History, Not Hype: The Eyewitness Gospel Text: 2 Peter 1:16-18
Introduction: A Faith Grounded in Fact
We live in an age that is drowning in stories. We have an entire industry dedicated to crafting narratives, building worlds, and inventing myths. Our culture is saturated with fiction, and it has trained us to receive all grand claims as just another story, another fable, another legend. And so, when the Christian faith comes along and makes the most audacious claims in the history of the world, the modern mind reflexively files it under the category of "religious mythology." It is placed on the same shelf as the Greek pantheon or the Norse gods, treated as a "cleverly devised myth" that might be inspiring for some, but certainly not as a matter of public, verifiable fact.
The Apostle Peter, writing this letter as he approaches his own martyrdom, confronts this very sentiment head on. He knows that the church he is leaving behind will be assaulted by false teachers, by smooth talking innovators who will seek to detach the gospel from its historical moorings. These men will present a different Jesus, a Gnostic Jesus, a spiritual idea, a customizable myth. Their goal is always to sever the link between faith and fact, between what you believe in your heart and what happened in the dirt and dust of Palestine. Once that cable is cut, the faith can be twisted into anything, usually something that accommodates the lusts of the flesh.
Peter will have none of it. He draws a line in the sand, not with philosophical arguments or abstract reasoning, but with the hard granite of historical testimony. He says, in effect, "We were there." The Christian faith is not a set of principles that we find helpful. It is not a therapeutic program for self-improvement. It is a proclamation of events. It is news. It is the announcement of something that happened in space and time, something that was seen and heard. Our faith is not based on a clever story, but on a historical reality that has catastrophic and glorious implications for every person who has ever lived.
In these three verses, Peter grounds the apostolic message in his own eyewitness experience of the transfigured Christ. He is establishing his credentials, not as a storyteller, but as a witness. And in doing so, he establishes the nature of the Christian faith for all time. It is a faith rooted in history, confirmed by God's own voice, and experienced by men who were there.
The Text
For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased", and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
(2 Peter 1:16-18 LSB)
Myth Busters (v. 16)
Peter begins by drawing a sharp, non-negotiable distinction between the apostolic message and every other religious or philosophical system.
"For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2 Peter 1:16)
The first thing to notice is what Peter is defending. It is "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is not a vague spirituality. The "power" refers to the authority and might of Jesus, demonstrated in His miracles, His sinless life, and supremely in His resurrection from the dead. The resurrection was the ultimate power move, where Jesus was "declared with power to be the Son of God" (Rom. 1:4). The "coming" or parousia, refers to His glorious return as judge and king. The false teachers were likely mocking this doctrine, saying "Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Pet. 3:4). They wanted to spiritualize it away, turn it into a metaphor for inner transformation. Peter says no. We proclaimed a real, powerful king who really rose from the dead and who is really coming back.
And on what basis did they proclaim this? Not by "following cleverly devised myths." The Greek word is muthos, from which we get our word "myth." Peter is not using this word in the C.S. Lewis sense of a story that conveys deep truth. He is using it in the common, street-level sense: a fable, a fiction, a tall tale. These are stories that are "cleverly devised," skillfully crafted by human ingenuity to manipulate, to inspire false hope, or to justify sin. Paganism was full of such myths, stories of gods behaving like petulant, super-powered humans. Modern liberalism is full of them too, myths about the inherent goodness of man, the arc of history bending toward justice, and the autonomous self as the center of the universe.
Peter rejects this entire approach. The gospel is not a human invention. The apostles were not creative writers. They were witnesses. He says they were "eyewitnesses of His majesty." This is a legal term. An eyewitness is someone who can stand up in court and testify to what he personally saw and heard. The apostles' authority did not come from their cleverness, but from their proximity. They were there. They walked with Him, ate with Him, saw Him heal the sick, and, in the case of the inner circle, saw His glory unveiled.
The word "majesty" is crucial. It speaks of His sovereign grandeur, His royal splendor. Peter is saying, "We saw a preview. We were given a glimpse behind the curtain of His humility, and we saw the blazing glory of the King of the cosmos." This is the foundation of their preaching. It is not "here is a good idea," but rather, "here is what we saw." Christianity is a testimonial religion. It stands or falls on the reliability of its witnesses.
