The Image of
the invisible God
In 2 Corinthians 4:4
and Colossians 1:15 we find Christ referred to by Paul as “the Image of the
invisible God.” Paul’s
use of this expression was likely informed by the truth concerning mankind that
we find first revealed in Genesis 1:26-27:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in
our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of
the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
God created humankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.
See also Genesis 9:6, where we find
this truth re-affirmed by God.
Paul affirmed this fundamental truth
about humanity when, in 1 Corinthians 11:7, he referred to man as ”being inherently the
image and glory of God.”[1] It’s evident that Paul considered this a basic truth, and took it for granted (for Paul only
appealed to it in 1 Cor. 11:7 in order to support another point he was making
about men and women). Just as the first humans were created in God’s image, so
their descendants also have this honorable, God-given status. Being the image
of God is inseparable from being human.
Now, we know that Christ is the
perfect version and ideal example of what every human is by virtue of his or
her created nature. Thus, if “being inherently the image and glory of God” is
true of those who have “sinned and are wanting of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23),
how much more is it true for the only man who remained sinless and perfectly
obedient to God his entire life? Being “inherently the image and glory of God”
is a status and role that is perfectly realized and manifested in Christ.
One passage outside of
Paul’s letters that I believe is relevant to our understanding of the
expression “the Image of the invisible God is John 1:17-18. In these verses we
read the following:
“For the law
through Moses was given; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. God no
one has ever seen. The only-begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He
unfolds Him.”
Note the similarities
between the expression “the Image of the invisible God” and what John wrote in
v. 18, above. Whereas Paul referred to the Father as “the invisible God” in the
verses above, John wrote that “no one has ever seen” God (John later expressed
the same idea when he wrote, “No one has ever gazed
upon God”; see 1 John 4:12; cf. v. 20). And whereas Paul referred to
Christ as God’s “Image,” John tells us that Christ “unfolds” the Father.
When John wrote that
Christ “unfolds [the Father],” I believe he was referring to what is presently the case as a result of
Christ’s past actions while he was on
the earth. In John 12:45 we read that Jesus declared the following: ”He who is beholding Me is beholding Him Who sends Me” (John 12:45). In
other words, to behold Christ is to behold the divine person whom Christ
referred to later as “My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). This
isn’t because Christ is the same divine being as his God and Father (for
Christ – being the Son of God – is not his own Father or his own God); rather,
it’s because Christ represents the being who is his God and Father.
In John 14:8-9 we find Jesus
re-affirming this truth in response to Philip’s request:
Philip is saying to Him, “Lord, show
us the Father, and it is sufficing us.” Jesus is saying to him, “So much
time I am with you, and you do not know Me, Philip! He who has seen Me
has seen the Father, and how are you saying, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Because of what Christ
said and did in the past as God’s ideal representative, we can know what God is
like (despite that fact that “no one has ever seen” the Father). In fact, I’m
convinced that, of all the things that Christ did while he was on the earth
(i.e., when Christ was being seen by mankind), the one act that most clearly
and definitively revealed the Father to us was Christ’s death. As God’s
representative, Christ’s death for our sakes can thus be seen as revealing the
depth of God’s love for sinners and his commitment to saving them (hence Paul
could write in Rom. 5:8 that “God is commending this
love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our
sakes”).
It is, I believe, for
this reason that Paul twice referred to Christ as “the
Image of the invisible God.” Knowing that Christ is the Image of the
invisible God is a present benefit to the believer, for knowing this means knowing that,
when Christ died for us, he did so as God’s perfect representative. And this
fact alone would’ve made the truth of Christ’s being “the Image of the
invisible God” a fact worth mentioning by Paul.
Having considered what
Paul had in mind when he referred to Christ as “the Image of the invisible
God,” let’s now consider what, exactly, it means for the Father to be “the
invisible God.” In addition to Paul’s two uses of the expression “the invisible
God,” there are two other verses in the Greek Scriptures in which the Father is
referred to as invisible (1 Tim. 1:17 and Heb. 11:27). The Greek word
translated “invisible” in each of these verses is aor’aton. The translated
elements of this word (as provided in the CLNT’s Greek-English Keyword
Concordance) are “UN-SEEN.” Paul used the same word when he referred to created
beings that are “in the heavens and on the earth, the
visible and the invisible” (Col. 1:16).
