EXPLORE THE TEXT
Understanding Jesus's identity and majesty as the Son of God helps us to follow Him confidently.
16 For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths
when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;
instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!”
18 We ourselves heard this voice
when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter turned to his eyewitness account of Jesus's transfiguration
as evidence for the legitimacy of Jesus's majesty
(see Matt. 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36).
Peter, James, and John had accompanied Jesus up the mountain.
Before the disciples' very eyes,
Jesus physically transformed into a state that reflected His actual divine glory.
What was always true about His glorious state physically manifested itself
in, on, and through His physical body.
The effect was that His body became some sort of other worldly light source,
so powerful that even His exterior clothing visibly transformed.
After the fact, Jesus had urged His followers to remain silent about what they had seen
until after His resurrection.
Here, Peter recounted what He had seen for the benefit and affirmation of His readers.
Contrast Jesus with the Greek and Roman religions that included fables about their gods
but contained no basis in history.
Emphasize that Jesus's life, death, and resurrection are clearly anchored in history,
including Peter's valid claim that he was an eyewitness.
Briefly recap the account of Jesus's transfiguration.
Note Peter's role in the events.
Compare what God said from the cloud in the Gospels and what Peter noted in verse 17.
In this specific verse,
Peter addressed the divine nature of Jesus when He came to earth.
The fact that God took on human flesh is anything but a series of cleverly contrived myths.
As he stated at the end of verse 16, things are quite the opposite.
Everything about the gospel is genuine and real.
Christian doctrine, including the deity of Jesus, is rooted in historical fact. And Peter could prove it.
In addition to the marvelous glory of Jesus's transfiguration,
Peter also heard a voice that validated
what He and the other disciples were experiencing.
Even decades later, he could still quote the message given
by the voice of the Father from the cloud,
the Majestic Glory.
As He had done at Jesus's baptism
(Matt. 3:13-17),
God the Father affirmed the Son's identity and His own pleasure with the work He had accomplished on earth.
Along with that was the implied blessing on the culmination of Jesus's work on the cross.
Peter again affirmed that this was not secondhand information that he was sharing with his readers.
He had seen Jesus with his own eyes, and He had heard this voice with his own ears.
In addition to his own testimony,
Peter also leaned into the testimony of the other disciples, though James had been executed by this time (Acts 12:1-2).
Still, he affirmed that all three had been in that setting,
and all three had beheld the majesty of the Savior and Messiah.
The exact mountain of the transfiguration today is open to debate.
The traditional site is Mount Tabor in the Jezreel Valley,
but some contend that it could have been Mount Hermon in northern Israel near Caesarea Philippi.
Time may have erased our ability to identify the mountain beyond dispute,
but it could not erase the definitive identity of God's words to His Son
or the glory He demonstrated there.
The mountain was an ordinary mountain made holy by the presence of the Lord.
Along with salvation and the historical authenticity of Jesus,
Peter added Scripture as a factor in spiritual growth.