When We See Him Face To Face

 

Bernard Pyron

I was reading Revelation 22: 4, "And they shall see his face..." In my
Bible, which has reference notes in the center column to similar
texts, the notes led me from Revelation 22: 4 to Matthew 5: 8, I
Corinthians 13: 12 and especially I John 3: 2. These Scriptures were
the beginning of a number of texts on the subject "When We See Him
Face To Face, We Will Be Like Him."

Some of these Scriptures are warnings to those who think they are
saved but are not. Other texts can inspire us to strive to meet
Christ's terms for salvation.

In our fallen "wisdom" some of us may think that because so many hate
God, are not interested in him, or follow false teachings, that our
moderate interest in God will get us to heaven. But God does not grade
on a curve There are huge numbers of people who do not seek heaven at
all, or who seek by the Broad Way, which does not lead there. Very few
will enter in at the Narrow Way or by the Strait Gate. Many are
spiritually lazy and need to wake up to the realization that we might
not see Christ face to face.

Saved People Will See God Face To Face

Paul saw something of the Glorified Christ on the road to Damascus
when the light of Christ shined so brightly it blinded him until
Ananias, by the Spirit, put his hands on him in Acts 9: 17. John in
Revelation 1: 14-17 saw a bit of the Glorified Christ, whose eyes were
as a flame of fire, his feet were as if they were burned in a furnace
and his countenance was like that of the sun. God may have protected
Paul and John from the full impact of seeing the face of Christ.

In Exodus 33: 20 God is speaking to Moses saying "Thou canst not see
my face: for there shall no man see me and live." In Exodus 33: 23 God
said to Moses "...thou shalt see my back parts."

"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19: 25-26)."

Where did Job get the idea that God as the redeemer would appear on
earth, and that he, Job, would be resurrected to see the redeemer? He
must have been told this by God in some way. And the expectation that
God as the redeemer would appear on earth and that Job would be
resurrected to see him must have comforted ol Job in all his great
trials and tribulations. After all, Job had said in 19: 8 that God had
fenced up his way, so that he did not have much hope that God would
restore his earthly prosperity. But God did just that.

In his utterance that has been passed down the centuries, Job must
have been raised up by the Holy Spirit above his miserable earthly
state. Like Job, we should be able to bear the attacks of men because
we expect to see Christ who will resurrect us to a glory like his own.

Job will see Christ in his glorified body, not in Job's fleshly body
which he acknowledges will be gone. Because Job 19: 25-27 is the
earliest statement on the appearing of Christ to resurrect the Saints
- if Job is indeed a very early book - it is an important and
interesting text.

Job had complete confidence that his redeemer lives and will some day
stand upon the earth. Redeemer in the Hebrew is from gaal (gaal), to
ransom, or redeem, as a slave might pay his owner to ransom himself.
In several texts in Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and Ruth the word is
translated as kinsman. The office of the goel (goel). similar to gaal,
is that of a vindicator, one who takes up the cause of a friend or
relative who was murdered or oppressed, and especially a vindicator of
the weak and the innocent. The kinsman redeemer "shall stand" up as
does one who takes on the cause of another weaker individual. He
"shall stand upon the earth." But curiously the Hebrew word is al
aphar, dust, and not erets, earth.

In Psalm 15: 1-2 he that walks uprightly is one who walks according to
the truth of God. not totally without sin, but not dominated by sin,
and one who is sorry for sin when it sometimes happens. Such a person
is able to repent from sin and triumph over it. He who believes and
speaks the truth in a wholehearted way is the one who will live in the
tabernacle of God and in his holy hill. He will see God face to face.

In God's presence there will be fullness of joy (Psalm 16: 11). Christ
will show David the path of life because Christ was the first to be
raised from the dead to an immortal life in glory. Others had been
brought back to life from the dead, but not to immortal life at that
time. In John 17: 5 Jesus prayed for the Father to glorify him with
the Father's own glory, and to restore the glory that Christ had
before with the Father. This glory Christ will give to his Saints.

