The Crowning Vision
George H. Morrison
1 John 3:2
Whether we shall see God as He is, is a question that has been often agitated in the schools. No man has seen God at any time (John 1:18). That we shall know Him with a knowledge intimate and satisfying is the scriptural hope which we all cherish. God so interpenetrates all heaven that to be in heaven is to be in God. But whether we shall see Him face to face and have an immediate vision of His being is a question on which men have reverently differed. Even the seraphim around the throne veil their faces with their wings before Him. These mighty creatures, the bodyguard of heaven, cannot brook the glory of the Lord. And so it has been reverently questioned whether it will ever be possible for mankind to see a glory which they cannot bear.
But if God, in His essential being, may be forever shrouded from our human gaze, it is not so with the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is one thing clear upon the page of Scripture, it is that when the believer wakes in glory he shall behold his Savior face to face. Now we see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12); we are like men beholding in a mirror. We walk by faith, or we strive to walk by faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). But when earth retires and we awake in heaven, faith shall be perfected in sight; and then we shall see Him as He is. Eye has not seen and ear has never heard the things that God has prepared for them that love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). That is the faith in which the saints have lived, and it is in such a faith that they have died. And of all the things that God has so prepared there shall be nothing half so wonderful or satisfying as the immediate vision of our Savior.
I should like to say in passing that these words of John are to be taken in their deepest sense. We shall see Him as He is. Our first thought would be to take these words as a vivid contrast to what our Savior was. Now we see Him as He was; then we shall see Him ...
George H. Morrison
1 John 3:2
Whether we shall see God as He is, is a question that has been often agitated in the schools. No man has seen God at any time (John 1:18). That we shall know Him with a knowledge intimate and satisfying is the scriptural hope which we all cherish. God so interpenetrates all heaven that to be in heaven is to be in God. But whether we shall see Him face to face and have an immediate vision of His being is a question on which men have reverently differed. Even the seraphim around the throne veil their faces with their wings before Him. These mighty creatures, the bodyguard of heaven, cannot brook the glory of the Lord. And so it has been reverently questioned whether it will ever be possible for mankind to see a glory which they cannot bear.
But if God, in His essential being, may be forever shrouded from our human gaze, it is not so with the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is one thing clear upon the page of Scripture, it is that when the believer wakes in glory he shall behold his Savior face to face. Now we see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12); we are like men beholding in a mirror. We walk by faith, or we strive to walk by faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). But when earth retires and we awake in heaven, faith shall be perfected in sight; and then we shall see Him as He is. Eye has not seen and ear has never heard the things that God has prepared for them that love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). That is the faith in which the saints have lived, and it is in such a faith that they have died. And of all the things that God has so prepared there shall be nothing half so wonderful or satisfying as the immediate vision of our Savior.
I should like to say in passing that these words of John are to be taken in their deepest sense. We shall see Him as He is. Our first thought would be to take these words as a vivid contrast to what our Savior was. Now we see Him as He was; then we shall see Him ...
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