Matt.17:5 – While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
God was pleased to reveal Himself to all mankind through the person of His Son. He came to live among us as a man and walked as a man with us until His death at the age of 33. In our first verse today the Lord took back the veil for three of His disciples and began to display His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God. In Hebrews Paul begins to share with us the power of the revelation of God in His only Son. Here in Hebrews Paul describes the mystery of deity revealed in this man Jesus of Nazareth.
Heb.1:3 – And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
Take some time and late the weight of this verse settle in on you. Jesus is seen as the creator and the upholder of all things as well as the radiance and exact nature of this person. Here is how Matthew Henry describes this verse.
“By him God made the worlds, both visible and invisible, the heavens and the earth.….He upholds all things by the word of his power. The weight of the whole creation is laid on Christ: he supports the whole and all its parts. The writer passes from this to the glory of the person of Christ. He is the only begotten Son of God, and as such he must have the same nature as God. The person of the Son is the glory of the Father, shining out with a truly divine splendor. Jesus Christ in his person is God revealed in the flesh. The person of the Son is the true image and character of the person of the Father. In seeing the power, wisdom, and goodness of the LORD Jesus Christ, we see the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Father. This is the glory of the person of Christ; the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him.”
That great day at the Mount of Transfiguration three of the disciples were given a glimpse behind the veil. They could never see Jesus the same way, He was not only Jesus of Nazareth but He is the very Son of God.