“Seeing God Face to Face”
“Seeing God Face to Face”
Seeing God
The question of who saw God in the Bible is ultimately answered by the person of Jesus Christ.
The phrase “no man hath seen God at any time” refers to seeing His full, unveiled, divine essence.
The encounters in the Old Testament were with a veiled presence, a passing glory, or a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son.
The encounters in the New Testament were with the glorified Son, Jesus Christ, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
OUR ULTIMATE HOPE IS NOT IN SEEING A VEILED VISION, BUT IN SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE THROUGH CHRIST.
Encounters with God in the Old Testament contains some of the most dramatic and personal accounts of God revealing Himself to His people.
Moses: Face to Face, but from Behind
Moses had a uniquely close relationship with God. The Bible says that “the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11, KJV). However, in the very same chapter, Moses asks to see God’s full glory, and God gives him a humbling, yet intimate, reply.
“And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:20-23, KJV)
Moses’s encounter reveals the terrifying holiness of God. He saw God’s back, a veiled form of His passing glory, proving that no one can survive an encounter with His full, unmediated presence. This remains one of the most powerful passages on the nature of God’s holiness and our human limitations.
Jacob: Wrestling with God
The story of Jacob at the Jabbok River is one of the most mysterious and physical encounters in the Bible. Jacob wrestles with a man all night, and in the morning, the man injures Jacob’s hip and refuses to reveal his name. Yet, Jacob knows who he has been wrestling with.
“And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Genesis 32:30, KJV)
Jacob’s life was preserved because this was a mediated encounter, a wrestling with a divine being who was revealing Himself in a form that Jacob could physically interact with. This encounter changed Jacob forever, giving him the new name “Israel,” meaning “he who struggles with God.”
Isaiah: A Vision in the Temple
The prophet Isaiah received his calling in a magnificent vision of God in the Temple.
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:1, 5, KJV)
Isaiah did not see God’s face, but he saw the reality of His glory, holiness, and majesty. His immediate reaction was not one of excitement, but of complete and utter humility, recognizing his own sinfulness in the presence of God’s purity. His vision confirms that even a glimpse of God’s veiled glory is enough to bring a sinful human to a place of profound repentance.
Encounters in the New Testament
With the coming of Jesus, the true Son of God, the nature of seeing God changes. Now, God can be seen in the person of Jesus Christ, the visible image of the invisible God.
Stephen: Seeing the Son of Man in Glory
Just before his martyrdom, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit and had a final vision that strengthened him to face his death.
“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56, KJV)
Stephen’s encounter was a direct vision of the glorified Christ. In Jesus, God’s glory is made manifest in a way that is comprehensible to humanity. This shows that in the New Covenant, seeing God is seeing the Son, who is the perfect revelation of the Father.
The Apostle John: The Alpha and Omega
The Apostle John received his vision for the Book of Revelation from Jesus in a glorified form. John’s description is the most detailed vision of the post-resurrection Christ in the Bible.
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:17-18, KJV)
John’s reaction—falling as if dead—is similar to Isaiah’s. Even in His glorified, human form, the divine presence of Jesus is overwhelming to a mortal man. The vision serves as a final, definitive encounter with the One who is the perfect revelation of the Father, and who holds all authority over life and death.
AGAIN OUR ULTIMATE HOPE IS NOT IN SEEING A VEILED VISION, BUT IN SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE THROUGH CHRIST.
The story of Chuck Colson saw God face to face through Christ.
In 1973, Chuck Colson’s life was changed while he sat in his car outside a friend’s house. Colson, you may know, was one of President Richard Nixon’s top advisors. He was known as Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He was a profane and vulgar enforcer of Nixon’s policies in the White House. Like many around Nixon in the early 1970’s, Colson was caught up in the Watergate scandal.
As the turmoil of Watergate unfolded, Colson went to visit a friend of his, Tom Phillips, who was the president of Raytheon. He had found out that Phillips and his wife had recently attended a Billy Graham Crusade and put their faith in Jesus. Colson noticed that their lives were radically changed as a result, so he wanted to hear more about what happened to them.
As they talked that evening, Phillips read to Colson a passage from C. S. Lewis about pride. Lewis writes, “A proud man is always looking down on things and on people. And of course as long as you’re looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
Phillips told Colson that pride was keeping him from looking up and seeing something far greater than himself, namely the God who made him and sent his Son to die for his sins.
Phillips asked him if he’d be willing to submit his life to God by trusting in Jesus. Colson declined. When he left he got in his car and began to drive away, but he was too overwhelmed to go further,
so he pulled off the road just down the street from the Phillips house and cried out to God, saying, “Take me, take me, take me.”
Colson was alone in the dark with the devastation of his life all around him. Colson – this great and powerful man, wept uncontrollably because for the first time in his life he put down his machismo and pretenses and fears of being weak and surrendered his life to God.
Colson would never be the same man again.
He went from being a proud man to a humbled and servant-hearted man, giving his life to serving his new Master, Jesus Christ.
The “hatchet man” found himself cut down by God’s grace and power.
JACOB ê
Gen 32:22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
Gen 32:23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Gen 32:25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
Gen 32:26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Gen 32:27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Gen 32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Gen 32:29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Gen 32:31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Gen 32:32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.
An All-Night Wrestling Match where the invisible became visible
What happens to Jacob that night is highly instructive for us as we think about how someone comes to meet God and how God often works to change our lives.
I. JACOB’S VISIBLE WORLD.
He had just escaped the persecutions of his father-in-law, and was now expecting to meet with a fiercer enemy in his brother.
II. JACOB’S INVISIBLE WORLD.
What a different scene is presented to him when his spiritual eye is opened, and God permits him to see those invisible forces which were engaged on his side.
We are told that “the angels of God met him.” He was weak to all human appearance; but he was really strong, for God’s host had come to deliver him from any host of men that might oppose.
God needs to bring us to the end of our own strength to find His.
To be alone with Christ is the only way to arrive at a true knowledge of ourselves and our ways.
We need to be alone with God
Gen 32:23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day
The Result of the Wrestling
A New Identity.
1. One result is a changed name.—
And what is he compelled to answer? “I am Jacob”—a liar, a supplanter, a deceiver!
2. But a changed name means a changed man.—The “Supplanter” becomes the “Prince.” He has a new name because he has a new nature.
3. There is no more confidence in the flesh.—“As the sun rose upon him, he halted on his thigh.”
Like St. Paul, his “strength is made perfect in weakness.” The result of Peniel is not elation; it is contrition.
Limping is the Way
His limp will be a perpetual reminder of God’s blessing in his life. He’ll be forever crippled and forever blessed.
It begs the question for us, would we rather limp through life with God’s blessing or skip through life without it?
We like Jacob need to see God Face to Face
Gen 32:23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
Gen 32:24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Gen 32:25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
Gen 32:26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Gen 32:27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Gen 32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Jesus Came to Give Us the Blessing of God
Maybe you’re like Chuck Colson and Jacob and find yourself alone and afraid in the darkness of night, with a fearful and uncertain future in front of you.
Maybe you’ve spent your whole life searching and grasping for a blessing only to be left confused and empty and with an aching heart.
Maybe you’re doing all you can to minimize your pain when it’s the very place God wants you to enter so that you can meet him.
Plainly that God often breaks us in order to bless us and that his blessing is for the honest and self-aware, that he blesses the broken.
