“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:4,5).
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, GOD IS MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR HUMAN BEINGS TO HAVE AGAIN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM THAT WAS LOST IN THE FALL. Contrary to what the tempter had promised, Adam and Eve found that asserting their independence from God’s will did not gain them a knowledge equal to God’s. Instead, they found themselves driven from God’s presence and cut off from what knowledge they had previously enjoyed. Soon they and their descendants had lost all but a fading memory of the face-to-face knowledge of God that Eden had provided.
But although the Fall resulted in the plunging of the human race into spiritual and moral darkness, God began almost immediately to re-enlighten the world concerning Himself. Little by little, and in various ways, God began to reveal Himself. This process of progressive revelation stretched over many centuries, until finally it was time for God to take upon Himself the form of flesh and blood and reveal Himself to the world in the person of Jesus Christ (Galatians 4:4; Colossians 1:15).
The writer of Hebrews said, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1,2). As God Incarnate, Jesus Christ is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). The apostle John wrote, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). And Jesus Himself said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Through Christ we can come to know God.
Yet even in Christ, it is still not possible for us right now to see and know God as Adam and Eve did. But Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). The hope of Christianity is that, through Christ, what was lost in the Fall can actually be regained. The time comes when those who have truly sought God “shall see His face” (Revelation 22:4).
“Today I am one day nearer home than ever before. One day nearer the dawning when the fog will lift, mysteries clear, and all question marks straighten up into exclamation points! I shall see the King!” (Vance Havner).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
