfigured before them.  This episode is often called “The Mount of Transfiguration” and is found in Matthew 17:1-13.  To paraphrase the story, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a mountain and is transfigured, so that “His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as the light” (notice the two similes).  Appearing with Jesus was Moses and Elijah and they were talking together.  There are other details but I’ll leave that for you to read.  Let’s see what Peter has to say about this!

Peter, in this letter, is striving to get across to the readers, the importance of growing in their faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness and love.  (This list is worth several articles for another time!)  If they would grow in these things, they would be effective and productive “in their knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Then Peter writes that if they would do these things, “they would never stumble and would receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord …” Oh yes, this is “good news”.

In verses 12-15, he tells them he wants to “remind them” (verse 12), “refresh their memories” (verse 13) and have them “remember these things” (verse 15).  I would say he felt this to be important!!  But he also wants them to know that he is not pulling these directives from thin air.  He wants to give to them his qualifications for this admonition. 

There were many things Peter could have drawn from in establishing his credentials; he saw the healings, the lepers cleansed, the blind receive sight and Lazarus raised from the dead.  He watched his Lord die on the cross and then saw Him resurrected.  He stood with the others upon the Mount of Olives and watched Jesus rise up into the clouds to be at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  But the event he used was the transfiguration.  “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty”, Peter wrote.  “We saw Him receive honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, Whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’”

Peter’s template, the type he chose to use in this letter, was not one that illuminated the past, but one that clearly shows forth into the future.  His experience on the Mount was for him a guarantee of the return of Jesus in all His glory.  He experienced a vision of Jesus in the company of a resurrected Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the Prophets).  And he heard the voice of the heavenly Father say, “This is my Son … listen to Him”.  And so he gives us this “type” that perhaps changed his life and then tells us to, “Pay attention to it, as to a light shinning in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (verse 19).  Friends and Brethren, I told you some time ago that this episode would not be just good news but, great news.  I for one am humbled by Peter’s words.

Until next time……