Christ In His Suffering, Trial, and Crucified by Klaas Schilder: Schilder, Klaas - Vol 1 - Christ In His Suffering: 06. Chapter 6: Christ’s Passion Announced from Heaven: The Realization of the “Glory of the Lord”

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Christ In His Suffering, Trial, and Crucified by Klaas Schilder: Schilder, Klaas - Vol 1 - Christ In His Suffering: 06. Chapter 6: Christ’s Passion Announced from Heaven: The Realization of the “Glory of the Lord”



TOPIC: Schilder, Klaas - Vol 1 - Christ In His Suffering (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 06. Chapter 6: Christ’s Passion Announced from Heaven: The Realization of the “Glory of the Lord”

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C H A P T E R S I X

Christ’s Passion Announced from Heaven: The Realization of the “Glory of the Lord”

And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

—Luk_9:30-31.

WE shall at this point discuss the transfiguration of Christ while in the company of Moses and Elias upon the mountain. We are aware of the fact that to do so is to depart from the historical sequence of events in the passion story. If we were to follow a strictly chronological order, we should have to, insert this treatise between chapters 1 and 2.

But we have a reason for placing it here. You will remember that each of the preceding studies treated of what was introduced into the drama of the passion by human agency. On this side of the matter we discovered that nothing was certain, nothing sure. Simon Peter was a satan twice but he did not know it. Mary was a ministering angel but did not recognize herself as such. Caiaphas and his Sanhedrin prophesied but did so unconsciously. The chief priests counted the thirty pieces into Judas’ hands, and did not understand that the curse hovered over the hall in which they plotted with him. Very uncertain, indeed, this human part in the passion program, very uncertain and indefinite. Men saw nothing and heard nothing, but, like blundering school boys, they spilled ink upon the blue-print spread out before them, thus marring the plan of God’s justice and grace, and of his evangelical temple.

Hence, it is in order now to notice that the story of the Gospel proceeds to contrast with that human dubiousness the absolute Certainty of heaven. The children of the earth, mere men, mere “flesh and blood” may not be aware of or may but faintly understand the powers of the coming age now swirling about their heads, but heaven does understand. When Moses and Elias come from heaven’s side to discuss Christ’s approaching death with Him, absolute certainty enters in. Now conscious prophecy obtains. The bearers of the energies released at this time know that their active influences are real and effectual.

The wind blows and men hear the sound of it, but they cannot tell whence it comes nor whither it goes. But heaven knows both its origin and its destination. And the certainty of heaven as revealed in the Gospel counter-balances the uncertainty of men.

That is the first reason for discussing the transfiguration now— to point out heaven’s attitude, after we have lingered over that of men. And a second reason is this. After this chapter we shall accompany Christ out of the vestibule of the temple of passion into the building itself. Christ is about to take into His own hands the cord which will lead Him to Golgotha. Deliberately, calmly He will loosen the very winds and storms over His head.[1] Hence it is fitting to complete the discussion of the suffering in that vestibule first. Having seen the earth placed in heaven’s light, we proceed now to get a glimpse of heaven itself.

[1] “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him” by coming at His beckoning?

We remarked just now that when heaven speaks, Certainty ensues, and that Christ in this moment passes from the medium of human nebulosity to that of heaven’s lucid clarity.

There are some who deny that heaven on this occasion is unmistakably clear in its intent. These maintain that Christ, while He was on the mountain, was given the privilege of a choice between two alternatives: to enter heaven forthwith, without the antecedent passion and death; or, to enter heaven eventually, but only after the great sacrifice.

Now to the extent that this construction of the significance of the transfiguration intends to say only that Christ was being tried, that He saw those two possibilities exposed before His mind’s eye, and that He then chose the better course — to that extent we have no objections to the interpretation.

But that is by no means the same as saying that Christ was given the privilege to choose either an immediate ascension to glory, or such an ascension only after a sojourn in the pit of hell. When it is maintained that heaven left Him perfectly free to choose either the one or the other, and that it then would have been perfectly satisfied with whatever decision was made, we must seriously object.

