Matthew 17 contains one of the most remarkable moments in all of Scripture—the Transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and before their eyes His appearance is transformed. His face shines like the sun, His clothes become dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah appear speaking with Him.
What has always stood out to me is where Matthew places this event. Just six days earlier, Jesus had made the startling promise that some standing before Him would not taste death until they saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom (Matthew 16:28). Matthew is careful to tell us that the Transfiguration happened six days later. Mark and Luke do the same. It seems clear that the Gospel writers want us to connect these events. On that mountain, the disciples were given a glimpse of Christ's kingdom glory before His death and resurrection.
The appearance of Moses and Elijah is also significant. Moses represented the Law, and Elijah represented the Prophets. Together they testify that the entire Old Testament points to Jesus. Yet when the Father's voice speaks from the cloud, the focus is not on Moses or Elijah. The command is simple: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him" (verse 5). The Law and the Prophets were important, but Jesus is greater. He is the fulfillment of everything they anticipated.
As the disciples descend the mountain, Jesus tells them not to speak of what they have seen until after His resurrection. This leads to an interesting discussion about Elijah. The scribes taught that Elijah must come before the Messiah, and the disciples naturally wondered how that prophecy fit with what they had just witnessed.
Jesus explains that Elijah had already come in the person of John the Baptist. This wasn't the first time Jesus identified John in this way. Earlier, in Matthew 11, He declared that John was the promised Elijah who was to come. John fulfilled that role by ministering in the spirit and power of Elijah, calling Israel to repentance and confronting wicked rulers just as Elijah had confronted King Ahab centuries earlier.
The Transfiguration also causes me to think about something deeper than forgiveness. As Christians, we celebrate that Christ died for our sins and that through faith we are forgiven. But the New Testament teaches something even more astonishing. We are not merely forgiven; we are given Christ's righteousness and invited to share in His glory. Scholars far more qualified than myself, refer to this truth as double imputation. The punishment for our sins imputed to Jesus and Jesus' perfect righteousness imputed to those who place their faith in Him.
In John, Jesus prays to the Father and says, "The glory that you have given me I have given to them" (John 17:22). Paul echoes this truth when he writes that through Christ's obedience many will be made righteous and that "those whom God justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:30). Even now, believers are being transformed into Christ's image "from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Transfiguration gives us a brief glimpse of the glory that belongs to Jesus by nature. It also reminds us of the incredible promise of the gospel: those who belong to Christ will one day share in that glory. We are forgiven, declared righteous, and being transformed into His likeness. The mountain scene is not merely a revelation of who Jesus is, it is also a preview of what God is accomplishing in His people.
Matthew 17 invites us to lift our eyes beyond the struggles of the present and behold the glory of Christ. The more we behold Him, the more we are transformed by Him, until the day when we no longer see in a mirror dimly, but "face to face", and until the day when we no longer know in part, but will "know fully just as we also have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). I cannot wait for this day to come.