Now, it’s reasonable to
believe that the created beings referred to as “the visible” in Col. 1:16 are
simply created beings that humans on earth are able to see (and in fact have
seen). In contrast, the created beings referred to as “the invisible” are those
that humans are not able to see (and haven’t seen). They need not, however, be
understood as invisible in an absolute
sense. The beings referred to as “the invisible” are not, for example, invisible
to God. Nor are they necessarily invisible to each other (whatever, and wherever,
they happen to be). In other words, the invisibility of the created beings
referred to as “the invisible” in this verse should not be considered absolute.
But what about God? Is
his invisibility absolute, or relative? It’s reasonable to conclude that God is
invisible to everyone whom John had in mind when he wrote, “God no one has ever
seen,” and “No one has ever gazed upon God.” We can further conclude that both
John and Paul would’ve included mankind (at least, earth-dwelling, mortal mankind) among those to whom God is invisible,
and who have never seen/gazed upon God. But will the Father always be
invisible to mankind? And are there any beings to whom the Father isn’t
invisible at this time?
The remainder of this
study will be devoted to trying to answer these questions in light of what
Scripture has revealed.
Our Father in heaven
Scripture is clear that
God’s presence is not limited or confined to a single location. For example, in
1 Kings 8:27 we read that Solomon declared the following:
“But
will God indeed dwell
on the earth? Behold, heaven and
the highest heaven cannot
contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”
In Psalm
139:7-10, David affirmed the truth that there is nowhere one can go where God’s
spirit and presence is not:
“Where shall I go from your spirit? Or
where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are
there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand
shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
We find the truth of
God’s omnipresence affirmed in Jeremiah 23:23-24 as well:
“Am I a God at hand,” declares Yahweh, “and not a God far
away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot
see him? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?”
Paul, too, affirmed this
truth when he declared, “…not far from each one of us
is [God] inherent, for in him we are living and moving and are” (Acts
17:28).
It can be reasonably concluded, then, that there is
a real sense in which God is present everywhere. And as David makes clear in
Psalm 139:7-19, it is by means of his spirit that he has this ability (I’ll
have more to say about God’s spirit a little later).
Although God’s spirit enables him to be present in
every location at the same time, it’s also revealed in Scripture that there is
a special and unique way in which God is located in heaven (or “in the heavens”).
The following are just a few examples from Scripture in which this truth is
affirmed (and it should be noted that I’ve left out the many occurrences of when
God is referred to as “the God of heaven”):
1 Kings
8:30
“Listen to
the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray
toward this place; hear in heaven your dwelling
place; hear and forgive.”
Psalm 115:3
“Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.”
Psalm
123:1
“To you I
lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned
in the heavens!”
Ecclesiastes
5:2
“Be not
rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is
in heaven and you are
on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”
Lamentations 3:41
“Let us
lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven…”
Daniel
2:28
“...but there is a God in heaven who
reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in
the latter days.”
Matthew 18:10
“See that you should not be despising one of these
little ones, for I am saying to you that their messengers in the heavens are
continually observing the face of My
Father Who is in the heavens.”
Matthew
23:9
“…and ye
may not call any man your father on
the earth, for one is your Father, who is in the heavens.”
Matthew
23:22
“And
whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits
upon it.”
John 20:17
Jesus said
to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go
to my brothers and say to them, ‘I
am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Hebrews 8:1
“…we have
such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in heaven…”
Hebrews 9:24
“For Christ
entered not into holy places made by hands, representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to be disclosed to the face of God for our sakes.”
If we understand this
repeated affirmation of where the Father is located in a simple and
straight-forward way, we can conclude that God is uniquely present in heaven.
