In his wonderfully fascinating new book, The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading, by Patrick Schreiner (Baker Academic 2024), Dr. Schreiner demonstrates in minutely researched detail how the transfiguration of Christ reveals Christ’s preexistent glory, while also foreshadowing his messianic function of bringing about a transformed and reworked creation in which heaven and earth are united, and in which everything in this broken world will be set right. Professor Schreiner’s main point (page 4) is that the transfiguration “reveals Jesus’s double sonship. In the transfiguration both the future glory of the earthly and suffering messianic Son and the preexistent glory of the heavenly and eternally begotten Son are revealed.” He asserts (page xiv) that the transfiguration demonstrates the relationship between Jesus’s metamorphosis and our own by showing how the divine can penetrate the human without destroying one’s humanity, and how the human can be conformed to the divine without ceasing to be human. He notes (page 8) that in the transfiguration “Jesus’s humanity is transfigured, and his deity is revealed.”
The author goes on to explain how and why the transfiguration has been generally neglected (page 2) by scholars, preachers, and everyday churchgoers alike, and asserts (page 3) that the transfiguration represents nothing less that a “microcosm of the Gospel.” He argues (page 5) that “[s]cholars only see Jesus’s earthly mission in the transfiguration [while] people in the church only see Jesus’s divinity.” Christ’s divinity and mission in the transfiguration are both, he maintains, not only connected but integrally related (page 7): “The transfiguration thus concerns how Jesus is both man and God, where God’s work ad intra and ad extra meet. It tells us who the Son is and who he will be. It speaks of the Son in terms of his ontology and his mission.”
Professor Schreiner proceeds to make this stunning claim about the significance of this “miraculous” historical and yet in some sense other worldly event (page 12):
“Without the transfiguration, Christ’s glory is not revealed in light from light. Without the transfiguration, the disciples have no hope considering Christ’s impending cross—or their own (Matt. 16:21). Without the transfiguration, we have no hope of being transformed ourselves. The transfiguration guarantees that we will not only be where he is but as he is.”
In summary, according to Dr. Schreiner, “the purpose of the transfiguration is to give hope by revelation” (page 12) and to marry (page 23) “the heavenly and the earthly.” What is more, if that is not enough for even the most enthusiastic and determined reader, the transfiguration shows (page 15) that the goal of salvation is not merely the forgiveness of sins but the union with God by the transformation that comes from “beholding him” in his glory. Moreover, he maintains (page 36) that the “transfiguration envisions a future metamorphosis of the cosmos by the light of Christ.” Indeed, he observes (page 105) that the “transfiguration is not only about Jesus’s essential glory but about his mission to redeem a new people and bless the world,” and that (page 63) in the transfiguration “Jesus becomes the light of the world who accomplishes redemption.”
Professor Schreiner then proceeds to prove his points in highly persuasive and rich detail throughout the course of this tightly written 158-page book. Indeed, were I inclined to dispute any of his conclusions or reasoning, which I am not, I would be hard-pressed to do so. Dr. Schreiner notes in various places that many of his views about the transfiguration are controversial. Perhaps because of my lack of academic background in theology and related fields, I am frankly mystified as to why any reasonably informed Christ-follower of goodwill could sharply disagree with any of Dr. Schreiner’s conclusions or reasoning, other than perhaps a few nitpicks here or there, which I have no wish to engage in. I would recommend buying and reading this book. Indeed, apart from the transfiguration itself, I learned a lot about the New Testament generally, and some about the Old, since, as the author notes (page 3), the transfiguration is a “microcosm of the Gospel.”
Despite the depth of his writings on this topic, however, the question Dr. Schreiner poses as a constant backdrop to his analysis is, at least on the surface, quite simple (page 2): “Would the story of Jesus be any different if the transfiguration hadn’t happened?” More toward the end of the book, he further holds out this enticing challenge (page 146): “The transfiguration is a well deep beyond imagining. When we think we have hit rock bottom, a new path opens.”
So, let us take up that challenge from a slightly different perspective. Is there even more that we can discern from the transfiguration in “practical” terms, that is, how this ancient “miraculous” event, even today, directly affects the living out of our daily existence in the here and now, both for believers and non-believers alike? This should not be a surprising or odd inquiry. Indeed, we know from one of Peter’s earliest sermons the type of work that Jesus was daily engaged in during his earthly ministry: “how [Jesus] went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38 (NIV). Even when Jesus performed a miracle so that his disciples might believe that he was sent by God (John 11:42), he did so by raising Lazarus from the dead; in other words, by providing tangible help to one of us fellow sinners in prolonging his earthly life and no doubt making him a celebrity of sorts with a fascinating story of witness to share. Indeed, Lazarus himself had become such a person of interest that the chief priests in Jerusalem for a time plotted to kill him. John 12:9-11.
