Luk 9:29-30 | KingComments | STEP | When the Lord Jesus has spoken in this way about His coming in glory, He promises some of those who stand with Him that they will see that glory before they die. That is, they will not only see the kingdom after they have died and in due course be raised to enter the kingdom, but during their life they will see the kingdom of God in its glorious and final form. This announcement is fulfilled after only about eight days. Luke speaks of “some eight days” because the number eight represents the beginning of a new period. The number seven represent a complete period. The seventh day, the Sabbath, is fulfilled in the glory of the realm of peace. The new of the eighth day is the establishment of the kingdom of God, of which Christ is the radiant center and of which the glory flows into eternity ( ). The Lord takes Peter, John and James with Him because later they will be pillars in the church ( ) and He wants to strengthen their faith to that end. By doing so, they will also be able to strengthen the faith of others. The Lord’s goal to go up the mountain is to pray. This is again a striking and characteristic remark for Luke representing Him as the dependent Man. While He is praying, His face gets a different look and also His clothing changes. His face was that of an ordinary person, a face that did not stand out among other faces. Now it changes. Luke only notes that it becomes different, that it undergoes a metamorphosis. His face gets the glory that fits the glory of heaven. It is a glory that we also receive when we look at Him in His glory, because thereby we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory ( ). Luke also mentions that His clothing becomes white and gleaming. His clothing indicates His appearance, His behavior. His behavior among people is always of unstained, radiant beauty, but only those who have an eye for it see that. You can’t see that in His appearance. Now it also becomes externally perceptible. This is part of His appearance in glory.

‏ Luke 9:29-30

The Lord Jesus in His Glory

When the Lord Jesus has spoken in this way about His coming in glory, He promises some of those who stand with Him that they will see that glory before they die. That is, they will not only see the kingdom after they have died and in due course be raised to enter the kingdom, but during their life they will see the kingdom of God in its glorious and final form.

This announcement is fulfilled after only about eight days. Luke speaks of “some eight days” because the number eight represents the beginning of a new period. The number seven represent a complete period. The seventh day, the Sabbath, is fulfilled in the glory of the realm of peace. The new of the eighth day is the establishment of the kingdom of God, of which Christ is the radiant center and of which the glory flows into eternity (2Pet 1:11 ; 2Pet 3:18).

The Lord takes Peter, John and James with Him because later they will be pillars in the church (Gal 2:9) and He wants to strengthen their faith to that end. By doing so, they will also be able to strengthen the faith of others. The Lord’s goal to go up the mountain is to pray. This is again a striking and characteristic remark for Luke representing Him as the dependent Man.

While He is praying, His face gets a different look and also His clothing changes. His face was that of an ordinary person, a face that did not stand out among other faces. Now it changes. Luke only notes that it becomes different, that it undergoes a metamorphosis. His face gets the glory that fits the glory of heaven. It is a glory that we also receive when we look at Him in His glory, because thereby we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2Cor 3:18).

Luke also mentions that His clothing becomes white and gleaming. His clothing indicates His appearance, His behavior. His behavior among people is always of unstained, radiant beauty, but only those who have an eye for it see that. You can’t see that in His appearance. Now it also becomes externally perceptible. This is part of His appearance in glory.

Moses and Elijah Talk With the Lord

The saints also belong to His appearance in glory. They are part of the glory that Christ will have when He appears in His kingdom. In this scene we see saints together who never met on earth because they were separated by many centuries. All saints are represented in two great men of God, one of whom represents the period of the law and the other the period of the prophets.

Moses was the legislator and Elijah was the man who called back to the law a people who had been turned away from the law. In Moses we see a picture of the deceased believers and in Elijah a picture of the believers who are raptured without dying. Both groups share with Christ the glory of the kingdom by virtue of His death. Moses and Elijah speak to Him about this death.

In their own time, Moses and Elijah talked about other things. Moses gave the law, and Elijah made an effort to bring the people back to it so that the blessing might come. Now that there is talk of the new glory, everything depends on the death of Christ and only on it. Everything else disappears.

The believers are in the same glory as the Lord Jesus. They are there with Him and speak confidentially with Him about things that are closest to His heart. They talk about His “departure”, that is, about His suffering and death as His departure from the world to return to heaven. The word used here for ‘departure’ is the word ‘exodus’ known to us from the similarly named book of the Bible. In that book the word refers to the ‘exodus’ of the Israelites from Egypt. Here Moses, who was the leader of that exodus, speaks about the exodus of Christ, of which the exodus from Egypt is a picture.

This makes it clear that His exodus also means the exodus of His people from this world. This is what the believers think of when they celebrate the Supper. At the Lord’s Supper they eat and drink to remember Him Who suffered and died and proclaim His “departure”, His death (1Cor 11:26). They do so “until He comes” to also make them go out of the world to go to Him in the air (1Thes 4:17).

Moses and Elijah speak as those who understand God’s counsels, for His departure has not yet taken place.