That is, he’s present in heaven in a way that he is not present anywhere else. In fact, Christ referred to God as his “Father who is in the
heavens” approximately twenty times in Matthew’s Account alone. It was also
toward heaven that Christ would lift his eyes when he prayed to God (Mark 7:34;
Luke 9:16; John 17:1). Thus, while he was on the earth, Christ evidently
believed that God is present in heaven in a unique and special sense in which
he is not present anywhere else (and I believe that, ever since the time of his
ascension, Christ has known this firsthand).
Another passage that
supports the view that God has a unique, localized presence in heaven is 1
Timothy 6:13-16. Here is how this passage reads in the CLNT:
I am charging you
in the sight of God, Who is vivifying all, and of Jesus Christ, Who testifies
in the ideal avowal before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this precept
unspotted, irreprehensible, unto the advent of our Lord, Christ Jesus, which,
to its own eras, the happy and only Potentate will be showing: He is King of
kings and Lord of lords, Who alone has immortality, making His home in light inaccessible, Whom not one of mankind
perceived nor can be perceiving, to Whom be honor and might eonian! Amen!
It
should be noted that A.E. Knoch understood verses 15-16 as a reference to Jesus
Christ rather than to the Father. Although I believe that a better case can be
made for the view that Paul had the Father in view in 1 Tim. 6:15-16 (see
below), Knock’s view is not inconsistent with the overall position being
defended in this study. In fact, Knoch’s view can be seen as actually
supporting it. For if Paul was referring to Christ when he wrote, “Whom not one
of mankind perceived nor can be perceiving,” then this can only be true of
Christ in a relative sense. For not only is it the case that Christ was perceived by humans in
the past, but we know that he’s going to be
perceived by humans in the future as well (first by the saints who will
meet him in the air [1 Thess. 4:16-17], and then by those on the earth when
he’s “seen a second time” [Heb. 9:28]). And if Christ – who isn’t invisible in
an absolute sense – could, nevertheless, be referred to as one whom “not
one of mankind…can be perceiving,” then there’s no good reason why God’s
inability to be seen couldn’t also be understood in a relative sense
(i.e., relative to mortal, earth-dwelling humans).
However, as noted earlier, I believe that a better
case can be made for the view that Paul was referring to the Father here. There’s no question that the grammar
used by Paul is consistent with the
view that Paul had the Father in view rather than Christ. There’s no
grammatical reason why the one described by Paul as “the happy and only Potentate”
can’t be understood as a reference to God (according to this view, it is God who
“will be showing” the advent of Christ when the time comes for Christ to be
manifested). It’s also in accord with the grammar to understand the rest of
verses 15-16 as a further description of God.
In
accord with this understanding of verses 15-16, we know that Christ – even
after he was vivified – has been perceived
by humans. We therefore have good reason to believe that the words, “whom not one of mankind perceived” don’t apply to Christ, but rather to the Father
alone. And if that’s the case, then the words “making His home in light inaccessible” provide
further support for the understanding that the Father is present in heaven in a
way that he is not present anywhere else (for the “light inaccessible” in which
God is “making His home” refers to a particular location).[2] Moreover, the
fact that Paul specified that it is those “of mankind” who haven’t perceived
God (and who cannot be perceiving God) can be understood as qualifying the
sense in which God is “invisible.”
But what more can be said concerning the nature
of the Father’s localized presence in heaven? Well, we know that it involves a
visible “glory”:
But he,
full of the holy spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the
glory of God, and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God.
And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:55-56
Evidently, the glory of
God seen by Stephen was a brilliant, radiating light (in accord with this
understanding of the glory of God referred to by Stephen, we read in Psalm
104:1 that Yahweh is “clothed with splendor and majesty, covering [himself] with
light as with a garment…”). But was the glory
seen by Stephen radiating from some visible form? I think Scripture
provides us with an affirmative answer. There are other verses that make it clear that the way in which the
Father is manifesting himself in heaven involves not only a throne, but the
visible, personal form of one who is sitting upon this throne:
“At once I was in the
Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one
seated on the throne. And
he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around
the throne was a
rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.” Rev. 4:2-3
Many
would consider what John described seeing in these verses as being nothing more
than a symbolic representation of God that does not correspond in any way to
reality. However, both Christ and the author of Hebrews also spoke of the
Father as sitting on a throne in heaven:
Matthew
23:22
“And
whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits
upon it.”