In other words, Jesus was not given in his earthly ministry to doing something solely as an act of revelation, or even as a foreshadowing of some future event, without some immediate, real-world consequences to those around him; that is, without accomplishing something tangible in this broken world. Thus, while of overriding importance as Dr. Schreiner has persuasively laid out, the transfiguration may involve more than “an indication of what is to come and an unveiling of what was—a preview of future glory and a sign of preexistence” (page 7).
Let us first start by asking what was the immediate effect of the transfiguration on the three disciples who witnessed it, and by extension on all of us. Stated differently and more broadly (here, I apologize for the legal terminology), did the transfiguration trigger any external, ongoing aspects of Jesus’s ministry, ongoing even to the present day, by fulfilling necessary scriptural preconditions? Let us rephrase this question once more. What tangible result might Jesus have accomplished through his transfiguration?
Dr. Schreiner observes correctly that as far as Peter was concerned the transfiguration (page 10) confirmed Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16, NIV: “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God'”), and also pointed (page 11) to God’s love “poured out on humanity” that would ultimately give Peter and the other disciples hope of a transfigured creation. Note Dr. Schreiner’s assertion (page 144) that the “transfiguration previews the metamorphosis of all things.” It was not long, however, before Peter’s affirmation of Jesus’s divinity was temporarily forgotten: “Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Matthew 26:75 (NIV).
Again, is there more than can be said here, and what about for the rest of us who were not fortunate enough to witness the transfiguration? What have we gained from it in “practical” terms, other than some comforting reassurance of Christ’s divinity and messianic mission when we occasionally read the passage in our Bibles? I would suggest very much indeed, whether we read our Bibles or not.
We have already seen how the transfiguration satisfies the precondition to the bodily resurrection of believers set forth in 1 Cor. 15:22-23, NIV (“in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes [ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ] those who belong to him.” The reason for this is quite simple: the transfiguration constitutes Jesus’s “coming” for this purpose, though it is not by any means his second coming at the end of the age. For the complete discussion of this topic, including an analysis of the Greek term παρουσίᾳ in relation to Dr. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope, see the article published on this blog at the following link.
As this short article explains, because of Christ’s redemptive work accomplished through the transfiguration, that is, “his coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28, NIV), the bodily resurrection of his followers need not wait until the completion of the age when a reordered and renewed heaven and earth are permanently joined, as is commonly believed, but can proceed according to the pattern which Jesus himself established—resurrection occurring immediately upon one’s physical death, rather than after some prolonged period where the disembodied spirits of the dead rest in some intermediate state. For the widely accepted view that Christ-followers enter a temporary resting place upon their physical death rather than experience a full bodily resurrection, see Dr. Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope, at pages 41 and 150: “Paradise is, rather, the blissful garden where God’s people rest prior to the resurrection….Paul says that if Christ is the first fruits, those who belong to him will be raised ‘at his coming’ [that is, at his παρουσίᾳ], which clearly hasn’t happened yet.”
While the second coming, as the article cited above points out and as Dr. Wright properly notes, clearly has not happened yet, in the transfiguration, Christ’s “coming” for purposes of the precondition for the bodily resurrection of all believers set out in 1 Cor. 15:22-23 has indeed taken place. Note what Professor Schreiner writes about this generally (page 144): “Jesus’s transfiguration must also be distinguished from his return. When Jesus returns, he comes to complete the work he began. The transfiguration is a proleptic vision of this future event,” only “an appetizer…to the main entrée” the Professor goes on to say.
The Professor is perhaps being too modest here in his claims. Anticipatory to Jesus’s return the transfiguration might well be, but it also has substance and immediate impact in its own right with respect to redemptive history, or Heilsgeschichte as the theologians are inclined to say. Indeed, Dr. Schreiner seems to echo this sentiment when he writes (page 148) that the transfiguration “is a vision both of what is and what is to be.” See also page 140 where he observes that “[i]f Christ is the first fruits of this change [citing 1 Cor. 15:52], then Jesus received his glorified body at his resurrection. The glory that Jesus reveals in the transfiguration is thus a preview of Jesus’s resurrection body.”