Isaiah writes that "Thine eyes shall see the king in his
beauty...(Isaiah 33: 17)." Those who are saved will see the King of
Kings in all his beauty and glory and some of that beauty and glory
will be ours.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:
5)." All the Christian virtues in Matthew 5 are important for seeing
God.

The poor in spirit are those who are willing to get rid of some of
their self-centeredness and pride, their earthly possessions or power
in order to be in Christ. The publican in Luke 18: 13 was broken and
humble when he cried "God be merciful to me a sinner." Christ put
humility first. Self-denial is the first thing to be learned from
Christ; it is the foundation of the other virtues. Humility is the
soil which is able to grow the other seeds of faith.

God says in Isaiah 57: 15 that "I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

Christ tells us that the mourners are blessed (Matthew 5: 4). This can
be a mourning for our sins before God. Those who have repented of
their sins, and mourn for the corruption of their own spiritual life
by sin may be among the mourners of Matthew 5: 4. We also mourn for
God's having withdrawn from us because of sin. And we mourn for the
sins of others, as did the godly people in Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9: 4
mourned and cried for the sins of the Jews who in Ezekiel 8: 7-17
commit terrible sins against God by their worship of hand-me-downs
from the Babylonian Mystery religion, and their worship of Tammuz.

The meek submit to the will of God (Matthew 5: 5), and learn his word.
If it is possible in a situation, they had rather forgive than to gain
revenge.

Those who hunger and search after righteousness (Matthew 5: 6) want
justice done to themselves and to others in this world, but justice is
not often given to us by those in power who do not fear God. Yet those
who want justice are blessed by God, though we find failure of justice
most often in our present world. The person who is spiritually
regenerated wants righteousness even though it rarely happens.

The merciful (Matthew 5: 7) are those who help others who are in
trouble, though we may not always have the resources to really help
those in need. We show concern though for the misery of others. God is
merciful, and so his children should also be merciful.

The pure in heart are blessed and they shall see God. The pure in
heart have been substantially washed of self, pride and sin by the
blood of Christ and by the Word. The heart that is substantially kept
clean from fleshly and worldly lusts, or covetousness, is the heart
purified by faith, which is the knowing and love of the truth, plus a
trust in God. The Psalmist cries that the one with clean hands and a
pure heart and who has not lifted up his soul to vanity (deceit) will
ascend to the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24: 305).

"Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God (John 11: 4)." Jesus told Martha before that if a
person believes, he will see God in his glory. She is told to remember
Christ's promise that he had given before.

"For now we see through a glass darkly: but then face to face: now I
know in part: but then shall I know even as also I am known." (I
Corinthians 13: 12).

Now we see as though we were looking through a somewhat dark glass, en
ainigma, en ainigma, in an enigma or in a riddle. Then, with our
glorified minds we will see the things of God much more clearly. The
light of Christ will remove all confusion and ambiguity from our
understanding.

But even now we are inspired and led into the Scriptures by the Holy
Spirit, the bringer of truth (John 16: 13). We know something of
Christ and of God's plan for salvation. But then we will see God's
righteousness, mercy, grace and truth more clearly, free of all
metaphors or "dark sentences" and interpretations.. In Numbers 12: 18
God said of Moses "With him I speak mouth to mouth apparently and not
in dark speeches (chiydah)." Chiydah is translated as "dark sentences"
in Daniel 8: 23 when in the latter time "...when the transgressors are
come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark
sentences, shall stand up."

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by
the Spirit of the Lord (II Corinthians 3: 18)." We are to see the
glory of Christ "with open face,' that is, there will be no veil on
our faces as there was on that of Moses because of the bright glory of
God shining on his face.

Now we see Christ by faith from the Scriptures, but not in perfection.
When we see him face to face he will take off the veil from our
understanding so we will see him in all his glory. Then he will make
us a little like him, and we will know him more perfectly.