Hebrews 8:1
“…we have
such a high priest, one who is seated at the
right hand of the throne of
the Majesty in heaven…”
Hebrews
12:2
“Jesus…is
seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There would be no reason
for God to have a throne in heaven if he wasn’t assuming some kind of form that
is capable of sitting upon it (and the fact that Christ referred to his Father
as “him who sits upon” this throne in heaven
should, for the believer, settle the question as to whether the throne of God
in heaven is occupied).
Notice, especially, what
we read in Matthew 18:10 and Hebrews 9:24 concerning the Father’s face:
“See that you should not be despising one of these
little ones, for I am saying to you that their messengers in the heavens are continually observing the face of My Father Who is in the heavens.”
“For Christ
entered not into holy places made by hands, representations of the true, but into
heaven itself, now to be disclosed to
the face of God for our sakes.”
In light of these and
other verses, one could say that, although the Father is present everywhere by
his spirit, he is especially and personally present in heaven. I
say “personally present” because of the reference to God’s “face” in the above
verses. Elsewhere in Scripture, we find the word translated here as “face”
(prosopon) used to communicate the idea that’s denoted by our English word “personal”
(see, for example, Acts 13:24; 2 Cor. 5:12; 10:1). In light of this usage, one
could validly refer to the presence of God in heaven (where his face is being
seen) as his personal presence. For, although God can be said to be present
wherever his spirit is present (which is everywhere), God is not everywhere
manifesting himself in the unique way that we find referred to in the above
verses.
“God is spirit”
Earlier it was noted that God’s spirit enables him
to be present in every location. But what, exactly, is God’s spirit? In John
4:24 we read that Christ declared the following to a certain woman from Samaria:
”God is spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
As is
evident from the immediate context in which Christ declared these words, the
title “God” refers to the Father alone. Thus, the statement “God is spirit”
does not reveal who God is (the Father is who God is). Rather, this
statement reveals what God is. In other words, God isn’t spirit with
regard to his personal identity; he’s spirit with regard to his nature
or essence. Spirit is what makes God the kind of being that he is (and
is that which enables him to fill heaven and earth).
Now, it’s commonly believed that, because God is
spirit, he can’t be manifesting himself in heaven in a visible form. However, those
who raise this kind of objection are simply presuming to know what a being
whose nature is spirit is capable – or not capable – of doing.
We know that God is capable of speaking and being
heard. For example, we read that the Father spoke to his Son right after he
was baptized, and then again after Christ was transfigured (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). If
the Father – whose nature is spirit – can be heard by his creatures (by
manipulating air particles so as to produce sound waves that can be audibly
heard as spoken words by his creatures), then why couldn’t the Father assume a
visible form that can be seen by his creatures? Are we to believe that,
although God can speak and be heard, he absolutely cannot assume a
visible, localized form and directly interact with his creatures by means of
this visible form? Would this be an impossible feat for God? Is it somehow more
difficult for God to make himself seen by his creatures than it is for
him to be heard by his creatures?
Scripture indicates otherwise. In fact, on the very
occasion that we’re told the Father spoke the words that were heard at Jesus’
baptism, we read that the Father’s spirit was seen:
Matthew 3:16
Now, being baptized, Jesus straightway stepped up
from the water, and lo! opened up to Him were the heavens, and He perceived the spirit of God descending as if a dove, and coming
on Him.
Luke 3:21-22
Now it occurred, as all the people are baptized,
at Jesus also being baptized and praying, heaven is opened, and the holy spirit descends on Him, to
bodily perception as if a dove…
John 1:32 (cf. v. 33)
And John testifies, saying that “I have gazed upon the spirit,
descending as a dove out of heaven, and it remains on Him.”
Thus, the view that, because God is spirit (i.e.,
because God’s nature is spirit), he cannot make himself visible to his
creatures is not consistent with the fact that God can make his spirit visible
if/when he chooses to do so. Not only does the Father have the ability
to manifest himself in a visible form in some definite location (while
simultaneously retaining all of his divine attributes and remaining present
everywhere by his spirit), but Scripture indicates that this is precisely what
he’s doing.