Professor Wright expresses similar thoughts about the miracle of transfiguration (page 234 of his book, Surprised by Hope), this time from Mark’s account, Mark 9:1-13: “The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. In Mark’s perspective, it is at least part of what Jesus meant when he said that some standing with him would not taste death before they saw the kingdom of God come with power.” The other part of what Jesus meant is that the resurrection of his followers need not wait until the completion of the age when a reordered and renewed heaven and earth are reunited, but can proceed according to the pattern which Jesus himself established—resurrection occurring upon one’s physical death. Jesus is the “first fruit” of a bodily resurrection, and the rest of us follow him ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ, 1 Cor. 15:23, which for this purpose has already taken place in the transfiguration.
This is also what Paul is referring to in 1 Thess. 4:16 in his description of Christ’s coming when he notes that “the dead in Christ will rise first,” (NIV). The “dead in Christ” are those who have physically died in their earthly bodies but who now, resurrected, occupy “God’s space” in heaven. Likewise in 1 Cor. 15:52 (NIV): “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable.” Professor Schreiner should not be faulted for missing this point when he writes on page 140: “Paul says that this will happen [the resurrection of the saints] on the last day at the last trumpet.” After all, his is not a treatise on Paul’s eschatology. Compare A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians, The International Critical Commentary, Plummer, Alfred, Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark (1956), x1ii: “It may be said of his [Paul’s] theology generally, that there is no system in it….This is specially true of what is commonly spoken of as his ‘Eschatology.’…’Paul did not write de novissimis….One must be prepared for a surging hither and thither of great thoughts, feelings, and exultations….” Thus, when we read Paul’s thoughts on the resurrection and the final judgment, we should not read them narrowly as Professor Wright points out, but rather as signposts (page 132):
“We must remind ourselves yet once more that all Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist. Signposts don’t normally provide you with advance photographs of what you’ll find at the end of the road, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pointing in the right direction. They are telling you the truth, the particular sort of truth that can be told about the future.”
The “right direction” to which Professor Wright refers is the bodily resurrection of believers upon their physical death with no requirement that they spend “time” in some hazy, intermediate, disembodied state. If you are not yet convinced of this, see the article referenced above for a more detailed explanation.
Here, it is important to remember what exactly happened on that remote mountain so many years ago when Jesus was transfigured for this snippet of time, our time in the present age, which Professor Schreiner elaborates in minute detail in chapters 2 through 4. I will try to summarize. During that brief period, the two worlds, heaven and earth, were completely integrated. The three disciples, all mortal inhabitants of this broken world, witnessed the event. Jesus, transfigured, carried on a conversation with Moses and Elijah, long dead but now very much alive and apparently quite well informed about the goings on in their former homeland. God, the Father, was present in “the cloud.” The disciples heard the divine voice coming from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
What else then can we glean from Christ’s transfiguration as it relates specifically to his Messianic function ad extra, that is, in the external works of God in redemptive history based on the person and saving work of Christ? I would contend that the transfiguration, in addition to paving the way for the immediate bodily resurrection of believers, also occupies a central role in the whole notion of divine judgment, both of believers and of the world in general. For this we must turn to what is commonly referred to as the Judgment of the Nations in Matthew 25:31-46. The opening verse has generally been thought to portray Jesus’s coming in judgment upon the completion of the age. A close reading of the entire passage, however, suggests that this view is incorrect. Christ here is not heralding the conclusion of the age, but rather its beginning.
Let us examine these verses, that is, the opening verses, 31 and 32. What do we read (NIV): “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Here, it is instructive to review the Greek text of the first sentence: Ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι μετ’ αὐτοῦ, τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ· Note for future reference that the term for Jesus’s “coming” is a form of the Greek verb, ἔρχομαι. Now, let us compare this with Christ’s own description of what is commonly referred to as his “second coming,” (Matt. 24:31, NIV): “And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
In Christ’s own description, his elect, at least many of them, have already been resurrected and are currently in what Dr. Wright in his book calls “God’s space,” that is, heaven. Dr. Wright elaborates generally on the notion of Christ’s “coming” on page 135: “Of course, when he ‘appears’ he will be ‘present.’ But the point of stressing ‘appearing ‘ here is that, though in one sense it will seem to us that he is ‘coming,’ he will in fact be ‘appearing’ right where he presently is, not a long way away with our own space-time world but in his own world, God’s world, the world we call heaven.”
