The Transfiguration: Dust to Glory with R.C. Sproul

SPROUL: We have been going through a survey of the Old and New Testaments, and I remind you of the title of this survey, "From Dust to Glory." And that word, "glory," is such an important concept in the Scriptures. It comes from the Hebrew word, "kavod" or "kabod," as sometimes it is rendered, and the root of this term in the Semitic languages was the idea of heaviness or weightiness. And of course, in the original usage, that weightiness or heaviness referred to physical weight of corporeal things. But then it is transferred into a figurative or metaphorical usage in the Scripture to refer to something of supreme importance or supreme significance or dignity. There is an idea in the ancient world that those who are of supreme importance may be considered to be august in their presence. That was the basic idea behind the name that was acquired by the first emperor of Rome, Octavian, when

he became known as Caesar Augustus, Caesar the "august one." Now I recently talked to a man who came to me all excited because he had gone to his computer, and he had some Bible software in it, and he looked up the word, "glory," in his concordance, and then examined every single reference in the Bible to glory. And it was a spiritual experience for him because he began to see the incredible frequency with which the Scriptures speak about the glory of God, that God's glory is set above the heavens, and His glory displays His majesty, His transcendent greatness. And yet in the New Testament, when we see the appearance of Jesus, for the most part, this one who is the incarnation of the second person of the godhead, who is equal with the Father in glory, and who has shared in the divine glory from all eternity, when He comes to this world, He sets aside His glory and enters into a state of humiliation by which He takes

upon Himself the role of a servant. Now when New Testament scholars examine the progression of the life of Jesus, they will say in general terms that the progress of Jesus' life and ministry is a movement that, basically speaking, moves from humiliation to exaltation. That is, that the first stage of His humiliation is the circumstances of His birth inasmuch as He is born in lowly circumstances, in which He welcomes the debasing of His station in life as a baby born in the manger. And then throughout His life, He is subjected to all kinds of hostility and scorn and hatred from people as His humility continues. But then there is an acceleration of humiliation when Jesus enters into what is called His grand passion, when He is delivered into the hands of Pilate, when He is scourged and judged and sentenced to death by crucifixion. And we speak of His death as the passion, in which all apparent vestiges of glory are stripped

from Him as He is placed in a posture of public humiliation in His death. The prophecy of Isaiah fifty-three talked about the one who would come as the servant of God, who would be smitten and afflicted, and people would turn their faces from Him and treat Him beneath His dignity. And then we see, following the cross, the bursting forth of the exaltation of Christ in resurrection; and then later, even greater outward manifestation of His glory in His ascension into heaven on the Shekinah clouds. And we'll talk about those events in and of themselves later, but for now, I want us to see that even though I agree with this academic assessment of the general movement of Jesus from humiliation to exaltation, that we understand that it is not a steady, equalized situation, because here and there, now and then, there are brief, tiny episodes where the New Testament writers record for us an intrusion of glory. Even in the birth narratives, though Jesus is subjected

to the humiliation of being born to a peasant girl in this stable in Bethlehem, at the same time that this is taking place out in an obscure passageway outside the city in the fields surrounding Bethlehem, suddenly there erupts a glorious sound and light show where the refulgent glory of God is placed on display, and we are told that His glory shone round about, and there are these intrusions. Well, I think the single most important breakthrough of the divine glory that is recorded in the New Testament witness toward Christ is that one which occurs on the Mount of Transfiguration. I have to say that it bothers me that we don't hear more about this in the preaching of the church. But let's take some time and look at the record of the Transfiguration, which is given in all three of the synoptic gospels and takes place very shortly after Jesus had given the bad news to His disciples that they were about to return to Jerusalem for Him to suffer and to die. You can imagine the emotions of the disciples in these past few

days. There was this wonderful, joyous moment when Jesus acknowledged to them that he was the Messiah, which was then followed very quickly by the dire announcement of His impending affliction, suffering, betrayal, and death. And their emotions would then plummet. But then we read in Matthew's gospel in chapter seventeen, verse one, "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them." Now we really hardly ever use the word, "transfigure," in our vocabulary. There's a passage in the Battle Hymn of the Republic that is, "Glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me," but apart from that, we just about never use this term except with reference to this event. There is another word in English, however, that is used more frequently, and it is the word that does not translate the Greek word that is used here, but it transliterates it. That is, it just brings it right over into

the English language, and it is the word, "metamorphosis." We've heard of Ovid's poetic work, which was that -- written under the title, "Metamorphosis." When we were children and took science in elementary school, our first exposure to the idea to metamorphosis was with the extraordinary interesting experience of the creation of a butterfly. It begins as a worm, a caterpillar, who spins a cocoon, and after a period of dormancy, out of this cocoon emerges the magnificently beautiful butterfly. What a transformation, because that's what the word "metamorphosis" means. "Meta" means "across" or "with," and morphology is the study of form, and so really, the word, "transformation," means the same thing as the word, "metamorphosis," and we witness that kind of transformation when the worm becomes the butterfly.

And so what the gospel writers are saying here is that Jesus took apart His close inner circle of disciples, Peter, James, and John, and while they were talking with Him, suddenly before their eyes, Jesus undergoes this startling transformation. And the transformation has to be understood as a temporary breakthrough of glory, because listen to the language that is used to describe what these men saw: "His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light." Those are the two graphic images that describe Him: His face began to shine like the sun.