To interpret the event in such a manner is to forget that behind it lay the binding pronouncement of the Counsel of Peace, a decree agreed upon by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Remember that from eternity that immutable decree of the Trinity, outlining the Divine plan of peace and salvation, was in force. How mistaken, then, it is to suppose that heaven should now come to the human soul of Christ, daily still learning as it was,[1] should come to the frail, humanly susceptible flesh of Jesus and offer it a choice between the divine inspiration of the Father and His own aspiration to life and glory, to peace and joy. Can it be supposed that God actually asked Him whether He felt disposed now to annul that eternal decree, single end of world history as it was? And would God, then, be satisfied with whatever choice was made?

[1] “Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” Heb_5:8.

That can not be the case. When the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have exchanged their precious oaths, the man Christ Jesus may never rescind the decision. That is not putting it too boldly: He may not do it. As Man and Mediator Christ is subject to the law of obedience. Not by mere accident is He called the “Servant of the Lord.” He subjected Himself to that law at His own baptism, and was never permitted to do anything except what was done in subservience to it. Surely, then, by giving Christ the privilege of a free and independent choice in the matter, God Himself would have been tempting Him, and “God tempteth no man” (Jas_1:13). It is true that God gives the first Adam a probationary command, and that He also puts the Second Adam to the proof. The same God who showed the first Adam a tree and a fruit which was “pleasant to look upon” and “to be desired to make one wise” also reveals to the second Adam at this time a beauty that is pleasant to enjoy and desirable for wisdom. Hence, to talk of a trial, a proof, a test, on the mountain of transfiguration is unobjectionable, but of a temptation — that can be allowed only if it is immediately added that such temptation is always Satan’s doing, as when He prompts Peter to speak foolishly or in some other diabolical way tries to tempt Christ’s human soul.

As for the rest, we refuse to believe that God Himself tempted the Christ to evil by letting Him choose freely in a matter inextricably related to His eternal Counsel, a matter which in time was attached to the law and to the oaths of fidelity. God never allows the world which He governs according to His plan, to balance precariously on a needle’s point, held in the hands of a free, independent human being, even though that person be the Second Adam Himself. That would be paradoxical. The concepts “second Adam” and “free, independent human being” are mutually exclusive. Christ is not a man: He is “the” man; He is the covenant Head. He became that with the sole purpose of attaching Himself to the law of the Lord with all of the tentacles of His being.

Moreover, the facts at the transfiguration also make the idea that Christ was offered a voluntary choice on the mountain an untenable one. These indicate very clearly that heaven does not give Christ one moment of freedom. Just what are the heavenly visitors really doing? Why, they are talking with Jesus about the great theme, His “decease which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.” There is no obscurity in that wording. Moses and Elias do not regard the approaching “decease” as a possibility, but as a fact. Christ intended to, was almost to, had in mind to accomplish it— that is the connotation of it. And such nonchalant “taking for granted” of the departure at Jerusalem leaves no room for the hypothesis of temptation.

Satan’s temptations and God’s trials are very different. When Satan tempts man, He not only tries to conceal what is the main issue of contention between Him and us before the throne of God’s justice, but also tries to give a false impression of things. He presents an illusion as a reality. The Tempter always tries to conceal the main objective of God’s justice.

That is very different from what God does when He puts humanity to the test. He may conceal, temporarily, the end He has in view, may for a while withhold from us complete certainty about the “main issue” of our life-conflict, but He never gives a false impression. He never encourages a subjective apprehension which is at variance with what is objectively essential to our knowledge. On the contrary, every trial which God allows man to experience is designed to induce him to re-direct his wayward feet to the main highway, to see the central illumination of God’s truth clearly outshining the nebulosity of peripheral matters. God always moves towards and always influences us to urge our thoughts and lives into the direction of that ultimate goal.

And it is in that way that Jesus is not being tempted by God, but is being tried. That is the word. The transfiguration is a trial to Jesus in the sense that He sees a heavenly beauty, feels the influences of a celestial blessedness, breathes a divinely rarefied atmosphere, and yet may not enter into that marvelous glory.

