Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/38

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mankind had successively descended; and so to become a Saviour to the uttermost.[1] This was done by glorifying that humanity in time which the Omnipotent had possessed in potency from eternity. It was thus that He took to Himself His great power, and became a Saviour to the uttermost. It was in reference to this glorified humanity that He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me;"[2] "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."[3] It is this humanity which is declared to be "the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person,"[4] possessing "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."[5]

The Divine humanity of our Lord, as distinguished from the maternal humanity, was plainly revealed at the time of the "transfiguration." Upon that occasion it is said of Him that "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light";[6] and the disciples who were present were directed by Him, when descending from the mount, to "tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead."[7] Thus that glorious humanity which they were then permitted to see was above the common plane of the natural world. It was not that humanity which they had been accustomed to see with their ordinary sight; but it was that Divine humanity, the manifestation and glorification of which He was in the process of effecting. It was in this glorified humanity that He was seen with so much distinctness after the resurrection, and at the period of His ascension. That the humanity seen upon those occasions was different from that which men had been accustomed to see, is very evident. This is a reason why the three disciples were told not to speak of what they had seen until He was

  1. Heb. vii. 25.
  2. John xiv. 6.
  3. John xiv. 9.
  4. Heb. i. 3.
  5. Col. ii. 9.
  6. Matt. xvii. 2.
  7. Matt. xvii. 9.