Moreover, it should be kept in mind that created,
celestial beings are said to be “spirits” (Heb. 1:14; Eph. 2:2; 1 Pet. 3:19), and
yet we know that they aren’t invisible in an absolute sense. Although
they rarely make themselves visible to human beings, celestial beings can (and,
on occasion, do) manifest themselves to us. Moreover, it’s clear that
Jesus’ disciples didn’t think that a spirit was absolutely
invisible, for they mistakenly thought that Jesus, in his resurrected state, was
a spirit (Luke 24:36-37). Christ didn’t dispute their understanding that a
spirit could be seen; rather, he simply affirmed that “a spirit has not
flesh and bones,” according as his disciples beheld Christ as having. Thus, it
follows that, despite their human-like appearance (see, for example, Rev.
22:8-9), celestial beings are not comprised of flesh and bone, as Jesus
affirmed himself to be after his resurrection. And yet, they do have a
form which they can, on certain occasions, make visible to humans.
Thus, just as created spirits can appear to
humans in a visible form (and which, for all we know, is how they regularly
appear to each other as well), so I believe that scripture reveals that the
Father has a certain self-chosen form in which he is manifesting himself in
heaven to those who have access to his presence there. And, like the created
spirits of which we read in scripture, the form in which God is manifesting
himself to the celestial residents of heaven (including Christ himself) has a
likeness that resembles a human being.
“You
cannot see my face”
That God does, in
fact, have a visible form/appearance (including a face) – and that mortal,
sinful humans are simply unable to see it – is confirmed from a remarkable
(and, for many, perplexing) episode in the life of Moses. Before we examine Moses’
account of this event, however, let’s first consider how Yahweh had, prior to
this event, communicated with Moses. In Exodus 33:7-11 we’re told that, in the
tent of meeting, Yahweh would speak privately to Moses “face
to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
The expression “face to
face” does not imply that Moses’ interaction with Yahweh on these occasions
involved a visual manifestation or facial appearance of Yahweh (after all, one
who is blind can speak to someone “face to face”). Based on
certain verses from Deuteronomy, it’s evident that the expression “face to
face” is an idiom that refers to direct communication between two individuals. In
Deut. 4:12, 15 we read that Moses declared the following to the people of
Israel concerning the events that took place while he was on Mount Sinai:
“Then
Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of
words, but you saw no form—only a voice…So keep
your souls very carefully, since you did
not see any form on the day Yahweh spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of
the fire…”
And then in Deut. 5:4-5 we read that
Moses went on to describe this same encounter with Yahweh at the foot of Mount
Sinai as follows:
“Yahweh
spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire. I was standing
between Yahweh and you at that time, to declare to you the word of
Yahweh; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the
mountain.”
Based on what we read in the above
verses, it’s evident that Israel’s “face to face” encounter with Yahweh at Mount
Sinai did not involve a visible
manifestation of Yahweh. The expression “face to face” simply means that Yahweh
spoke to them directly (i.e., without the mediation of another). In other
words, when God communicated with the people of Israel at this time, he spoke
just as directly and plainly as he did after Christ was baptized (Matt. 3:17)
and when he was transfigured (Matt. 17:5).
Moreover, the
implication of these verses in which Yahweh is said to have spoken to people
“face to face” is that, on other occasions (perhaps on most other occasions),
he didn’t speak directly to people. Rather, he communicated with
people through an intermediary or representative. This means that, when we read
of Yahweh appearing to certain human beings in the Hebrew Scriptures – e.g., to
Hagar (Genesis 16:13), Abraham (Genesis 17:1-22; 18), Jacob (Genesis 32:24-30),
Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exodus
24:9-11), Gideon (Judges 6:22-23) and Manoah and his wife (Judges 13:22) – the
one referred to as “Yahweh” in the historical narrative was actually a
representative of Yahweh.
In support of this
understanding, let’s consider Hebrews 2:2-3. In these verses we read the
following:
“For if the
word spoken through messengers came to be confirmed, and every transgression
and disobedience obtained a fair reward, how shall we escape when neglecting a
salvation of such proportions…?”
