_THE GREAT RENUNCIATION_
MATTHEW xvii. 1-13.
What if the Transfiguration was the type of the purposed consummation of
every life? If we had remained "without sin," it may be that we should
have gradually ripened up to a moment when we should have become
transfigured, and in the surpassing brilliance have been translated to
higher planes of being. Perhaps our Lord had reached this material
consummation, and was now on the wonderful border land, and could by
choice slip into "the glory!"
But He made another choice. And this was, of a truth, the "great
renunciation!" He turned His back on the glory, and deliberately faced the
darkening way which led to Calvary and the grave. I do not wonder that His
mysterious visitors spake with Him "of the decease which He should
accomplish at Jerusalem." He could talk about nothing else! He "set His
face to go."
And in my Master's choice of death I find my hope of life. Through "the
dark gate" I can find "the mount." My transfiguration is made possible in
His humiliation. If my Lord had never descended I could never have
ascended. If He had abode on the mount I should have remained in my sin.
He has "opened to me the gates of righteousness."