◄ What Does 2 Peter 1:16 Mean? ►

Peter was one of the three disciples in Christ's 'inner circle'. He was a man that boasted of his loyalty and love for the Lord in the early days of faith. He walked with Jesus along the way and witnessed Christ's powerful prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. He was both astonished and bewildered when Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, girded Himself with a towel and began to wash His disciple's dirty feet - but Peter was also an eyewitness to Christ's heavenly majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Peter was very visible at his Master's arrest, yet deserted and denied Him moments later. He was deeply grieved at Christ's unfair trial and His brutal beatings - and shocked to witness Christ's sacrificial offering of Himself upon the Cross. Yes, Peter was a witness of the empty tomb, who was filled with wonderment by the nail-pierced hands of his risen Saviour - and Peter glimpsed Christ's eternal majesty and great glory on that wonderful Mount of Transfiguration.

It was this same apostle who felt the tender touch of Christ's gracious hand of forgiveness upon him, when He said to His distraught disciple, "Feed my lambs," on that memorable day before His Ascension into the heaven of heavens, where He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

With the passage of time, Peter came to recognise that Jesus is the omnipotent God Who is One with the Father, Who supplies strength for the daily needs of His blood-bought children. Peter also came to understand that growing in grace and maturing in the faith is only achieved as we decrease in our own importance so that the might, majesty, dominion, and strength of Christ may be seen in us and exalted on high.

In this second epistle, this seasoned saint introduced himself as a bond-servant and apostle of Christ... and delivered a call for Christians to apply all diligence in developing a godly character and a mature faith in a world at conflict with God and all that is holy.

Peter's confession: "You are the Christ.. the incarnate Word and Son of the living God," rested on his own personal experience and eyewitness account and not on any humanly contrived philosophies or the cleverly contrived tales of fallen man. Peter witnessed, with his own eyes, the glory and majesty of the Son of God: "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he wrote, "but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

Peter taught the good news of the gospel of grace and the glorious message of salvation by grace though faith in Christ, and made clear to us the power of the Cross and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Whose sacrifice of Himself at Calvary and glorious Resurrection is the single thing that is worth living for - and the one thing worth dying for.

It is early in this letter that he brings to his reader's memory, the value, majesty, meaning, and importance of God's holy Word by reminding his fellow believers that HE - PETER, actually witnessed, with his own eyes, the glorious majesty of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.

Peter knew that his time on earth was soon to end and wanted to instil in the minds of those that followed, the truth, the power, the importance, and the veracity of the Word of God. It was his life's mission to go into all the world and tell everyone that this same Jesus will return one day in power and great glory, to set up His everlasting kingdom - and so he writes: "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

Jesus is the Prince of Peace Who is today sitting on the right hand of the Father, awaiting the day when He will return to take up His place as King of kings and Lord of lords (at the end of the Great Tribulation period). 

Today, He is the one and only Mediator between God and man, and He intercedes as God's Hight Priest on behalf of His Church, day and night. But the day is coming when He will return in power and great glory, to set up His 1000-year, earthly kingdom - which was rejected by Israel at His First Coming, but which will be implemented through them at His Second Coming, when all Israel will cry out to Him, "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord."

Heavenly Father, thank You that the Lord Jesus set aside the glory and majesty He had with You from all eternity, to come to earth to be my perfect sacrifice for sin by dying on the Cross. Thank You that He rose again on the third day so that I too may have life immortal, by faith in Him. Thank You that so much of the Bible was written by men who were eyewitnesses of His majesty. I look forward to that glorious day when I too will see Him, face to face. In Jesus' name, AMEN.