That word “trial”, however, suggests only a half of the significance of the transfiguration. To the trial God adds a revelation. This revelation Christ as a Man could and had to receive, so that His soul might be enlisted into complete and active cooperation with the whole revelation of God, and also with the whole God of revelation. God by means of it forces Him into the direction of the climax of His Mediatorship, to that point in the center of time and eternity, where He will stand — will hang — all alone, before His God.

It is this revelation which constitutes the real meaning of the transfiguration. The Church of God has long confessed that an extraordinary providence of God actively surrounds the Christ. See how real this mysterious influence becomes at this time. At just this stage in Christ’s career as Mediator, God intervenes and, through the Spirit, gives Him a word of revelation, accompanied by a sign, and it is remarkable to observe how very appropriate this is to this particular moment of the sacred history of revelation.

In order to understand that appropriateness we must remember that three characteristics are common to every act of revelation to which God commits Himself in time. Those properties are:

1. Such revelation is always a true one.

2. Such revelation is never a complete one.

3. Such revelation is always a growing one.

Such is the threefold nature of every revelation given by God in process of time. Moreover, because of this essential nature, it makes a threefold demand of every person who receives it. That demand is as follows:

1. Because revelation is true, man must accept it.

2. Because it is incomplete, he must amplify it by turning to God with a consecrated soul and spirit.

3. Because it is constantly developing, he may not rest satisfied with it as given, but must press on to perfect it.

Observe how each of these moments characterizes the revelation that comes to Jesus upon the mountain and His acceptance of it. Those two considerations are an appropriate outline for our study:

1. True revelation comes to Jesus.

2. He willingly accepts it.

True revelation comes to Jesus, yes. By means of the Word and the Spirit, heaven speaks to Him, and what heaven says is true. The painful message it brings is that Christ, even though He is in this moment enveloped in glory and steeped in bliss, is nevertheless still the object of humiliation. Humiliation on the mount, you ask? Yes, because the robes of radiance and the glistening garments that He wears are borrowed. He is sharing in a bliss which is being lent to Him. It is no self-engendered beauty, this, which, unlike that which characterizes Him on Easter morning, on ascension day, and will emanate from Him at His return, has been externally thrust upon Him. He gets His glory from Moses and Elias; He shines in their light. He who has the right and the capacity to be the sun of the universe appears here as the moon. The sun is self-illuminating, but the moon, the weaker of the two, has no individuality of her own, depends for her light upon the other, and is therefore not constantly luminous. Jesus senses this reversal of the situation keenly. It is painful to Him, for He never sees a part at the cost of the whole, and can never dissociate one moment of His life from the central purpose of His career. He knows full well that Moses and Elias have brought this glory with them from above, that they are taking it to Him. They also, of course, have derived their glamour from God. Nevertheless those aureoles of splendor which surround them, those halos of bliss, are not mere embellishment, not superadded adornment, but an outer expression of an inner beauty, a beauty made apparent because their redeemed souls had wrought a glorified body before the throne of God. But Christ is not yet intrinsically glorified. O yes, He is the Son, but a Son who may only for a moment borrow the garments of two of His Father’s servants. When these go. He must again stand in the guise of a slave, naked and dismantled.

This we call revelation, and also true revelation. It is true revelation because by means of this experience heaven eloquently preaches the truth about Jesus. It tells Him that as Man He is dependent, finite, in a state of humiliation. It fairly shouts into His ears the fact that not by such external adornment, not by such superficial ornamentation, can or may His great metamorphosis, His ultimate transfiguration, take place. For heaven cannot receive into itself a human Christ who has thus been endowed with light and presented with glory. By accepting Him so, heaven would itself have become the agent responsible for introducing sin into its immaculate holiness. We know that no one can enter God’s mansions except He who radiates an intrinsic, organically evolved beauty, rather than a mechanically superadded one; that none can enter heaven but he who has grown rich and beautiful, ready to meet his God, by reason of the gradual growth of a seed planted in him at his regeneration. And although this principle of glory applies only in part to other men, inasmuch as their sanctification is realized in the last analysis only by an intervention of God’s hand, for Christ the law of glory holds completely and unconditionally. This Second Adam can not be satisfied with an external beauty but must by travail achieve the living, active principle of it, and must, through the Spirit, develop that to final fruition from within. Heaven, then, by letting Christ feel the inadequacy of a borrowed, mechanical translation to the Jerusalem above invites Him to desire an organic departure from the Jerusalem below. So, in the fullness of God’s own time, when His law is satisfied, Christ will also arrive at an organic entrance to that other Jerusalem which is heaven. Only by dying to the law in the earthly city, by fulfilling every demand placed upon Him, can He achieve that glory which is not derived but is His very own and which, through grace, He can then, as a greater than all, pass on to Moses, to Elias, to Adam, and to all of His own eternally.

