The Hope of the Believer … No. 12

WILL WE SEE GOD?

He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. —1 Tim. 6:15

This article is written at the request of one of our readers in Benton, Arkansas. She writes that she has always heard that God is pure Spirit and because of this we will not be able to see him, not even in eternity. She hopes that this is not the case, for she wants to see God. So that is her question, Will we see God?

There are better reasons for concluding that we will not see God than that God is pure Spirit, the main one being that the Bible states plainly that no person has ever seen God or can see him, as quoted above. Moreover, in Ex. 33:20 God himself is quoted as saying, “You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live.” Ex. 19:21 warns that anyone who gazes upon God shall perish, and in Lev.16:2 Aaron is warned that if he sees God in the Holy Place he will die. In Ex. 3:6 Moses hides his face lest he look upon God.

Over against all this is that great beatitude that assures us that we shall indeed see God: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). Several Old Testament characters affirm that they saw God, including Jacob, who not only in some way wrestled with God but afterward said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30). Isaiah saw himself as “undone” or disintegrated and as a man of unclean lips, for “my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). Gideon said he saw the Angel of the Lord face to face, and he feared it would cost him his lite, but God told him that he would not die (Judges 6:22-23). Ex. 24:9-11 tells how 74 people, including Moses, went into the mountain of God where “they saw the God of Israel,” and it says they saw sapphire stone pavement at God’s feet, and “it was like the very heavens in its clarity.” Here the Bible tells us not only that 74 people saw God but they saw him clearly!

Moses not only saw God but talked to him “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex 33:11). In Ex. 12:6-8 God declares that ifthere is a prophet among his people he will speak to him in a vision or in a dream, but because of Moses’ faithfulness “I speak to him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings, and he sees the form of the Lord.”

The answer to the question of whether we shall see God, or if people have indeed seen God, appears to be both yes and no. It is almost certain that no one has ever seen God in any absolute sense, or seen him in the fullness of his glory. This is surely impossible for mortal man or for any of God’s creation, and this is why the Bible plainly states that no one has ever seen God or ever will see him. The clue is in the last reference, where Moses is said to have seen the form of God. This is consistent with Moses’ plea to God, “Please, show me your glory.” God tells him that this cannot be, “You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live.” God then places Moses in the cleft of a rock and covers his eyes with his hand. He then passes before Moses in his glory, and at last God removes his hand in time for Moses to see his back (Ex. 33:18-23).

We have here of course a great deal of symbolism, anthropomorphism's they are called, and we are overwhelmed by the mystery of it all. God of course does not actually have a face as we know faces, nor a hand or a back. The rich symbolism points to an intimate relationship with God. Moses must have “seen” God as closely as any mortal ever has, along with the likes of Isaiah and Elijah. Moses saw God’s back, but not his face! It may sound crude to a modern reader, but it was ancient Israel’s way of conveying a vital truth: God is so majestic that he dwells in unapproachable light, and yet he reveals himself to certain ones to the degree that they can experience his presence. The theologians refer to it as an epiphany, God appearing in some way to certain chosen ones.

Sometimes God revealed himself through dreams and visions, and “at various times and in different ways God spoke to our fathers through the prophets” (Heb. 1:1). Sometimes it was by an angelic visit, even by “the Angel of the Lord,” who had a special visitation mission in the Old Testament. We know of course that Jacob did not actually wrestle with God, even if he put that interpretation upon his experience. But Jacob had an ecstatic, life-changing experience that brought him into close fellowship with God, an epiphany, and that is what matters. But he did not actually see God. The great prophet Isaiah saw God sitting upon a throne “high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” This was God’s way of revealing himself to the prophet in symbols that he could understand, but we are not to conclude that God actually wears a robe anymore than the prayer “Hide me under the shadow of Your wings” (Ps. 17:8) means that God has feathers. Nor did Isaiah see the God of heaven in any ultimate sense.

All these passages have to conform to the great truths about God as set forth in 1 Tim. 6:15-16, which is one of the great doxologies of Scripture.

God is the blessed and only Potentate or Sovereign, which means he is the Ruler of all the universe.

God is King over all kings and Lord over all lords, a truth that is inviolable whether it is recognized by earthly authorities or not.

