Our Radiant Redeemer

Our Radiant Redeemer is a wonderful devotion on the transfiguration of Jesus. It was released as a Lenten devotional, but would be excellent any time of the year. Tim Chester does an incredible job at diving into the transfiguration and this book could make an excellent book study with fellow believers. He gives so much insight to the Scripture, breaking down the similarities and differences, noting the parallels, and leaving the reader more in love with God and His holy Word.

The book is broken down into 6 parts:
Week 1 -Radiant Person of Jesus
Week 2 - Radiant Words of Jesus
Week 3 - Radiant Love of Jesus
Week 4 - Radiant Passion of Jesus
Week 5 - Radiant Victory of Jesus
Holy Week and Easter Sunday - Radiant and Transformed

Each day has Scripture, a corresponding devotional, and a meditation in the form of hymns, additional Scripture, and quotes.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness put into this book and the strong focus on Jesus’s finished work. What a great focus for Lent and anytime of the year. The cross and resurrection get a lot of attention, but not the transfiguration and this book fills that void in a beautifully gospel-centered, Scripture-rich, God-glorifying way.

I've never made much of the Transfiguration. It seems like a less-than-usual episode in the Gospel accounts. What did it really mean? Why did it matter? How should it affect my understanding of Jesus, God, the resurrection, the future? Turns out you can spend 40 days learning about the Transfiguration & still feel like you don't completely understand it, but you can still feel encouraged by it. Chester takes his time, comparing the variations in the accounts. None are identical, but that isn't a problem. Each detail is important & each account emphasizes a different aspect. I think this is ...a fantastic devotional for outside of the Lenten season. I'm coming away from it wanting to know more, for sure!

For Lent this year Tim Chester presents us with 47 short daily reflections on the transfiguration, vividly bringing to life the meaning of the Cross and the resurrection. “Our Daily Redeemer” is a glorious journey exploring the transfiguration of Christ from different biblical angles - this is a unique Lent devotion that takes the reader right to the heart of the glory that is revealed in Christ.

Piecing together the biblical narrative of the glory of God appearing before Moses ...and Elijah in the Old Testament, before appearing with Jesus at the transfiguration, Tim Chester brings together so many wonderful passages - almost like a biblical mural where the biblical picture of Christ is made up of all these different daily biblical reflections, giving the reader a much clearer picture of the person of Christ.

I particularly loved how Tim Chester drew a parallel that I had never really considered before, between the story of Stephen in Acts 6, whose “face was like the face of an angel” and Moses in Exodus 34, when his face was radiant before the people of Israel. In that moment, Stephen’s message to the Jewish council was that the Law and the Prophets have found their fulfilment in Christ and Tim Chester makes the observation that:

“The transfiguration teaches us how to read the Old Testament. Moses and Elijah turn up to see the fulfilment of everything they had done and said. And they teach us to do the same; to see the fulfilment of their words in Jesus.” (p73)

In conclusion, “Our Radiant Redeemer” is the perfect devotional for Lent this year, I am very much looking forward to being blessed by it as I walk slowly and prayerfully through the spiritual season of Lent.

*Disclaimer: TGBC kindly provided me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.