Such is the nature of the true revelation which heaven discovers to Jesus upon the mountain.

We must observe in the second place that Jesus willingly accepts it and that with His whole individuality. Never before in His life was He so much the servant as He is here in these moments. Although He is the Son, he borrows from the servants in His Father’s house. He bows His head; He acknowledges His humiliation. Moreover, He promises obedience. Moses gave the law, Elias enforced it, He will fulfill it. He bows His head in obedience to the law. Moses led Israel out of heathendom, Elias extracted heathenism out of Israel, Christ will do both. He will rescue His people from the grasp of Satan; that is, He will justify them. But He will also draw every satanic element out of them; that is, He will sanctify them. So He will become the complete Mediator, fulfilling every requirement of the law. He will assume the awful burden of the moment, will be glorified only by suffering. He bows low, accepts the revelation completely, pain and all. He accepts everything that God reveals to Him without demur. And to the extent that God withholds anything, He waits patiently upon Him.

Does God, then, withhold something from Jesus, and does the Christ suffer because of that? Yes, the grief owing to what is not revealed far outweighs for Christ the joy in what is received. Precisely what is withheld, you wonder? Well, Moses is here, and Elias is here, but where is Jesus’ God? Moses spoke with God upon the mountain, had a long conversation with Him, talked with Him again and again, as a friend talks with a friend. And Elias also, upon another mountain, heard His voice, a still, small voice, after it had passed by in the earthquake, the storm, and the fire. But Christ is not allowed to converse with God at this time. Three times, it is true, a voice is heard speaking about the Christ, but not once a voice speaking to Him and with Him. We remember that Jesus has climbed the mountain as one whose seeking soul longed to meet its God in prayer, and we know also that He did that, conscious of the fact that He was greater than Moses and Elias, and more than all the saints together. But God who condescends to speak with Moses and Elias recedes from His Son. This is the beginning of that appalling loneliness which He later expresses in the bitter cry: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

That, certainly, is a willing acceptance of God’s revelation, of what it includes and of what it excludes. Christ here, in the face of Moses who gave it and of Elias who enforced it, accepts the full burden of fulfilling the law. Before He lays the cornerstone of the temple of the Gospel, He allows two standard-bearers of the house of the law, to show Him the blueprints of the evangelical building He envisions, and to teach Him the plans according to which it must be built.

That takes us to our second major consideration. The revelation which comes to Jesus is incomplete. It is not conclusive, is not exhaustive. The revelation of God is always the truth but never the whole truth. What He says is all true, but He does not say all. He cannot reveal everything for the simple reason that God’s infinity cannot be comprehended by finite man. And He does not want His revelation to be exhaustive, because He chooses to discover it by means of history; hence it will not be complete until the end of the world.

That the particular revelation given upon the mount is incomplete is quite obvious. Of course, there is much here in which to rejoice. The bearers of the light of heaven are dazzling creatures, and their brilliance is in striking contrast to the surrounding darkness. Moreover, this is all being done for Jesus. How ineffably beautiful, we say, looking at it from the human point of view. But if we look at this radiance against the screen of heaven itself and if we view it in the very light of God, it becomes less glorious. Seeing it in that way, we are inclined to make two observations:

1. These bearers of revelation reflect only the minutest part of the glory which they “see and hear” (Joh_3:31-32) daily before the throne of God.