God alone has immortality, which means if we have eternal life it is God’s gift to us and not by our own nature.

God dwells in unapproachable light, which means he transcends our time and space, and that no human effort can even begin to penetrate his infinity.

No one has ever seen God or can see him, a truth that stands with the rest of the doxology, and at least means that God is beyond our comprehension and cannot be seen as we see the finite things of our world.

What a difference Jesus Christ makes! In Romans Paul uses a glorious word to point up the difference that Jesus makes. It is the word access. Speaking of God’s grace, the apostle writes, “Through Christ we have access by faith into this grace” (Rom. 5:2). In Christ we have access to God who is otherwise unapproachable. Even though God is King of the universe we have the access that a child has to its father. Even though God alone has immortality we have access to eternal life. Even though God can be neither seen nor comprehended by finite man in Christ we have access into his presence and fellowship.

To the degree that God can be revealed to finite man Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God. The New Testament puts great emphasis upon this truth, such as Col. 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” and Heb. 1:3: “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.” And so one apostle wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).

When his disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father, he replied, “He who has seen me has seen the Father also.” That is why the apostles had no problem in saying that “God was in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:19) and “the fulness of God dwelt in Christ” (Col. 1:19). They never quite said that Jesus was actually God, but he was the Son of God, the likeness of God, the equal of God, the fulness of God, and the very image of God.

This is the only answer we really need to our sister’s question: Yes, we see God when we see Jesus Christ. We now see Jesus by faith, but in heaven we shall see him face to face, as a person like ourselves and adorned in a glorious body. When we see him we will see the likeness of God. But will we see the Father? Yes, of course, for in Christ we will have access to him on into heaven. But actually seeing God is different from actually seeing Christ, for even in heaven Jesus is a human being. When we see Jesus we will be seeing another human being, only far more glorious. That is not the case with the Father who always, we may suppose, dwells in unapproachable light.

In heaven we will see the Father as much as finite beings can behold the infinite, surely more than we can now see. It might be something like looking into the heavens from the earth. We see but a tiny portion of the universe, as glorious as it is. Even if catapulted through the heavens as fast as light travels, we would still see but a fraction of the universes that unfold before us, even after aeons of light years. I envision seeing the Father like that. Since he is infinity itself and beyond our “seeing,” we shall behold his splendor from one level of glory to another, and throughout eternity we will never see but a fraction of his magnanimity.

We will forever be praising God, learning about God, and seeing more and more of his grandeur. But we will never see him in the fulness of his glory. This is because we will never become gods but will always be finite, limited in comparison to God. Jesus is also infinite, of course, as he is equal to God. But Jesus is a man like us, even in heaven, and that makes all the difference. That is the incomprehensible mystery, that Jesus is God but he is also man. I can envision talking to Jesus in heaven, along with all “the spirits of just people made perfect.”

But can we envision talking to God as we would to Jesus and to each other? I reckon that even in heaven God will still dwell in unapproachable light, and even though we will “see” him more gloriously than now, we will forever be approaching his unapproachable splendor.

It remains to be said to our Arkansas sister that we are not to miss seeing God in this world. In an important sense we see him in our fellow human beings, for we are created in his image. We especially see him in the innocence of childhood and in the dispossessed and deprived of earth, who are probably closer to him. We see and hear him in the beauty and mystery of nature, in great music, art, literature, and poetry. We see him in the unfolding history of mankind, for he is in history and the God of history. We see him as he rules in the affairs of nations. We see his providence, his long suffering, his mercy, and even his wrath.

But God also sees in our world. Alexander Pope in his figuring it both ways when he wrote:

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish or a sparrow fall,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Our sister says she wants to see God. She will be blessed for her desire, and she has the promise of Christ that it will be so, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We should stand in awe of such a promise and realize that it is a hope that reaches beyond our comprehension. To think of seeing God upwards and onward and forever and ever, from glory to glory, is almost too much for us to take in. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it” (Ps. 137:6). —the Editor

 

In a true sense it is only because God is God that he is big enough to allow human free will to lead such awful calamities as those of which the world is full and yet know that ultimately he can so handle the situation as to bring out of chaos the achievement of his purpose with nothing of final value ultimately lost.--Leslie D. Weatherhead, This is the Victory