Nancy Guthrie
“I can only imagine what my eyes will see when your face is before me” We cannot capture but can only imagine what it will be like. But do we imagine? Do we consider what it will be like to see Jesus face-to-face?
The very purpose for which we were made is to behold God in the fully human face of Jesus Christ!
The promise of eternal life was held forth in the garden in the Tree of Life, that eternal life beholding God face to face. But Eve had a beholding problem. She looked at what seemed good but brought only misery. And we too often pay attention to and behold other things or people and then wonder why we are unhappy.
We have a beholding problem. “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.” (Psalm 119:37) We must keep our eyes fixed on Christ.
Adam and Eve were given a promise on which to fix their gaze before they were ejected from the garden – a vision they beheld by faith, that one of their offspring would crush the head of the serpent. And all through Scripture we see how God is working out salvation for us in the offspring of the woman through the history of His people.
Behold Christ when YHWH passes between the bloody covenant sacrifices while Abraham was in a deep sleep. He takes upon Himself all the curses of covenant breakers (us).
Behold Christ in the fiery bush that brought people out of bondage and to the fiery mountain to give them the law of the covenant people. There they saw the God of Israel on the mountain, but not His face. And they did not die! They saw a glimpse of God’s eternal purpose to bring us to Himself to enjoy a covenant meal. They saw God clearly but not exhaustively or permanently. There is a day yet to come, when all the people will be with God together (not just representatives).
Moses asks to see God face to face and God grants him to see His back – the radiance of His glory. And only Moses could see Him.
How do we behold God in the midst of the distractions and cares and anxieties of life? Behold Christ in the Psalms of David such as Psalm 27 – when someone is trying to kill me, when I am trapped, when I am abandoned by those I love, when I am betrayed…he reminds himself to gaze upon YHWH Who is his light and salvation. What does he pray for in the midst of trouble? Not for deliverance – he is saved! – but to be with God and to see Him. His beholding turns him from his troubles to His God. Verse 8 “Your face, YHWH, do I seek!” The beauty of God’s face is the stronghold, the goodness, the finished work of God’s son.
But David also had a beholding problem – the troubles he brought upon his house came from beholding another man’s wife and desiring that which was forbidden to him. So we keep waiting for that offspring!
Isaiah’s call – God’s people have turned away from looking at God, but Isaiah sees YHWH high and lifted up, the train of His robe filled the heavenly temple, and Isaiah sees that he himself is lowly and undeserving to be in God’s presence. Behold Christ in the glowing ember from the altar of atonement that takes away Isaiah’s guilt! Grace gave Isaiah hope in the midst of the apostasy of God’s people. And he begins proclaiming to them what God will do to reveal the glory to all flesh (Isaiah 40:1-5)
But the time of the OT ends without this happening, until we come to the gospel of Mark. Mark tells us that this has now happened!!! And John tells us that he personally beheld the glory of God. He and Peter and James saw him on the mountain and they were terrified, but they also wanted to stay and behold him longer.
And finally Jesus says that his hour has come to be glorified and rather than everyone seeing what John, Peter, and James saw – and what they saw instead is what Isaiah saw, that he was disfigured and marred and afflicted for our salvation.
And then he was taken up to heaven in the clouds so that the Spirit could come and give us eyes to see Jesus. For now we behold him as in a mirror dimly, but in the future we will see him face to face! And as we shine the light of Christ on the Old Testament we see Him throughout all of history. The shadows flee away and we see Jesus! Behold Christ in all His glory in the Bible and rejoice at what our eyes see now as we long ever more to see him when we finally come home. Behold Christ!
Behold Christ!
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