The Transfiguration: The Unveiling of the Incarnation* By REV. A. C. DIXON, D. D. OF THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, LONDON, ENG. W E are seeking to give a Bible reading in four parts on the subject of . the Incarnation,
the Cross. The second attempt was by an appeal to * spiritual pride: “ Throw thyself down from the tem ple; make a spectacular display of Thy power.” And that is the oppo site of the Cross. And now from the top of the mountain, “ see the world’s glory and receive it at' my hand.” That also is the opposite of the Cross. We are told that after the Tempta tion our Lord “ returned in the power of the Spirit,” and- when you have conquered Satan in the power of God, the power of God remains with you. Every victory leads to greater victory. Every-resistance of the worldly spirit, the attempt to deflect us from the Cross, will lead to a greater endue- ment of the Spirit of power. Then we are told that the “ angels cam ean d ministered unto Him.” After the Devil, the angels! After you have conquered Satan, you may expect the angels. They come along the path of victory, and not of defeat. And He “ was with the wild beasts.” Angels and wild beasts,, and doubtless both of them equally friendly! It was a reproduction of the Edenic expe rience, before sin entered the world, the very wild beasts recognizing their Master, as well as the angels. The Lord Jesus Christ, along the pathway of the Cross, can conquer in us, and keep at His feet all the wild beasts o f our nature. He may not kill them, as we shall see by-and-bye, but He knows how to master them; and when the wild beasts are mastered, the air is always full of angels. That brings us to the Transfigura tion, the Unveiling of the Incarnation. Let us turn to Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 17, “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into, a
-Jesus Christ the Incarnation of Deity. Saturday we saw the_ Temptation, the Testing of'the Incarnation; to-day the Transfiguration, the Unveiling of the Incarnation; to-morrow, the Crucifix ion, or the Cross of Christ, the Glory of the Incarnation; and on Friday, the Second Coming of our Cord, the Con summation of the Incarnation. Saturday the time was up, and we were left, with Christ tempted by Sa tan on the top of the high mountain. He showed our Lord all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He seems to have been in a hurry, a little afraid o f too long a gaze. It might show too-much tinsel and sham! Per haps he could show all there was of it in a moment—just one great flash of glory, it soon passes. Such is the end of earth’s glory. But his attempt was to deflect our Lord from the Cross of Calvary.. ‘The world kingdoms have given me authority. I rule. I f you will accept my supremacy, you may have the world’s conquest without the sacrifice o f yourself, and take its glory without the suffering.” Satan still tempts us to the short cut to glory. We are slow to go by the way of the Cross. We had rather receive the glory than wait for it as.the result o f ' suffering. Let us keep before us the threefold- attempt to deflect our Lord from His sacrificial purpose, by an appeal, first of all, to the physical nature, an at tempt to lead Jesus to exercise His omnipotent power for the sake of Himself. That is just the opposite of *An address delivered at the Montrose Bible Conferenpe, Montrose, Pa., Monday, August 4, 1913 , 3 p. m.
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