Do You See God?

From Gospel Translations

Do you see God?

Few questions are more important in the life of the Christian, both now and for the satisfaction of our souls forever. Just as one must ask (and answer), “What must I do to be saved?” one must also ask (and answer), “How can I see God?”

When we speak of God, we may speak of him either essentially or personally. When we speak of God essentially, we refer to his divine essence or substance. However, when we speak of God personally, we refer to his personhood as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Simply put, God is spirit in terms of his essence and triune in terms of his personhood. Understanding this will help us to navigate the question of seeing God.

Invisible God

In terms of God’s essence, we can never physically see God, for “God is spirit” (John 4:24). God “dwells in unapproachable light,” so “no one has ever seen or can see” him (1 Timothy 6:16). The hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” puts it well:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Since God is spirit, he cannot be seen by human eyes, which is why John tells us that “no one has ever seen God” (John 1:18). Even before Paul’s splendid statement on God’s unapproachable invisibility, he speaks of God as “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17).

Moreover, our inability to see that which cannot be seen is not merely because God is spirit. God is also infinitely and unchangeably holy in his essence. We cannot, because of our sin, even dare to approach the God who cannot be seen. There is a barrier to our sight because God is spirit, and there is another barrier because we are sinners.

God Made Visible

Moses asked to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18), to which God responded, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). But that doesn’t mean God hides himself. In several ways throughout the Bible, God stoops to his creatures in order that they may “see” him — that is, receive revelation from him to understand his ways and follow in obedience. And the best and most glorious way God stoops to accommodate himself to our weakness is in the incarnation of the Son of God.

In the upper room, Philip asks to see the Father (John 14:8). Like Moses, Philip has a desire to see God, for in seeing God he will be content. Yet our Lord responds,

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. (John 14:9–10)

Seeing God becomes possible in the person of Christ, who is the God-man, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). God, who is invisible, is visible in the person of the Son. Moses and Philip expressed good desires in their request to see God. God answers their desire in Jesus Christ.

Seeing by Faith

The disciples had Jesus before their very eyes. While their lack of faith kept them from seeing him as they ought, even their weak faith was enough for them to truly see God in the face of Christ. However, Christ has ascended, so we are in a sense like Moses, who endured as the deliverer of God’s people by “seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).

We see God in the person of Christ in two ways: by faith in this life and by sight in the life to come. In this life, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Christ is the object of our faith. We look to his work not only as the incarnate Messiah who lived and died, but also as the Savior who rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is now enthroned as our Priest-King who ever lives to intercede for us.

There is no doubt, however, that Jesus desires for us to see his glory and one day live by sight. He prays, after all, that we would see his glory (John 17:24). But in this life, he wants us to live by faith (John 20:29). We “see” God in Christ by living by faith according to the truth of the Scriptures. As we learn divine truth from God’s word, we see Christ more clearly in this life. The Scriptures speak principally of Christ (Luke 24:44), which means, to the degree that we properly understand God’s word and receive it by faith, we will see God in Christ more clearly.

The divine truths we receive by faith transform us in this life. Christians, “with unveiled face,” behold the glory of Christ and thus are “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This inward transformation is our own “transfiguration” whereby we are conformed to the image of Christ by the power of his Spirit.

Those who wish to see Christ face-to-face in the life to come must in this world see him by faith. We believe what we do not (yet) see. But we must believe; otherwise, we shall never see. For, as John Owen solemnly wrote, “No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter, who does not in some measure behold it by faith here in this world” (Works of John Owen, 1:288).

Beholding Our Heart’s Desire

Our vision of Christ in glory will be immediate. Nothing shall come between us and Christ. The Spirit will enliven our bodies and souls to behold Christ’s glory. This “ocular sight” is direct. Christ will, in his glory, appear before us; we will see him as he really is (1 John 3:2).

The sight we yearn for is both visible and intellectual. We shall behold him in his glory with an understanding of his person that is suitable to our own glorified state. Yet this type of sight is not suitable to us here on earth (see Luke 9:30–33; Revelation 1:17; Acts 9:3–8). Such a sight in our present condition is, to use Owen’s words, “too high, illustrious, and marvellous for us” who live on earth with indwelling sin (1:290).

If Christ in his regal, exalted glory should stand before us now, it would be too much for us to bear. “For,” as Owen says, “we are not able, by the power of any light or grace that we have received, or can receive, to bear the immediate appearance and representation [of Christ]” (1:380).

Just as we are transformed into Christ’s image in this life by faith, so we will be transformed into Christ’s image in the life to come by sight. As John makes clear, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The vision of Christ is transforming for God’s people, both by faith and by sight.

This future vision of the glorified Lord will enable us to see a glory in Christ’s person “a thousand times above what here we can conceive,” Owen writes. This sight is what all of God’s people on earth “breathe and pant after” (1:379). Christians yearn for nothing more than the blessed vision of the Son of God, who makes God visible, desirable, and knowable.