One of the joys of traveling to a major city is that there’s always more to see. Even if you stay for a week, there are restaurants you miss, sites you can’t get to, tours you’re unable to take. You can’t cover it all in one visit.
In The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading, Patrick Schreiner argues the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s transfiguration are similar. The depth of the narrative should keep readers constantly coming back for more, because there’s always more to see.
In the moment of Jesus’s transfiguration, the disciples struggled to understand what was happening. The voice of God interrupts Peter as he suggests building three tents on the mountain (Matt. 17:4–5). Mark explains that his outburst was because “he did not know what to say” (Mark 9:6).
Modern disciples in the Western Christian tradition sometimes struggle to know what to do with the transfiguration. Many of us treat it like a visit to a city during a 12-hour layover. We claim to have “seen the sights” even though we barely made it out of the airport terminal. For those willing to stop for a while and explore, Schreiner—associate professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Midwestern Seminary—steps in as a tour guide to the transfiguration, pointing out where to look and what to look for.
Christological Significance
As in his book on the ascension, Schreiner takes an underexamined event in the life of Christ, showing how it’s central to rightly understanding Jesus’s identity and mission. Christologically, the transfiguration showcases “Jesus’s double sonship” (4). It reaches backward to reveal the glory Jesus has always possessed as the eternal Son of God and forward (from that point) to the future glory Jesus now possesses as a glorified human being because of his messianic work.
The transfiguration gives us a clear, biblical picture of Chalcedonian Christology: Jesus is one divine person existing in two natures, divine and human. By pulling back the curtain, Jesus offers his disciples “hope by revelation,” giving them certain hope that because he will not be defeated by death, they’ll share in his glorious transformation (12).
The transfiguration gives us a clear, biblical picture of Chalcedonian Christology: Jesus is one divine person existing in two natures, divine and human.
To demonstrate how the transfiguration reveals the glory of the Savior, Schreiner begins by examining the Gospel accounts for their glorious setting, signs, and saying. Then he shows how the transfiguration shines light on the doctrines of creation, incarnation, resurrection, and new creation. He shows the transfiguration narrative is key to understanding the whole Bible.
Robust Hermeneutics
Bible reading is as much an art as it is a science. It’s caught as much as it’s taught. So we need mentors and examples who can model it well. This book is worth its weight in gold because it offers a model approach to Scripture.
The Transfiguration of Christ does the necessary exegetical work by explaining that the Greek word for “transfigure” and “transform” is the same: metamorphoō. It’s used only four times in the New Testament: twice in the transfiguration narratives, in Romans 12:2, and 2 Corinthians 3:18. Thus, Schreiner shows, Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain is linked with our transformation into his image. In the transfiguration, Christians get a picture of Jesus’s divine and human glory and a preview of their own glorification into his image (Rom. 8:29–30). As Schreiner says, “The transfiguration guarantees that we will not only be where he is but as he is” (12).
Schreiner’s reading is well-grounded historically. He draws from the church fathers, like John of Damascus, who argued Luke’s description of the transfiguration as “about eight days” after Peter’s messianic confession is an intentional reference to the inauguration of the new creation (Luke 9:28). Meanwhile, Mark’s and Matthew’s reference to “six days” after the same event ties in the Genesis timeline for creation (Mark 9:2; Matt. 17:1). Thus, the transfiguration was both a “preview of beholding God’s glory” and a revelation of “God’s purpose for creation” (37).
As he works through the text, Schreiner incorporates insights from biblical and systematic theology to show that Jesus is presented as the new Moses, but even more that Jesus shines with the glory of God that Moses longed to see on Sinai. This thorough treatment of the text can inform preaching and reflection on this mysterious moment in the life of Christ.
Devotional Theology
In “On the Reading of Old Books,” C. S. Lewis wrote, “I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books. . . . I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”
The pipe is optional, but working through Schreiner’s theological reading of the transfiguration is a great way to be led to worship as he unveils the glorious Savior revealed in this event.
Working through Schreiner’s theological reading of the transfiguration is a great way to be led to worship as he unveils the glorious Savior
Because Jesus lives and reigns, as Desmond Tutu is quoted by Schreiner as saying, “The principle of transfiguration says nothing, no one and no situation, is ‘untransfigurable,’ that the whole of creation, nature, waits expectantly for its transfiguration, when it will be released from its bondage and share in the glorious liberty of the children of God, when it will not just be dry inert matter but will be translucent with divine glory” (151).
Christ’s transformation inspires hope for our transformation. Death didn’t snuff out the glorious light of Christ and the preview of Christ’s messianic glory, seen by the disciples on the mountain, is now a present reality. This should make a tired heart leap for joy.
By giving a preview of Jesus’s glorified humanity, the transfiguration gives Christians deep hope for their transformation and the transformation of all creation. The Transfiguration of Christ has the power to deepen our love for Christ and our understanding of his work.
The Gospel Coalition