As Christ thus “appears,” so also will “his elect” gathered “from one end of the heavens to the other” (compare Col. 3:4, NIV:”When Christ, who is your life, appears [φανερωθῇ], then you also will appear [φανερωθήσεσθε] with him in glory”), but this presupposes that their final judgment, in which they by definition must have received a favorable verdict, had already taken place. Why then do we read in Matt. 25:31-46 that Christ is coming to sit in judgment? Again, hasn’t this judgment, at least with respect to his elect who have already died and shed their earthly bodies, already occurred, since they are resurrected and now occupy and apparently roam about the vast expanse of heaven—God’s space in Dr. Wright’s words—rather than merely passing the time in some “temporary resting place” for disembodied spirits? Put simply, does this passage not put the cart before the horse? No, it does not, when properly understood, and how do we know this? The answer lies in the transfiguration as described in Matthew 16:28-17:13.
The transfiguration passage starts with this stunning prediction by Jesus (Matt. 16:28, NIV): “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” The Greek word here for “coming” is the participle of the word meaning “to come” or ἐρχόμενον, the same root term underlying the word ἔλθῃ appearing in the opening verse of the Judgment of the Nations. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Metzger, Bruce M., United Bible Societies (Corrected Edition, 1975) p. 54, describes its use in Matt. 16:28 as one of “concomitant circumstances (sociative ἐν)” with the following prepositional phrase, in other words the coming of Jesus “in his kingdom,” ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ. Interestingly, ἐρχόμενον is the same Greek word that Jesus uses to describe his “coming,” in this case his second coming, in Matthew 24:30.
As a starting point, Professor Scheiner observes that Matt. 16:28 is a prediction of the transfiguration (page 32): “The temporal note signifies that the transfiguration fulfills Jesus’s prediction” that some of his disciples will witness Jesus “coming in his kingdom.” Thus, the transfiguration is nothing less than the inaugurating event, not only for a transformed cosmos, but also for the Judgment of the Nations set out later in Matthew 25:31-46. It represents Jesus “coming” in his full glory and power in his kingdom, a kingdom that for a brief flicker of our earthly time on that lonely mountaintop was fully united with God’s broken creation.
Some might raise an objection here. Does not the language of Matt. 25:31 require not only that Jesus “come” in his glory, but that all his angels (πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι μετ’ αὐτοῦ) appear with him as well. There is no mention of angels, or even of the heavenly host, in the description leading up to the transfiguration in Matt. 16:28, and therefore, the argument would proceed, the transfiguration does not meet the precondition set forth in Matt. 25:31 for the Judgment of the Nations. This technical argument need not trouble us. Here, while we could cite Luke 2:13, NIV, in support of our argument (“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God”), we need not base our claim solely on the appearance of the angels at Jesus’s birth. Instead, the description of the transfiguration in Matt. 17:5 provides the answer (NIV): “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud [νεφέλη φωτεινὴ] covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!'”
The Bible tells us repeatedly that where God is, there too are the angels serving and praising him. See Psalm 148:2, Rev. 7:11, Psalm 103:20, Isaiah 6:2-4, Rev. 4:8, Rev. 5:8-10, Rev. 7:11-12, the aforementioned Luke 2:14, and Rev. 19:4. Perhaps, the most pertinent of all these passages is Rev. 7:11, which reads (NIV): “All the angels [πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι] were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God….”
Professor Schreiner discusses the “bright” cloud at the transfiguration in some depth on pages 72 through 78. See, for instance, page 72, where he notes that the “cloud symbolizes divine presence—more specifically the Holy Spirit,” and that the Father spoke from the cloud. See again page 72 where he notes that the “cloud is the habitation of God’s presence.” Indeed, the Professor makes a passing reference to angels in this very context (page 72):
“[C]louds are often associated with God’s presence in the Scriptures—and with the Spirit’s presence specifically. In Exodus, the Lord goes ahead of Israel in a ‘pillar of cloud’….The Lord looks down from the pillar, and the glory of the Lord is in the cloud….The text closely correlates the angel of the Lord with the pillar. In Exodus 14-19 the angel of God, who went in front of the Israelites, moves behind them along with the cloud.”