The “word spoken through
messengers” is a reference to the law of Moses. That messengers were involved
in the giving of the law is further supported by the words of Stephen as
recorded in Acts 7. In v. 38, we read that the
one who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai was actually one of God’s messengers (the
same can be said for the being who spoke to Moses from out of the burning bush;
see Exodus 3:1-15 and compare with Acts 7:30). We go on to read in v. 53 that
Israel had received the law “as ordained by angels” (LSB) or “by decrees given
by angels” (NET). Paul confirmed this truth in Galatians 3:15, where he wrote
that the law was “prescribed through messengers” (CLNT).
But how do we know that
the messengers referred to in these verses were acting as representatives of
Yahweh? Answer: Because, in Exodus 19:20, we
read that “Yahweh descended to
the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.” We go on to read that “Moses
went up to Yahweh,” and that “Yahweh” began
to speak to him. In Deuteronomy 4:14 we read that Moses declared the following
to Israel:
”Moreover, at that same time Yahweh commanded me to teach you statutes and ordinances for
you to keep in the land which you are about to enter and possess.”
Since it was through the
instrumentality of God’s messengers that God gave the law to Israel, this can
only mean that the one referred to as “Yahweh” in verses such as Exodus 19:20
and Deuteronomy 4:14 was one of God’s messengers, acting and speaking on God’s
behalf. Evidently, then, a messenger of Yahweh
who has been authorized to speak and act on Yahweh’s behalf (and thus function
as Yahweh’s representatives/agents) could be referred to as “Yahweh” in
the historical narrative.[3]
Having considered two
different ways in which God communicated with humans in the past (i.e.,
directly, by means of his voice alone, and indirectly, by means of an angelic representative),
let’s now consider the event in the life of Moses to which I referred earlier.
In Exodus 33:15-23 we read the following:
And
Moses said to Yahweh, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring
us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found
favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with
us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on
the face of the earth?” And Yahweh said to Moses, “This very thing that
you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I
know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show
me your glory.” And Yahweh said, “I will make all my goodness pass before
you and will proclaim before you my name ‘Yahweh.’ And I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. But,”
he said, “you cannot see my face, for no human shall see me and live.” And
Yahweh said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by
I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take
away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
What God said
in response to Moses’ request to see his glory can help us understand what, exactly,
Moses was requesting (and what he wasn’t
requesting). When Moses asked God to show him his glory, he wasn’t asking God
to “merely” speak directly to him from some unseen point in space. Nor was
Moses asking God to show him (and to speak to him from out of the midst of) a
column of cloud or a column of fire. Nor was Moses asking God to show him a
bright light. No, what Moses wanted to see was God himself. That is, the glory
of God that Moses wanted to be shown was the very glory that emanated from the
visible form in which Yahweh manifests himself in heaven (i.e., the localized form that is implied in the
words, “the throne of
God and by him who sits upon it”). He wanted to see Yahweh as Yahweh appears to,
and interacts with, the celestial beings who (as we read in Matthew 18:10) are “continually observing the face of [Christ’s] Father Who is in the heavens.” Again,
this is evident from what Yahweh tells Moses that he would, and wouldn’t, be
able to see.
We go on to
read the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promise to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7, as follows:
So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose
early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him,
and took in his hand two tablets of stone. Then Yahweh descended in
a cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh. Yahweh passed
before him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh
God, who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping
steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the
fourth generation.”
Unlike Yahweh’s way of
communicating with Moses in the tent of meeting (and with the people of Israel
at the base of Mount Sinai), this unique encounter involved more than “merely”
the hearing of Yahweh’s voice. There was also a visible form associated with the voice that Moses heard when Yahweh
spoke the words quoted above. And the visible form in which Yahweh “descended
in a cloud” and “stood with [Moses]” was evidently human-like in appearance.
However, we also know that Moses was not merely interacting with a
representative of Yahweh at this time. We know this for at least two reasons:
1. Mortal humans are
able to see the faces of God’s representatives without dying (which is likely
one reason why God has chosen to communicate with people through
representatives instead of directly).
