2 Peter: Faith In A Skeptical World Exemplo

(focuses especially on v. 16)

If my two-year-old son wants to hide from me, he doesn’t actually hide. Instead, he covers his eyes with his fists and stands very still. As he will learn before long, closing his eyes to me makes neither of us disappear. Many in our world make a similar mistake; they take the view that what is unseen to them (due to historical distance) is almost certainly untrue and should thus ‘disappear’ from serious contemplation. 

Much of what God wants us to know about Himself comes not through personal visions to each person, but instead He chooses to operate through the testimony of the few for the sake of the many. That is, God privileges a small number of people to witness His power first-hand so that they can record it for the sake of those separated from the events by time and distance. Aware of this, while he still has breath to testify, Peter wants to assure the world not of what he made up, but of what he saw with his own eyes. 

In verse 16 Peter first assures his readers of what he is not; he is not an author of fiction. He didn’t devise myths or fabricate an elaborate tale involving wonderful miracles and thousands of people. When he spoke of Jesus’ incredible power and coming to earth, he was simply saying what he saw. He speaks and writes as one of the ‘eyewitnesses’ who saw ‘his majesty’. 

Peter marvelled at the enormous catch of fish, a man taming a storm with his voice, lepers and blind people healed, loaves multiplied, the dead raised, and Jesus transfigured in the presence of Moses and Elijah. Peter saw all of this, and much more. He no doubt felt that truth was greater than fiction. Why fabricate stories when there is this news to tell? Peter assures us there was no conspiracy behind the Apostles’ reports. They were ‘eyewitnesses’ to Jesus’ majesty (v. 16). 

We know Peter had absolute certainty about the Lord Jesus’ power; he saw what he saw. But God intends that we share the same certainty about the truth of these things, not by being there, but by heeding the accounts of those who surely were. The events, though unseen by us, are no less real or powerful to change our lives. How could Peter’s life ever be the same again? Exactly the same thing can be said for us. 

Reflection

What difference would it make to your life if you were as certain as Peter of Jesus’ power, coming, and majesty? What is stopping you from sharing Peter’s life-changing certainty?