Do you remember what happens later on after Christ ascends and Saul is going around and breathing out fire and threats against the Christians, dragging them from their homes and throwing them into prison, and he gets the commission to carry on his persecution in Syria, and he goes toward Damascus? And during the midday, suddenly Christ appears to him, and Saul is literally blinded by the brightness of the glory of Christ that is described there in the text as being brighter than the noonday sun. Now we've learned to survive in this planet that is illumined and warmed by the sun. We appreciate the sun, we need the sun, but we know we can't even look directly into the sun in the middle of a solar eclipse lest we do permanent damage to our eyes, and so we've learned always to keep the sun at an angle to our direct vision, lest we be blinded by the intensity and magnitude of its brightness.

And what these men are saying is that suddenly as we were talking to Jesus, His face began to change, and instead of the normal flesh tones that the eye beholds when they look at a human being standing before them, Jesus' face began to brighten and shine, and the shining became refulgent in its glory, dazzling in its beauty, and so bright that it dwarfed the sun, and they couldn't look at it. And the garments that He was wearing were equally transformed before their very eyes, and we are told simply by Matthew that His garments became white. The other records in the New Testament give us this detail, as Mark does, that His garments became whiter than any fuller can make them.

Now that's the old translation. The fuller, f-u-l-l-e-r, like "The Fuller Brush Man" in the ancient world was the professional launderer, and professional launderers in that day had the same struggles that we have today with professional laundries. Our biggest complaint is when we take our white shirts or our white garments, the sheets, and so on, and they come back and they're a little tinge of grey in them. They're off color; they lose the brightness of their original pure white coloring. One of the greatest industries in America is the soap industry, and I remember as a kid growing up listening to these soap operas as they were called on the radio, because -- they were called soap operas because the sponsors were soap companies that sold soap: "Oxydol's Own Ma Perkins." And you'd hear these little jingles that sell -- sold -- the soap: "D-U-Z, D-U-Z, put Duz in your washing machine, rinse so white, rinse so clean."

And L-A-V-A, Lava soap; and Ivory soap, it floats, and so on. But the one that intrigued me as a child was a soap called Tide: "Tide's in, dirt's out, T-I-D-E, Tide," because every year, the people that sold Tide would announce that this year's Tide was new and improved. And I listened to that for enough years to begin to wonder what the original Tide was like if it had to go through this many improvements. But then I read a book on marketing once, and it said the most important word in any ad copy is the word, "new." Well, I put up with the hyperbole of the advertising industry until I heard the quintessential advertisement for Tide, which said, "It makes your clothes come out whiter than white." Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's just nonsense, because there is no such thing as a white that is whiter than white.

I ask children sometimes the simple little question, "What color is a lemon?" And they all get the right answer. They say, "It's yellow." And then I ask them a little bit more difficult question. I'll say, "What color is the lemon when you turn the lights out?" And they scratch their head. That's a real poser. They're not sure. And I explain to them then that it has no color without the light because color is not something inherent to objects. The colors that we see are reflections of that which is contained in light, and when certain colors of the spectrum are blocked out by the fibers that absorb them and only certain ones are reflected, those are the colors that we see. And yet, the pure color of light is white.

Now why is it that Jesus' garments turned white, whiter than any fuller could make them? I think that what is being communicated here, if I may speculate just for a second, that Jesus' glory is not simply a reflected glory. As creatures made in the image of God, we are called to be mirroring and reflecting the glory of God. We remember the closest instance to this in the Old Testament was when Moses went up into the mountain and asked God if he could see His glory, and God refused the request and said to him, "Moses, you know that no man can see My face and live. But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll carve a little niche here in the rock, and I'll put you there in the rock, and I will pass by, and I will allow you a brief momentary glimpse of My backward parts, but My face will not be seen."

And so when Moses beheld this split-second vision of the backward parts of God, Moses' face began to shine with a fierce intensity. And when he came down from the mountain, the people were afraid because they saw the glow on his face. But the important thing to understand is that that brilliance and shining of Moses' face was a reflection. It was a fading reflection of one tiny glimpse of the backward parts of the glory of God. And yet, the reflection of it was so bright that people couldn't look at it. The difference here, I'm convinced, is that the light source for the pure whiteness of the garments of Jesus at the Transfiguration is not that they are reflecting or bouncing an external light source, but the light is coming from within. The light is coming from His being; the divine nature is breaking through the veil, and the disciples are seeing His

glory. Oh, that stayed with them. Peter speaks about it in his literature; John, in his prologue, says, you know, the logos, the eternal one, that when He became a man and dwelt among us, he said, and "we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten God." And here the disciples don't understand. They're confused; they're concerned. They're anxious about the days that lie ahead, and in the midst of their fear and in the midst of their anxiety, God shows them the glory of His Son. Quickly, "And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, one for Elijah.' And while he was speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!' And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid." Not only did they see the transformation of Jesus, but now they look, and here's Moses and Elijah having a private conversation with Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell us what they were talking about, but remember, the Scriptures say that the law

and the prophets all speak of the coming of the Messiah, and He fulfils the law and prophets. And now here comes the law and the prophet, that sort of -- the leader of the school of prophets, Elijah, the mediator of the law, Moses -- and they're talking privately with Jesus. Let me guess; they were discussing what was awaiting Him in Jerusalem. The law and the prophets were saying, "Set Your face like a flint; fulfill Your vocation. This is the work of the Messiah." And suddenly they were encompassed by a bright cloud, again the Shekinah cloud, the glory cloud, and out of the cloud comes the very voice of God, again declaring the identity of Jesus, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him! Listen to Him." And they were terrified. And then as suddenly as it started, the experience was over, and the disciples were trembling. And Jesus walks over, and we are told that He touched them.

He said, "Stand up." This is the turning point. They've seen His glory; they're ready to go with Him to Jerusalem.