2. The manner of this revelation, too, merely hints at its real potentiality.

Yes, Moses and Elias reflect only a little of the heavenly glory which they daily see and hear. Even if for us mere human beings this sublime translucence seems most unusual, we must remember that for heaven it represents a diminution of the customary glory. Seeing the halos of radiance emanating from a lustrous Moses and Elias, we are prompted to say: Ah, yes, so those are who dwell before the throne of God. But that precisely is not the case. They are far more glorious there than they appear to be here at this time. Theirs is a tempered brilliance, there in the house of the Son. The earth cannot absorb the full glory of heaven. Moses must again veil his face because man cannot bear the intensity of its light. Accordingly, we get only a glimpse into the golden palace; its door has merely been set ajar. Behind Elias and Moses, behind these subdued reflectors of glory, we know there is the song of the angels, the very throne itself, the wondrous “four beasts” and the voice as of a great thunder. No, no, heaven’s riches are not extravagantly poured over the earth. We can safely say, in fact, that these two giants accomplished more wonderful things and made a stronger impression while they lived upon earth. Elias in his day caused a vineyard to tremble, called fire from heaven, and quite upset the age in which he lived. And Moses moved over desert and sea like a tornado, drawing all the powers of a coming era in its wake. Compared with such stirring achievements, this one is rather weak and ordinary. A faint glimmer appears for a second. Then heaven closes again. And the earth has not even noticed it.

Just so, too, the manner in which the revelation comes to Jesus clearly represents a restraint of energy. Moses and Elias simply talk with Jesus. It is remarkable that in the original of Mat_17:13, Mar_9:4, and Luk_9:31 a word is used which suggests a very casual conversation. The connotation is that Moses and Elias simply “have a talk” about His decease at Jerusalem. There is nothing striking, nothing unusual about it. How different matters had been before. Moses’ eye had shot flames, his hand had struck fire from the rock, and his voice thundered awesomely. Elias, too, had been able to shake his people, and his coming and going was like that of a whirlwind. But now both the symbol accompanying the word and the form of it are usual, simple, ordinary. Can we say that heaven opened and spoke with Jesus about the awfullest subject named among men, more awful even than—hell?

Such simplicity is, however, very appropriate to the occasion. Those signs, terrors, and awe-inspiring tokens which accompanied the words of Moses and Elias as agents of revelation during their lives belonged to the Old Testament. By means of them they sounded the alarm and heralded the coming of something better.

That something better has come now. The New Testament, the reality, not the prophecy, is here. And now that it has come Moses and Elias too, are eager to get a glimpse of it (compare Luk_10:24). Yes, as far as external glamour goes, Moses and Elias are the sun and Jesus is the moon, reflecting their light. But in reference to the hidden influences, to the concealed energies of the kingdom of heaven, Christ, as the Son of man and as the Lord of glory, is the very Sun of righteousness. And when Christ Himself appears as such, the “moon” of the Old Testament pales in comparison and glides into the shadowy background. We know from daily experience that visible and invisible forces are not the same. When electrical storms threaten, such invisible but potent influences penetrate the air that our radios are rendered useless because of them. So the lightning of God mocks the frail energies mere men can release.

That figure applies to Moses and Elias in this instance. In the final analysis these are only God’s loudspeakers. What they say is therefore the truth. But Christ, who, as an innocent Man, will sacrifice Himself through the eternal Spirit, has in Him spiritual reserves as puissant as those of God’s lightning. He has that capacity with Him there upon the mountain, and in comparison with it the revelation which uses Moses and Elias as its agents appears weak and fragmentary.

Revelation is always incomplete but never was it more so than when its lesser potentialities were here revealed to its greatest Hero. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to the fathers by Moses and Elias, has in these last hours taught them to be silent before the Son. Yes, Moses and Elias talked, we said. But never have men kept such silence, never left so much unsaid. In a sense the revelation upon the mountain was incomplete, was pathetically meager. In another sense it was never so profusely abundant, for its very inadequacy in these heroes of the Old Testament significantly points to its completion in the Son, who realizes God’s words.

We notice, accordingly, that Jesus’ soul is in accord with what Moses and Elias present to Him. The revelation is incomplete, but He will develop the inadequate data of the heavenly instruction by directing all the energies of a consecrated heart, and soul, and will upon God. He will bring the whole of His devoted individuality to bear upon realizing that revelation until it ends in the ultimateness of God’s perfection.

