Through Christ, sinners can see God and live. Christ is the image of God.

Source: The Banner of Truth, 2003. 2 pages.

Seeing God

The second commandment forbids us to make images or pictures of God (Exod. 20:4-6). The main reason for this, no doubt, is that God is Spirit, and so must be worshipped in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). The desire to see God by means of an image is thus ungodly. At first sight (so to speak), it therefore seems strange that the Bible still speaks of God's people 'seeing God'. Moses, for example, wanted to see God's glory (Exod. 33:18-23). God's response was to allow His servant to see his back, as it were. The warning given was, 'You cannot see my face; for no man shall see me, and live' (Exod. 33:20).

Later, Manoah was to fear that he and his wife would surely die because they had seen God (Judg. 13:22). If we, in our abject sinfulness, saw God in the fullness of his holy glory, we would be destroyed. In that sense, because of our sin, we cannot hope in this fallen world to see God. Even the seraphim cover their faces before the glory of the Lord (Isa. 6:2). As Thomas Binney realized:

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
How pure the soul must be,
When, placed within thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but, with calm delight,
Can live, and look on Thee!

That is not something that sinful man can simply decide to do. Only the perfect can look upon the Perfect.

Yet that is not the end of the story. The Old Testament tells us that we cannot see God and live, but it also records the hope of the saints that they would actually see God. David writes in the Psalms, 'As for me, I will see your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied when I awake in your likeness' (Psa. 17:15). Isaiah records the promise, 'Your eyes will see the King in his beauty; they will see the land that is very far off' (Isa. 33:17). In the midst of all his troubles, Job affirmed his certain hope that in his flesh he would see God (Job 19:26). Even on this earth, in the Old Testament period, wondrous things happened. When Jacob wrestled with the Angel (the pre-incarnate Son) at Peniel, he was amazed, 'For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved' (Gen. 32:30). It is a little bewildering – we cannot see God and live, yet believers will see him, and some did see him. How can this all be true?

The answer is found in the New Testament. The apostle John tells us of Christ, 'No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him' (John 1:18). No one has seen the Father, except the Son who is from the Father (John 6:46). This means that Jesus could rebuke Philip when he asked Jesus to show the Father to the apostles. Jesus declared, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). In Christ we see God because Christ is 'the image of the invisible God' (Col. 1:15). In coming to earth, Christ emptied himself of the fullness of his glory, so that sinful human beings could indeed look on him and live. It is true that in this present life we see in a mirror, dimly, but Christians know that in heaven we will see face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). Even in the Old Testament, Moses 'endured as seeing him who is invisible' (Heb. 11:27). Faith gives us inward sight. As Thomas Brooks put it, 'A gracious soul may look through the darkest cloud and see God smiling on him.'

The glorious promise is that in heaven we who are Christians will no longer walk by faith, but faith will become sight (2 Cor. 5:7). John whets our appetites for this. 'We know that, when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). The pure in heart will see God (Matt. 5:8). At the end, there shall be the consummation of all things.

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be upon their foreheads.Rev. 22:3-4

Peter Jackson, who became blind when only eighteen months old, but became a Christian as well as a preacher and a gospel pianist, once told John Blanchard, 'If I remain as I am, the next Person I see will be my Saviour.'

Yes, sinners will see God, and live – but only in Christ.

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