The Fact of the Transfiguration
Now here, in his letter, Peter is affirming the FACT of the Transfiguration. He is setting it over against what he calls "cunningly devised fables" - cleverly concocted reports, over against anything merely fictitious or imaginary. He says, "This is a FACT! We were with Him; we saw; we heard." And he says, "This has been abundantly confirmed: "We have the word of prophecy made more sure" - probably referring to what he said in the passage from his first letter that we read. The prophets all pointed on to that, to that suffering and glory which met on the Mount of Transfiguration, as Moses and Elijah spoke to Him about the Cross, His "exodus", about to be accomplished at Jerusalem. The suffering and the glory met there on that mountain. Peter says that the prophets were all pointing to that, and seeking and searching diligently to know what manner of time it would be, when they prophesied the sufferings and the glory. He says that the prophets searched DILIGENTLY. And then he crowns it all by saying, "This is something that angels are desirous of looking into!" He says, "We have got it - we have got it all in fulfillment!" We were there on the mount, and we have seen it working out ever since; we are living in the light and the power of that blending of suffering and glory, glory and suffering. The word of the prophets is confirmed, both in the event and in our history ever since the event - it is made sure."
Probably Peter meant more than that, but he meant that. That is not the whole interpretation, but it is a part. What I am trying to underline is that FACT that Peter himself is affirming here - THE THING HAD HAPPENED. But, when Peter adds his word about "more sure", you notice he carries it beyond the event, that historic event, that occasion on the mount. There is something added to this, something added to the (if we may call it) "incident". Mighty incident! Something more - it has been "made more sure" in our case. What is it?
An Inward Reality
Well, just this, that is so true in the other cases, it was not only something BEFORE THE EYES of Peter (and the others); it was something that happened TO him, and afterward came INTO him. True, there was the event, the happening, in time, at a certain place. But, with it, something happened IN Peter. You notice the immediate context: he is speaking of his departure. "Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me". "I will seek that you have these things after my departure..." He is at the end of his life, at the end of his ministry; but something has happened that has carried him through. It is not that something has remained as the memory of an objective experience, but that something has happened IN him.
This is more than doctrine, more than a history, more than even something in the Holy Scriptures. To see the Lord does something IN us. We can get the "truth" about anything and everything: all the truth that is available about the Lord Jesus Himself - His birth, His life, His works, His words, His death, His resurrection - all that there is; we can have all the truth about the Church - and what a lot there is available; we can have it all, know it all - nothing fresh to know about it; and any other thing you like to mention, in the Scriptures - and yet the fact can remain that nothing has happened in us as a result. I ask you: What ha all your knowledge of the Church meant, as a "happening" in you, to effect something, to put you in a new place, with an entirely new conception, revolutionizing your whole life, so that one whole order of things just falls away as empty, and another heavenly order comes in? That is how it ought to be. True spiritual apprehension ought not just to be something in front of us - it ought to be something IN us. It was so with Peter, and we can trace this in his life.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 47)
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