It is therefore no stretch to say that where God’s habitation is, in this case the “bright cloud,” there also stand the heavenly host continually serving and praising him. Thus, just as with the necessary precondition to the resurrection set out in 1 Cor. 15:22-23, the precondition to Christ taking his seat to judge the nations (Matt. 25:31, NIV: “he will sit on his glorious throne”; τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης) has been fully met in Jesus’s “coming” at the transfiguration.
We might stop here, and perhaps we should, but a few words on the nature of this judgment that the transfiguration so gloriously inaugurates seem appropriate. There appear to be two forms or venues of judgment described in Matt. 25:31-46. First, there is a group or corporate judgment: “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matt. 25:32, NIV. This makes clear Christ’s rule over the nations. In other words, Christ has the power to engage in world politics so as to dictate the rise and fall of nations and civilizations. See Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV): “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders…Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”
After this general power over the nations and the world’s politics and economy is set out, the passage then seems to merge into more of an individual judgment of each person based on their acts or deeds, both of mercy and love toward the less fortunate on the one hand, and callous hard-heartedness and indifference on the other. Matt. 24:34-46. Here, it might be helpful to reference 2 Cor. 5:10, the so-called Judgment Seat of Christ, where Christ sits in judgment to evaluate the earthly activity of his followers. A proper understanding of this passage reveals (you can find the full exegetical article here) that the majority rendering, which places this judgment venue in some distant apocalyptic future, is profoundly incorrect both grammatically and conceptually, and that this venue should properly be understood as a bodily judgment or evaluation conducted by Christ on believers during our life here on earth. For a more general, and far less lengthy, discussion of this passage, see the introduction to the article (here), and the brief postscript (here), along with the various reader comments, which raise a number of interesting issues as well.
For the idea that the judgment of believers under 2 Cor. 5:10 (ἵνα κομίσηται ἕκαστος τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος πρὸς ἃ ἔπραξεν) is an individual evaluation rather than part of some corporate or group judgment, compare Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Harris, Murray J., NIGTC, Eerdmans (2005) 407: “ἕκαστος, ‘each person,’ indicates that τοὺς πάντας ἡμᾶς does not imply a judgment en masse. Accountability and assessment are individual,” an observation which is fully in keeping with an evaluation during each believer’s individual life, rather than at some corporate, post-death venue. See also Guthrie, 2 Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Guthrie, George H., Baker Academic (2015) 289: “ἕκαστος … indicates that scrutiny will apply to each individual rather than consisting of a summary judgment on that (πάντας ἡμᾶς) group of people;” Furnish, II Corinthians, The Anchor Bible, Furnish, Victor Paul, Doubleday (1984) 275: “Although we must all appear before the judicial bench of Christ, we are individually accountable;” Martin, World Biblical Commentary, Volume 49, 2 Corinthians, Martin, Ralph P., Word Books Publisher, Waco Texas (1986) 115: “judgment is not rendered en masse, but in each case, one by one;” and Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Second Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians, The International Critical Commentary, Plummer, Alfred, Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark (1956) 157, citing the phrase ἵνα κομίσηται ἕκαστος τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος as correcting “the false inference which might be drawn from τοὺς πάντας ἡμᾶς. We shall not be judged en masse, or in classes, but one by one, in accordance with individual merit;” again Plummer, 163: “He [Paul] does not speak of a great assize in which all souls will come up simultaneously for judgment. What he is concerned to insist upon is that every individual soul will be judged; none can escape;” and finally in the commentary long regarded by many as the fundamental authority on this text, Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, Windisch, H., MeyerK 6, Göttingen, 1924 (reprinted 1970) 171: “jeder Einzelne wird zur Rechenschaft gezogen.”
Now that it has been established that the passage generally referred to as the Judgment of the Nations includes both corporate and individual judgments, the following verses, Matt. 25: 35-46, are nonetheless perplexing. Here, on the one hand we read of various acts of charity performed for those less fortunate being rewarded with eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον) in God’s kingdom “prepared for you from the foundation of the world;” and on the other hand acts of hard-hearted cruelty or indifference to those same needs meriting and duly receiving “eternal punishment” (κόλασιν αἰώνιον). Here is the problem, or at least the apparent contradiction. Do we not all, each one of us, commit both? As I sit here typing, am I not failing to help the poor and miserable not only around the world through at a minimum some small financial gift in response to the many desperate pleas for help that I receive in the mail each day, but also those in need within just miles from my home by my simple presence and encouragement? For every person I do help in some small way either financially or personally, are there not many more I turn my back to? Have you ever passed a miserable beggar on the street without dropping a few coins into his pot? Of course, you have, or at least some comparable situation. Are we all not guilty of this systematic neglect in one way or the other?