Paul may also be saying here that those who bring the Gospel to others
should not put a veil over their words - or their faces in the
metaphor -that is, to make the message of the Gospel ambiguous. They
should make it as plain as possible. The things of God are revealed
more clearly in the New testament than in the Old where types and
metaphors are more often used. The New Testament often opens up some
of the Old testament veils as types and metaphors.

When a person believes and is on the way to regeneration in Christ,
the veil is being taken away, which is the taking away of blindness of
understanding and hardness of heart. The glory of Christ is
transforming, changing us into the same glory. We grow in being
transformed by God from one stage to another, and so on, until we are
with Christ in our full glory. ))



This is Part Two of When We see Him face To Face. In Part One I
covered seven main Scriptures on the topic of Saved people Will See
Christ. Here I want to finish the topic of Saved People Will See
Christ and go on to a second topic, Take Heed lest You Fall.

!...for ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will
dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and i will
receive you (II Corinthians 6: 16-17)."

God now walks in believers as he walked in tents as tabernacles of the
Israelites (Leviticus 26: 11-12). Because we are the temples of the
living God and God dwells in us, we are told to get out of whatever
might corrupt us, including relationships with unbelievers, so that we
are not infected by their sin. We should also separate ourselves from
those who profess to be Christians but who clearly follow false
doctrines We cannot avoid all contact with unbelievers, but we should
not deliberately make them our friends. A Christian as the temple of
God should not be in close fellowship with unbelievers and apostates.
Since God promises to be our God, then when Christ appears we will see
him face to face.

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body. that
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body (Philippians 3:
20-21)."

"Conversation" is from politeuma, which you can see right off has
something to do with "politics." It can be translated as citizenship.
Those whose citizenship is in heaven and who have overcome some sin
are more likely to focus strongly upon Christ. But those who focus
almost entirely on earthly things need to repent and ask the Holy
Spirit to speed up their spiritual regeneration and take part
themselves in that cleansing.

We set our citizenship in heaven because we hope to be with Christ.
And we look forward to the time when Christ will change our fleshly
bodies into bodies like his own. When Christ was transformed on the
Mount (Matthew 17: 2), his face shined like the sun and his clothes
became white as the light. The resurrection of Christ was evidence of
the power of God to bring the dead back to life. But we will not be
brought back to life in our old bodies to eventually die again like
Lazarus. We will have new, spiritual bodies.

But there are conditions that are to be met before we will see Christ
and be glorified by him. Hebrews 12: 14, for example, says "Follow
peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the
Lord."

Nonbelievers may be more prone to get into strife, and
contentiousness, often out of their pride. Insofar as possible,
Christians are to avoid answering the contentiousness of nonbelievers
and apostates with our own contentiousness. In addition, we should not
get into strife with other Christians who are weaker in faith and not
very far along in spiritual regeneration. Believers who have not gone
very far on the road to spiritual regeneration may become contentious
at times with other Christians. And so Christians who are not very
regenerated may discourage and hinder one another. They should pray
for the Holy Spirit to take them farther along toward regeneration and
try to find out what is hindering their progress.

We should try to help weaker believers go farther on the way to
regeneration in Christ. All of us need to be aware that we can become
impatient, angry and full of contention under attack by our enemies.
Christian peacefulness is a part of sanctification, but in trying to
be at peace with others we should not violate II Corinthians 6: 16-17
and become so friendly with unbelievers and apostates that we
compromise our holiness in the process.

:...come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues (Revelation 18: 4)."

"Her" refers back to Revelation 17:5, to Mystery Babylon the Great,
though it applies to the Babylon of prophecy in a broader way also.

God may have a people even in Babylon. They are here called out of
physical Babylon, out of New York City and some other large cities. We
know that God has a remnant in the rest of the country and in other
countries who are living in a culture of evil, or a Babylonian
society. God is calling these believers out of that culture so they
are not spiritually corrupted by it. But those who refuse to
physically leave the large cities, and/or refuse to withdraw from the
influences of the Babylon culture
will receive the plagues sent upon Babylon as a city and as a culture.
Those who had some interest in Christ but refuse to come out of
Babylon may not see him face to face .

