Will We See God in Eternity?

Audio Transcript

Welcome again to Job week on the podcast. On Monday, we learn Job 16 collectively and needed to parse out which of Job’s claims are true and which of them are false — one of many specific challenges of studying Job. As we speak we learn Job 19 and this daring declaration from Job in Job 19:26–27: “After my pores and skin has been thus destroyed, but in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and never one other. My coronary heart faints inside me!” After Job dies, he will likely be in his flesh — and in his flesh, he’ll see God. That’s his declare.

To that declare comes this associated query from Eric, who listens to the podcast in Joliet, Illinois: “Pastor John, hi there! First Timothy 6:16 says that nobody can see God. But Matthew 5:8 tells us that the pure in coronary heart will see God. Is there any sense by which we can ‘see’ God bodily in heaven? Or is that this textual content alluding to the incarnate and glorified Christ? It’s a robust promise, and I need to perceive it higher.”

Let’s put the texts — those that he refers to and some others — in entrance of us, after which see if we are able to reply the query.

• 1 Timothy 6:15–16: “He who’s the blessed and solely Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable mild, whom nobody has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and everlasting dominion.”
• 1 Timothy 1:17: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the one God, be honor and glory.”
• 1 John 4:12: “Nobody has ever seen God; if we love each other, God abides in us.”
• Exodus 33:20: “You can not see my face, for man shall not see me and reside.”
• Deuteronomy 4:12: “Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fireplace. You heard the sound of phrases, however noticed no kind; there was solely a voice.”

That’s one facet. You possibly can’t see him. Now right here’s the opposite facet.

• Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in coronary heart, for they shall see God.”
• Genesis 32:30: “Jacob known as the title of the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I’ve seen God nose to nose, and but my life has been [spared].’”
• Job 19:26–27: “And after my pores and skin has been thus destroyed, but in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and never one other.”

There you will have either side of the difficulty. And the answer to this seeming inconsistency lies in the truth that the phrase see, as everyone knows, has a number of completely different makes use of. And when you take a look at all of the texts, you see that there are two completely different senses by which his folks can see God and two senses by which they can’t see God.

So, let me break these out and see if folks can observe me — see if they will see.

How We Can’t See God

First, the methods we can’t see God.

1. We are able to’t see him with our bodily eyes for the easy cause that he’s a spirit, and he doesn’t have a physique. That’s most likely no less than a part of what Paul means when he says that Christ “is the picture of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

2. We are able to’t see him even spiritually with unmediated directness. That is partly owing to our sinfulness and partly owing maybe to our creaturely weak point. He’s too nice, too vibrant, too superb, and we couldn’t reside if we noticed him with unmediated directness. We should at all times have Christ, our Mediator, as a go-between.

I feel that’s what Jesus meant when he says in John 6:45–46, “It’s written within the Prophets, ‘And they’re going to all be taught by God.’ Everybody who has heard and realized from the Father involves me — not that anybody has seen the Father besides he who’s from God; he has seen the Father.” Now, when it says, “besides he who’s from God; he has seen the Father,” he means not with bodily eyes as a result of Jesus, the Son of God, didn’t have bodily eyes earlier than the incarnation. And that’s what he’s contrasting our seeing with. Solely the Son can see the Father with nonphysical, unmediated, direct seeing. We can’t see God spiritually the best way the Son of God in unmediated directness can see him.

So, these are the 2 methods we are able to’t see God once we use the phrase see in numerous methods.

How We Can See God

And listed here are the 2 methods we can see God.

1. We use the phrase see to imply that we lastly perceive and discern the sweetness and glory of God after being blind to it, like once we say, “Oh, now I see.” Our soul is tuned in to the glory in order that the glory of God that shines by way of the gospel is seen as superb, and we’re not spiritually blind to it. That’s the primary method we see him.

2. The second method is that, within the narrative of the Bible, we see the glory of God — and, lastly, we are going to see him nose to nose — by way of Christ, by seeing Christ. “The Phrase turned flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we now have seen his glory, glory as of the one Son from the Father. . . . Nobody has ever seen God; the one God, who’s on the Father’s facet, he has made him identified” (John 1:14, 18). So, we see God by seeing Jesus. “We all know that when he seems we will be like him, as a result of we will see him as he’s” (1 John 3:2).

So, the implication is that this: pursue purity of coronary heart, purity of religion, purity of life in order that our coronary heart, your coronary heart, is ready to see God’s magnificence as what it truly is within the Scripture, and in order that when he comes or when he calls us in loss of life, we are going to see him nose to nose and be glorified with him.