Moreover, this literal reading of the passage would seem to imply that salvation is predicated at least to some degree on works rather than faith, which is clearly at odds with long-accepted Christian doctrine? See Eph. 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” To get some sense of the confused web of ideas in which many scholars have entangled themselves over the years trying to reconcile the perceived tension between salvation by faith and judgment of works, see the book review published on this blog at the following link. It should be noted that the straightforward system of judgment set out in the full exegetical article cited above eliminates any tension between works and faith. It does so by simplifying the entire judgment process by removing some of the more arcane and cumbersome notions generally advanced by academics over the years, no doubt with the best of intentions.
How can we then resolve this apparent dilemma whereby each one of us seems to fall into both categories, the favored sheep, and the condemned goats? Perhaps the resolution lies in John’s prophecy set out in Luke 3:17 concerning Jesus (NIV): “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Instead of the conventional view of dividing people into two different camps, the wheat and the chaff, perhaps we should instead read this prophecy as one in which Christ prepares his followers, each one of us, for heaven by cleansing and sanctifying us in this life, thereby separating the wheat from the chaff within our own individual hearts and souls. What appears then as a grand sweep of judgment over two divergent groups of people, symbolized by the sheep and goats, is really a laser-focused piercing of the inner being of each person. Compare Hebrews 4:12 (NIV): “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Professor Schreiner seems to echo this sentiment, at least in broad strokes, when he observes on page 124″
“The goal of the transfiguration is union…. The journey begins with purgation—our spiritual ascent. We are called to go up the mountain with the disciples and seek the things that are above by ridding ourselves of fleshly passions. The next stage is tied to what Peter, James, and John saw on the mountain—illumination. As we progressively see the face of Jesis, we grow in virtue and charity and walk in the light as he is in the light. If purgation is pulling apart the darkness, and illumination is letting light shine in, then union is being overwhelmed, enveloped, and encompassed by the light.”
This, therefore, explains in a general sense the dynamic process underlying the judgment of believers as contemplated by a correct reading of 2 Cor. 5:10; that is, the daily interaction between Christ and his followers, whether they are conscious of it or not, whereby he enriches our lives in the present while preparing us for eternity by means of what Professor Schreiner calls purgation and illumination. This evaluative process has as its goal the purification of the heart, soul, and mind of each Christ-follower in a deeply personal interaction conducted by Christ throughout our lives. Simply put, the Judgment Seat of Christ, before which we stand daily, is not about condemnation or even punishment, but rather it is meant to instruct and guide us.
This internal winnowing process of separating the wheat from the chaff within one’s own heart and soul is not limited just to Christ-followers. For non-believers, who by definition reject the need for Christ or any savior and choose instead to be judged on their own merits and by their own deeds, this winnowing prepares them for their appearance before the Great White Throne at the end of the age, which is chillingly set out in Rev. 20:11-15. It is useful to point out here that this judgment has not been imposed on them as is commonly believed. It is the judgment venue and timing that they have effectively chosen for themselves by rejecting Christ and any need for a savior, and instead relying for their justification on their own merits. God in his mercy has provided a suitable and fair forum for them to make their case. For a fuller discussion of this topic, see the articles and related notes on the timing and venue of judgment cited above.
Perhaps then, there is still a chance of salvation for some even before the Great White Throne. See, e.g., Matt. 10:42 (NIV): “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” There is no indication that the persons providing the cup of cold water are themselves believers, and what is their reward for this small act of charity to a Christ-follower, a reward that Christ tells us they cannot lose? Could it be salvation?
Thus, the transfiguration, far from being merely the province of scholars and mystics as is often thought (see page 16 where Professor Schreiner notes that “we find it [the transfiguration] too mysterious, symbolic and mystical”), plays a pivotal role to this day for all of us, both from the standpoint of the timing and nature of the resurrection, and more immediately in the timing and nature of judgment. In addition to what Dr. Schreiner lays out so persuasively in his book, this is what Jesus accomplished during his earthly ministry ad extra through the transfiguration.
Here, we end with a passage from Isaiah, which seems to foreshadow the above discussion, Isaiah 34:3-6 (NIV):
“Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you’ [LXX, αὐτὸς ἥξει (a synonym for ἔρχομαι) καὶ σώσει ἡμᾶς]. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.”
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