I know a woman who has lived in New York City many years, perhaps
since the mid or late sixties. I knew her in the early sixties when we
were part of an art bohemian group in Madison, Wisconsin. I wrote her
in early 2003 on another matter and mentioned that Frank Lloyd Wright
had predicted that his Guggenheim Museum in NY would "bounce" if New
York were hit by a nuclear bomb. She answered saying that if New York
blows up she will gladly go with it. I wrote her a few months later
giving her some information from Bible prophecy that New York is
Babylon and that the Deadly Wound of Revelation l3 may refer to a
nuclear attack on that city. She did not reply.

Material Babylon has totally rejected God and has drawn millions into
her spiritual adultery by giving the people material stuff and the
promise of more things and wealth to keep their interest in worldly
things and away from God. In Revelation 18: 12-13 the merchants, or
the emporoi, the world traders, deal in all kinds of material things
and the last part of verse 13 includes "...slaves, and souls of men."
The emporoi have made economic slaves of millions.

Spiritual Babylon, which is Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of
Harlots and Abominations of Revelation 17: 3-6, offers people a false
and often easy religion in place of Christian faith. Spiritual Babylon
keeps the interest of its followers away from God by its false
doctrines, idolatry, rituals, occult allure and offer of easy
salvation by the Broad Way without sanctification and the overcoming
of sin.

The Beast of Revelation 13: 3 is political and military Babylon and it
will demand the obedience of the people to keep them from being
obedient to God. The present American epoch of perpetual war for
perpetual fascism will eventually give way to an international
totalitarian government.

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God (Revelation 21: 3)."

This is almost a repeat of Ezekiel 37: 27, "My tabernacle also shall
be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Christ lived with men on earth before, but then as a servant.
Revelation 21: 3 refers to a time in the future when the glorified
Christ will live among the saints, but then he will be our king. The
Lord Jesus Christ himself will be with us, not his angel.

"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; and they shall
see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads (Revelation 22:
3-4)."

The earth was cursed in Genesis 3: 17 because Adam and Eve allowed
themselves to be seduced by the serpent. But in the New Heaven and New
Earth there will be no more devil, no sin and no curse. No person who
is wicked or deceptive will be there, and there will be no false
gospel. The followers of God will be there to serve and praise him.

Take Heed Lest You Fall

In I Corinthians 10: 11-12 Paul tells us that "Now all these things
happened to them as ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let
him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

Our own confidence in the security of our salvation is not evidence
that we are safe. In fact, such a confidence without some evidence of
salvation could be a sign one is not saved.

God has not promised to keep us from straying from our focus upon
Christ and the Word, and from getting into sin that dominates us and
from which we do not repent. God's help in keeping us from falling may
be dependent upon our own concern that we do not fall and upon our
active and energetic efforts to keep our attention on Christ, on his
truth, and to try to further our sanctification.

We live in a highly deceptive world with many allures that can divert
attention away from God and his Word. Christians who are not far along
in spiritual renewing, which is sanctification or being born again,
are more likely to be led astray from Christ by worldly concerns.

Satan is a deceiver who uses our ambition, desires, covetousness, and
preoccupation with strife and problems in the world to lead us from
Christ and the truth. But Christ is truthful, and a large part of our
security is in our love of the truth and in our coming to know the
truth. if we stick to Christ, he will make a way for us to escape when
our faith is seriously tested; or, he will help us to defeat whatever
in the world is occupying our attention. Of course, paying attention
to the world becomes habitual when we are in danger of falling. We can
be deceived into following false Christian doctrines, and this can
lead us to fall.

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now more by my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling (Philippians 2: 12)."

The Philippians had been willing to obey whatever they found to be the
will of God, both in Paul's presence and in his absence. They had
submitted to the righteousness and lordship of Christ, they had
believed his truths, had tried to follow them, and had continued in
his doctrines.