It is by that very realization that He proves to be our Redeemer. The reception we disobedient creatures give the revelation of God is never completely appreciative of the riches of God’s grace given us in it. But Christ always appreciates what God gives in a way that is appropriate to its nature and content. When God gives the Man Christ Jesus an incomplete revelation in the form of one talent in order that He may trade with it, Christ goes, His face fixed upon God, and toils relentlessly until He has gained all the other talents. He gives revelation its just due by concentrating his whole effort upon bringing it to its final fruition. It is true that heaven’s door is hardly standing ajar. But that is enough. In God’s own time, Christ will swing it open. Just so the influences of that coming age are released; Christ will then distribute them all so that they may flood the world until that day when His foot will again touch upon the mountain, and He will judge the living and the dead.

And in reference to that very ordinary manner of revelation of which we spoke, we see that Christ responds perfectly to that also. Moses and Elias simply talk to Him about the awful event to come; they merely tell Him of it. But the telling is enough for Jesus, is more than enough. Contrast His immediate and eager response to the Word with the pathetic reception which men are wont to give it. Christ Himself had previously pictured the pathos of that. When the banquet table of the Gospel is prepared, God first asks His servants to tell the guests that the table is spread. But they do not come. He then bids His representatives to bring them in. But that, too, does not suffice. Finally He must compel them to come.[1] Telling, bringing, compelling —that is the cycle of persuasion that must be brought to bear upon them before men will receive the Word that blesses them with the life of the Gospel. But Christ who at this time receives an invitation to appear not at the communion table of the Gospel, but at the place of execution of the Great Tribunal, goes when He is told. Bringing and compelling . . no, no: I come, O Lord, to do Thy will.

[1] Luk_14:17; Luk_14:21; Luk_14:23; see also J. J. Knap, In de Schuilplaats, Kampen, J. H. Kok, 1913, p. 50 ff.

Naturally His soul, too, is grieved and depressed by it, but He nevertheless receives the incomplete revelation purely, and precisely by doing that proves to be our Mediator. He takes it and develops it until it reaches its fulfillment in God. The mere telling is as effective as the voice of judgment. To Him announcement and commandment are synonymous.

The third emphasis we were to consider is that the revelation of God is a growing one. It is constantly in the process of becoming, is always developing. And that aspect of it also is illustrated very clearly in the law of transfiguration which is introduced at this time.

Christ, as we noted, was enveloped in a medium of glory. His “raiment was white and glistening.” He therefore underwent the same kind of transfiguration which Moses and Elias experienced in the course of their lives. Moses was transfigured when he visited with God upon the mountain. His face was so resplendent that the people could not bear to look at it. And Elias was similarly changed when he was taken up to heaven with horses of fire.

But neither Moses nor Elias attained perfection by their metamorphoses. They did not reach that resting place, that ultimate point in the being of a God whom all prophetic souls address with the words: Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Moses by his transfiguration bore the light of celestial glory from heaven above to the people below. But when that glory arrived in the valley at the foot of the mountain, it was extinguished by the corruption of Israel. At first he had to hide his face, but later it again lost its luster. And—what is more important—even while the radiance continued, Moses could not share the light with the people. Glory descends from above but it vanishes when it reaches the earth. In other words, the “glory of the Lord,”[1] which is the fullness of the revelation of God in the Old Testament, does come from heaven to mankind but it does not penetrate through, nor realize itself among, them. It is limited to Moses and he is powerless to distribute it among the people.

[1] Technical term for the manner in which the glory of God was revealed to man in the Old Testament.

