Imago Dei – Created to IMAGE God’s glory to Him and the entire world. Includes Capacities unique from all other creatures: 

  • RATIONALITY & MORALITY - Humans think, choose, reason, and make moral judgments in ways that reflect God’s character.   
  • CONNECTION & INTIMACY - Humans are made for relationships—this echoes God’s own relational Triune life and reflects relationality in human community.   
  • PURPOSE & STEWARDSHIP - The mandate to “fill the earth and subdue it” shows humans as God’s representatives on earth, extending God’s care and rule.   

 We long for God’s glory because we bear His Image. Yet, we also fear God’s glory because He is infinitely holy, and our brokenness recoils from that holiness. 

 In Jesus, God’s glory comes clothed in mercy which is revealed not to destroy us, but to restore us to our true calling and design as God’s image-bearers through the way of the cross and ultimately resurrection.  

 The TRANSFIGURATION: Jesus is GLORIOUS. 

  • Revelation not Transformation - This is not Jesus becoming glorious but his glory being unveiled.  
  • Glory is revealed in His humanity, not apart from it – Jesus’ clothes shine, but his body remains fully human.  
  • God’s glory is no longer a force that annihilates sinners – It is mediated through the incarnate Son.  

 Peter in fear and misunderstanding reveals the human tension of LONGING for God’s glory but FEARING it: 

  • He tries to manage Jesus’ glory as a coping mechanism for fear 
  • He attempts to freeze Jesus’ glory instead of suffering for it 
  • He seeks to LEVEL Jesus’ glory institutionalizing it instead of allowing it to transform him 

Glory cannot be HOUSED. It must be FOLLOWED. 
Glory cannot be CONTAINED.  It must be DECLARED. 
Glory cannot be REDUCED. It must be REALIZED. 

God does not allow Peter’s misunderstanding to stand.  He interrupts it with revelation. 

The cloud signals that divine presence and glory always come with words of truth about Jesus: 

Identity: This is my beloved Son. 
Authority: Listen to Him. 

The Father does not say: “Build something for Him.”  He says: “Listen to Him.”  Therefore: 

  • Jesus is not one voice among many 
  • Jesus is the final revelation, the safe mediator, the holy Son. 

 Listening means trusting him through all of things in life, submitting to the way of the cross, and holding fast to the promise of resurrection as the greatest demonstrations of God’s glory.