Seeing God as He Is

On the final day, Christ will raise all people from the dead, pronounce final judgment on them, and usher them into their final state: the lake of fire for those who never trusted Him and the new heaven and new earth for those who did believe in Him. Creation itself will not be annihilated, but it will be transformed and perfected. The physical order will permanently become what God originally designed it to be—namely, His temple where He will dwell with His people forever. Pain, death, and sadness will be gone forever, and the Lord will wipe away our every tear (Rev. 20:11–22:5).

As good as all that will be, even better will be our vision of God Himself. Revelation 22:4–5 explains that there will be no darkness in the new creation and that there will be no need of the lamp or the sun to give light. Why? Because God Himself will be the light. His refulgent glory will fill the new heaven and earth and the new Jerusalem. Moreover, we will “see his face” (v. 4).

Today’s passage expands on the truth that we will see our Creator face-to-face when it tells us that we “shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). In the first instance, John speaks of a vision of Jesus in all His divine-human glory. But in light of texts such as Revelation 22:4–5, we must understand that in some marvelous way, we will see not only the glorified incarnate Christ but also the Godhead Himself. The text does not go into detail regarding how this will be. Theologians such as Jonathan Edwards have suggested that this vision will not be seen with our physical eyes but that God will somehow grant our minds and souls an immediate apprehension of His deity. That may well be true, but the important thing to note is that our seeing God, otherwise known as the beatific vision, will bring us complete satisfaction. We grow weary of gazing on even the most lovely things on this earth, becoming bored and moving on to other concerns. But we will never tire of looking upon God. He is so beautiful, so fascinating, so marvelous, so deep, so fulfilling, that seeing Him will never grow old. Indeed, we will find ourselves moving from glory to glory as we look on His face, knowing Him more and more while always discovering something new as He enthralls us for all eternity (2 Cor. 3:18). In our vision of Him, we will come to cry out continually, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33).