2. Sending a
representative to speak with Moses would not have been in accord with Moses’
request to see God’s glory (and the implication of what we read in the above
passages is that Yahweh granted Moses’ request to the extent that he was able
to do so –i.e., without it resulting in Moses’ death).
Apparently, this encounter with Yahweh went beyond the audible, “face to face”
interaction with Yahweh that we find described in Exodus
33:7-11 and Deut. 5:4-5 (and which, as we saw,
involved Yahweh directly speaking to people, rather than speaking through a
representative). Yahweh was present on this occasion in a way that Moses had
not yet experienced (and which, evidently, no human had experienced before).
Notice, also, how Yahweh equated seeing him with seeing his face
(here, again, are God’s words to Moses: “You cannot see my face, for no human shall see me and live.”). This is a significant point. When you look into
the face of someone, you’re seeing them in a truer sense than if you merely see
their back. A person’s face more fully reveals who they are and what they’re
like than any other part or aspect of them. It should, therefore, come as no
surprise that God would equate seeing him
with seeing his face.
Thus, when Moses saw God’s back,
there’s an important sense in which Moses didn’t actually see God. In order for
Moses to have seen or “gazed upon” God on this occasion (i.e., in the sense that God equated with seeing
him), Moses would’ve had to have seen God’s face. And this he was unable to do. Evidently, the very attempt to see God’s face would’ve resulted
in Moses’ death.
The
future eonian blessing of seeing God
As argued earlier, we have good
reason to believe that the Father is able to be seen by the immortal
inhabitants of heaven. But Scripture also gives us good reason to believe that
God will not always remain unseen by mankind on the earth. In Matthew 5:8 we
read the following:
“Happy are
the clean in heart, for they shall see God.”
Some may be inclined to
understand Christ’s promise here in light of what we read in John 12:45 and
14:9 (”He who is beholding Me is beholding Him
Who sends Me,” and “He who has seen Me
has seen the Father.”).
However, Christ’s promise that the clean in heart will see God can’t be
fulfilled by seeing Christ, for Christ was seen by both believers and
unbelievers alike during his earthly ministry (and Christ was just as much the
representative of the Father at that time as he will be in the future).
Something more must be meant by this promise than seeing Christ.
I believe that
Revelation 22:3-4 reveals when the promised blessing of seeing God will become
a reality for the saints among God’s covenant people:
“…and the
throne of God and of the Lambkin shall be in it. And His slaves shall be
offering divine service to Him. And they shall be seeing His face, and His name shall be
on their foreheads.”
Those who we’re told
will be “seeing His face” are those referred to as “His slaves” who “shall be
offering divine to Him,” and the One whose face they’ll be seeing is the same
One to whom they’ll be “offering divine service.” Grammatically, the pronoun “His”
could refer back to either “God” (i.e., the Father) or “the Lambkin” (i.e.,
Jesus Christ). It cannot, however, refer to both God and the Lambkin. And since
God is the one mentioned first, it would make more sense for him to be singled
out as the One whose “slaves” the saints are/will be, and whose “name shall be
on their foreheads.”
Conversely, it would
make little (if any) sense for Christ to be singled out here as the one whose
face the saints shall be seeing during the final eon. The very fact that this
promise is mentioned at all implies that it’s a new blessing that, up
until that point, had not yet been enjoyed by the saints among God’s
covenant people. But Christ’s face will, of course, have been seen by the
saints on various occasions throughout the preceding eon as well. Why would
John make it a point to say that the saints will be seeing Christ’s face during
the time of the new heavens and new earth when this will have been just as true
during the thousand-year reign?
Moreover, we’re told
that the one whose face the saints shall be seeing during this time is the same
person to whom the saints “shall be offering divine service.” The expression
translated “offering divine service” is an expression that, throughout the Greek
Scriptures, denotes worship of the only true God (i.e., the Father) alone, and
not his Son (who is represented as the “Lambkin” in Revelation). In fact, when
being tested by the Adversary, Christ himself affirmed that it is to the
Father alone that humans are to be “offering divine service” (Matt. 4:10).
