Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 21

Beholding, Changed, Transformed (continued)

I repeat, then, that it was the glory of His person as the Son of Man; for, almost in association with that, He spoke of His coming again as being "the coming of the Son of Man in the glory of the Father." This, so far as His perfecting was concerned, was not something that took place on the Mount. The Mount was the mark of the consummation of His perfecting. I do not mean  in the matter of sin - sinfulness or sinlessness - but the perfecting of His character, the perfecting of that inner man which we call personality. Personality is a strange thing, an elusive thing, something that you cannot mistake; it is the person within - the man inside. Now, He, in that inner life of His, had worked out this whole matter of God's pleasure, God's satisfaction, through His life. There was the Divine approval at His baptism in similar words, indicating, probably, that His thirty years were approved; certainly indicating that the step that He was now taking, right out into public, with the Cross accepted (for His baptism certainly implied that) was approved. That brought the word from Heaven: "My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."

But now this period, between the baptism and the Cross, is concluding, and what a period! One New Testament writer says that He was "tempted in ALL points like as we." And that was crowded into a short three years and a few months. Yes, hell tested Him; the world tested Him; in a sense Heaven tested Him. He was put through it in every detail, and won through. He, in that time, was "made perfect through sufferings," "learned obedience through the things which He suffered." That time brought that inner life, that inner personality, to perfection. Now, you will see why I am saying this at the outset; it is not new, it is not fresh, but it is basic to everything else. That is the point.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 22 -  "We All ... Are Transfigured")