By his suffering and death on the cross, Christ obtained our
salvation, and in this sense it is not for us to obtain it for
ourselves. This must be why Paul adds in verse 13, "For it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Unless salvation is a work done by God, it could not be salvation. Yet
God wants us to strive (Luke 13: 24) to obtain our salvation, to make
our calling and election sure, and to seek him wholeheartedly
(Deuteronomy 4: 29) and persistently (Hebrews 11: 6). We do not fully
understand how God can be the sole author of our salvation, and yet he
wants us to do something to obtain it.

Salvation is the most important thing we can seek. It will mean
eternal life with Christ in his glory, and we will be free from the
harm that our sins and those of others have brought on us. We will be
free from the punishment for our sins.

We are told to work thoroughly at obtaining our salvation, and not
just half-heartedly, or once in a while. We work out our salvation by
doing all that has to be done - and we need to gain the knowledge from
the Bible to fully know what must be done.

Fear is a prod against remaining spiritually lazy. It can make us more
persistent in working out our salvation and make us more wholehearted
in this activity. We must also be inspired by the Scriptures through
the Holy Spirit in order to be able to obtain the knowledge of
Christ's terms for salvation .

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fail (II
Peter 1: 10)."

What are "these things" that Peter refers to here? At least in large
part, he must be talking about the list of Christian virtues he
discusses in this same chapter. Starting in II Peter 1: 5 and running
on to verse 7, Peter lists as the virtues of sanctification faith,
virtue. knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness
and charity. There might be some other aspects of Christian
sanctification that Peter does not list here.

Those who have faith, who fully believe Christ's truths, should "...be
careful to maintain good works (Titus 3: 8)." Faith, or pistis in this
text, is defined by Strong's as "conviction of the truthfulness of
God...reliance upon Christ for salvation...constancy in such
profession..."

Virtue, in verse 5, is from arete, which in Strong's means valor. We
might be a little surprised by this definition, for we may have
thought that virtue is confined to being good and trustworthy. But it
also means having courage and valor. The righteous must be bold as a
lion so says Proverbs 28: l. A cowardly Christian who is afraid to
stand up and profess Christ and be obedient to him in the face of
opposition, ridicule or threat of punishment may cause Christ to be
ashamed of him.

By knowledge, or gnosis, Peter means knowledge of the and will of God,
and knowledge of god's truths.

Temperance is from egkrateis, self-control, not being impulsive.
Patience is from the Greek word hupomone, not falling aside from a
purpose, being loyal to Christ in the greatest trials and suffering.

Godliness is from eusebia, reverence to God. Brotherly kindness is
from philadelphia, love of others or other Christians. Finally,
charity is from agape, good will, benevolence, or godly love.

By developing these virtues as part of sanctification Peter is saying
that this is a way of making our calling and election sure. Again,
this may not be an exhaustive description of the traits of Christian
sanctification.

Believers should try to clear up for themselves whether they are saved
or not, though one must have knowledge of Christ's terms for salvation
to do this truthfully. We should not convince ourselves that we are
saved without Scriptural proof. Are we thoroughly converted, on the
way to overcoming sin and trhe preoccupation with worldly things. Do
we think of pleasing Christ a lot of the time and of how we might
serve him?

Are our goals and desires in line with being sanctified in Christ? If
a person falls into sin from time to time, I John 1: 9 says, "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We can start over at any time
in Christ and go on to more sanctification. We do know that if we side
with God, then we are in a war against sin and the devil. We need to
fully decide that we belong to Christ.

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and
shall assure our hearts before him (I John 3: 18)."

When we love God, the truth and other Christians, we have started to
become sanctified. We love the brethren in deed and in truth because
Christ redeemed us not only from the punishment for sin, but he also
set us free from the power of sin over us. We have to apply this
victory to our own lives. The mystery of God is that he would redeem a
people with his own blood. Therefore we should love those God loves.

The love for other Christians is based upon love for Christ. Christ is
truth, and those who have the truth are in Christ; they belong to him
and have his Spirit in them, at least to some degree. Love for other
Christians is one of the fruits of the Spirit. We may build one
another up in the faith and help each other increase in the knowledge