Conclusion
In light of everything
said above, I think we can reasonably conclude the following: As is the case
with the invisibility of the created beings referred to by Paul in Colossians
1:16, the invisibility of God is relative
rather than absolute.
Although God cannot be seen by (and is thus invisible to) mortal, sinful
humans, he nevertheless has a personal form in which he is
manifesting himself in heaven to the immortal beings who have access to his presence
there (including Christ, who is presently seated at his right hand). And in the
final eon, he will be seen by those dwelling in new Jerusalem as well.
One implication of
this conclusion is that we who are members of the body of Christ have even more
to look forward to when we’re “at home with the Lord” than some have realized. For
the realm in which we will be at home with the Lord and enjoying our eonian allotment
is “inherent in the heavens” (Phil. 3:20; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1; Col. 1:5), where
Christ is presently seated at God’s right hand among the celestials (Eph. 1:20;
2:6-7). It is, therefore, my hope that this study will help further motivate
the saints to “be seeking that which is above, where Christ is, sitting at the
right hand of God,” and to “be disposed to that which is above, not to that on
the earth” (Col. 3:1-2).
[1] When Paul went on to write, “Yet the woman is the glory of the man” (v. 8), he wasn’t implying that women aren’t also “the image of God.” That would contradict the truth we find clearly affirmed in Genesis 1:26-27. The contrast Paul was making between men and women in 1 Cor. 11:7-8 is a contrast involving whose glory men and women are, and not a contrast involving who is, and who isn’t, the image of God (notice that Paul didn’t refer to women as “the image and glory of the man,” but only as “the glory of the man”). Thus, Paul’s denial that women are “the glory of God” was not a denial of the truth that both men and women are the image of God.
[2] If Paul was referring to the Father in 1 Tim. 6:15-16, then in what sense can it be said that God “alone has immortality?” Answer: God is the only one who has immortality inherently, as an essential/necessary attribute. Any other beings who are (or who will be) made immortal receive their immortality from God. God is the only one whose immortality is not derived from anyone else. Similarly, God was previously referred to as “the happy and only Potentate.” The word “potentate” (literally, “ABLER”) simply means “someone of power.” We read of others who are referred to as “potentates” elsewhere in Scripture (Luke 1:52; Acts 8:27), so the expression “only Potentate” must mean that God alone is Potentate in an absolute and non-derived sense.
Against
the view that the Father is being referred to as the one who “alone has
immortality,” some have asserted that being immortal implies that one was once
mortal (and that, for this reason, Christ must be in view). However, the word
“immortality” implies no such thing. Just as the word “incorruptible” doesn’t
imply that one was once corruptible
(for in Rom. 1:23 and 1 Tim. 1:17 the word is unquestionably applied to God),
so “immortal” doesn’t imply that one was once mortal. To be immortal simply means that one is incapable of dying
(and that one thus doesn’t have the attribute of being mortal). It’s true, of
course, that those who are presently mortal will
ultimately be made immortal (just as Christ – who was once mortal – was made
immortal when he was roused). However, whether or not one who is immortal was
once mortal cannot be determined from the meaning of the word “immortality”
itself; this must be determined from other considerations.
[3] It
should be kept in mind that the author of
Hebrews made a clear distinction between Christ and the celestial beings
referred to as the “messengers.” For example, it’s assumed by the author that
the various Messianic prophecies he quoted in chapter one did not have any
of the messengers of God in view (for this was the author’s point in quoting
them). We also know that God did not speak to the people of Israel through his
Son prior to the “last days” that began with the coming of Christ (Heb. 1:1).
We can, therefore, conclude that a “pre-existent Jesus Christ” was not
one of the messengers through whom God communicated with humans in the past. Moreover,
based
on what we go on to read in Deut. 18:15-19 (cf. Acts 3:22-23), we can further
conclude that, not only are Yahweh and Jesus Christ two different beings, but the
voice that the people of Israel heard at Horeb from the midst of the fire was
not the voice of a “pre-existent” Jesus Christ. It was the voice of God
himself.