The Father's Testimony (v. 17)
Peter now specifies the exact event he has in mind. It was not just their subjective experience; it was an event where God the Father Himself testified to the identity of the Son.
"For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased', " (2 Peter 1:17)
This is, of course, the Transfiguration. Jesus "received honor and glory from God the Father." This is an important point. The glory Jesus manifested on the mountain was not something He conjured up; it was the glory that was inherently His, being honored and revealed by the Father. The honor was the Father's verbal testimony, and the glory was the Father's visual confirmation, letting the Son's own divine light shine through the veil of His flesh.
And notice who gives the testimony. It comes from "the Majestic Glory." This is a striking way to refer to God the Father. It is a circumlocution, a way of speaking about God that emphasizes His sheer, unapproachable splendor. It is not just a title; it is a description of His very being. The glory of God is the external manifestation of His infinite worth. And from the center of that blazing reality, a voice came.
The utterance itself is a direct quote from the event recorded in the Gospels: "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased." This is the ultimate testimony. The apostles' witness is crucial, but it is secondary to the Father's own witness to the Son. This declaration combines the royal language of Psalm 2 ("You are my Son") with the servant language of Isaiah 42 ("my chosen one in whom my soul delights"). In this one sentence, God the Father identifies Jesus as both the promised Messianic King and the Suffering Servant who would save His people. He is the one who fulfills all the promises. The Father is essentially saying, "This one. He is the one. Listen to Him."
The Apostolic Confirmation (v. 18)
Peter then brings it back to their own, personal, sensory experience. This was not a dream or a vision in the night. It was an audible, historical event.
"and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain." (2 Peter 1:18)
The emphasis is powerful: "we ourselves heard this utterance." He is saying, "This is not hearsay. This is not second-hand information. I, Peter, along with James and John, heard these words with our own ears." The voice came "from heaven," confirming its divine origin. It was not the trick of an echo, not a rumble of thunder misinterpreted. It was the articulate voice of God Almighty.
And where did this happen? "When we were with Him on the holy mountain." The mountain is called "holy" not because of some inherent magical quality in the geography, but because it was consecrated by the manifest presence of God. Just as the ground where Moses stood before the burning bush was holy ground, this mountain became a temporary sanctuary, a place where Heaven broke through to earth. A holy place is any place where God reveals His glory.
Peter's logic is airtight. The Christian message about the powerful, returning King Jesus is not a myth. Why? Because we were there when His majesty was revealed. How do we know it was His true majesty? Because God the Father Himself honored Him with visible glory and an audible declaration. And how can we be sure of that declaration? Because we were there on the mountain and heard it with our own ears. It is a three-fold cord of testimony: the Son revealed, the Father speaking, and the apostles witnessing. This is the bedrock of our faith. It is not a feeling. It is not a philosophy. It is a fact.
Conclusion: From the Mountain to the World
The experience on the mountain was not an end in itself. It was a preparation. It was fuel for the mission. Peter, James, and John were given this glimpse of glory so that they would have the courage and the conviction to face the cross, and to preach the gospel of a crucified and risen King to the ends of the earth. They were to tell the world what they had seen and heard.
And that is precisely our task as well. We were not on the mountain. We did not see the transfigured Christ with our physical eyes or hear the Father's voice with our physical ears. But Peter says just a few verses later that we have something "more sure", the prophetic word, the Holy Scriptures (2 Pet. 1:19). The testimony of the apostles has been inscripturated for us. We have their eyewitness account, preserved for us by the Holy Spirit. We hold in our hands the very testimony that they sealed with their blood.
Therefore, we have the same responsibility. We are to take this historical, factual, eyewitness gospel and make it known. We are to confront a world of cleverly devised myths, the myths of secularism, of paganism, of false religion, with the solid truth of what God has done in history in the person of His Son. We are to declare that Jesus Christ is not a legend. He is Lord. His power is real, His majesty is terrifying and beautiful, and His coming is certain. We know this, not because we have devised a clever story, but because reliable men were there, and they told us what they saw.