So, too, the glory of God takes a similar form but in a different direction in Elias. At his ascension he also undergoes a change. His features are transfigured; he bears heaven’s glory from earth to heaven. When it arrives there it is, of course, not extinguished, for, so far from being destroyed, everything that enters heaven is ushered into abundant living. In heaven there is room enough for the brilliance which Israel at the foot of the mountain had not the capacity to receive. But when Elias carries heaven’s dazzling brilliance upwards, the earth loses it and remains so much the poorer. Elisha must continue alone and the whole militant church must carry on alone. The transfiguration of Elias does not help them. In Elias the “glory of the Lord” still assumes the Old Testament manner of revelation; there is an ascension to heaven but no realization of glory below. Elias, also, is impotent to bring about that “realization”, that changing of men from glory to glory even as by the Spirit. By means of the glory these giants of the Old Testament displayed, they did indeed give mankind a hint as to the nature of the glorification of man by the Spirit. But theirs was a static beauty—it could not inundate the world with a flood of light. After they, the best of the representatives of the Old Testament, had gone, there was still no such reality as that described in 2Co_3:18. Who among men in that Old Testament era could say: But we all, beholding as in a glass the glory of Moses and Elias, are changed into the same image, and now possess our glorification?

Hence the transfiguration of each of these is essentially a looking forward to, and a prayer for a better thing. Moses, the mediator of the Old Testament, cannot make room for the glory of the Lord among his people. He can only enjoy it personally, and but temporarily at that. And Elias who devoted his whole life to his people can also receive that glory only in a personal way and cannot share it with them. Surely, this is not the true salvation. In the one case the glory comes from heaven to earth, in the other it goes from the earth to heaven, but in neither case does it organically unify the two, nor become the abiding property of the people.

Because of that appalling inadequacy Moses and Elias are in reality groping toward and reaching out to the New Testament. These bearers of a temporary, static, and purely personal transfiguration are extending their hands to Jesus. For He will in His own power be the Worker, and in His own person the bearer of a glorification which will bless all who are His own. Yes, that is the really important consideration: this realization of glory. In Christ that glory, that revelation, is completely present (for He is very God). In Him it is not yet completely unfolded, however (for He is still humiliated man). But in this same Christ that glory and that revelation will by way of suffering and resurrection and ascension burst into the efflorescence of a new life. And that life this perfect and complete Mediator will share with all of His people. They will undergo His metamorphosis with Him, and will with Him rise out of suffering and death to heavenly blessedness. Behold, a greater than Moses or Elias is here. He is the Mediator between God and man.

To this evolving character of revelation Christ also responded in the one appropriate way; that is, as a Mediator. Again He swears a precious oath into the ears of His God. He declares that He, with His face fixed upon the throne of majesty, will go the way of suffering and of descent into hell. As a Mediator, He, together with all of His people, will shut out the last faint shimmer of light, and will bury Himself under the avalanche of hell, will subject Himself to the curse of eternal condemnation. Because they could not supply that condition, Moses and Elias were unable to consummate effectual glory. Had they attempted to supply it, they would have been everlastingly swallowed by eternal death. But Christ is able to achieve the ultimate, active glorification. After He has gone down into everlasting death He will arise again, and will bear with Him, also in His humanity, the inner puissance of true transfiguration. By His resurrection and ascension He will take it with Him to heaven, and will share it with all of His people. So He will genuinely unify heaven and earth and make room everywhere for the “glory of the Lord.” That will be when God’s tabernacle descends to men, and the new Jerusalem comes to the earth. Then, by way of suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and the pouring out of the Spirit, 2Co_3:18 will be actualized.

Moses and Elias, returning to heaven from the mountain of transfiguration, will prophesy there of the coming of Christ’s redeemed, saying: They all, reflecting not our glory, but that of the once exalted Christ, are presently changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Moses and Elias gave to the Lord, and they lent to Him. But they desired and received much more. Had it not been for Christ’s perfect Mediatorship, the glorification of Moses and of Elias would never have been recognized in heaven. For they, too, were saved only by this same Christ.

Obviously, we, together with these representatives, must reach out our hands to heaven. We must give the true but incomplete revelation which we receive an active reception, pressing on to what lies before. Moreover, we must pause in holy reverence. Now Christ has seen the powers of hell and of heaven loosened over His head. Now He steps out of the vestibule of the temple of passion into the building proper. He pulls the sexton’s cord, shuts out the world, shouts hosanna, puts His arms around the supporting pillars, and, like the Great Samson He is, pulls destruction down over His head, in order that He may die, not with us, but for us, Philistines.