Peter emphasizes once again that he is an eyewitness to Christ’s deeds and asks us to take particular account of the fact that his testimony about His teaching is not based on what others have told him, but on his own direct recollections. Peter bears witness to what he saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, about which Christ asked them not to speak “until the Son of Man is risen from the dead” (Matt. 17:9). We can hardly imagine how easy or difficult it was for Peter to keep such an astonishing event secret, but now the time has come to tell of it.

And here we see that the apostle places above his own testimony the prophetic word spoken several centuries earlier by those who did not live to see Christ’s coming. Personal experience as a witness might seem more important than something heard or read, but for Peter it matters that what he testifies to is an integral link in the unbroken chain of the one process of Revelation. In this process, what is new not only does not deny what was proclaimed before, but is confirmed by it and acknowledges everything that comes from God.

After listing at the beginning of the chapter how growth in faith takes place, the apostle Peter brings us back to its first and most difficult act. The apostle even introduces the discussion by saying that, as long as he lives, he will continually remind them of it, and that after his death everyone should remind himself. He does not confuse them or tell them tales; he merely bears witness to what he himself saw and heard. He heard God the Father’s testimony about the Son, and he received Jesus as his Savior. This is not so easy to do, because this simple fact compels one to accept His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection, and to accept all His words. One cannot limit oneself to a single step: once one agrees that Jesus is the beloved Son, one must accept everything in Him and everything about Him. It is as difficult as deciding to entrust oneself to a surgeon or to another person. But sooner or later there comes a moment of decision, when one must make this choice of faith that changes one’s whole life. Having remembered our conscious return to the Savior and remembered that all the prophecies were fulfilled in Him, we must preserve this knowledge while we remain “in the bodily tent” and pass it on, as it has been passed down from the apostle Peter to our own day.