Seeing God

By Ward Fenley

    This is a short article proving that seeing Christ or God has to do with the status of those who are believers in the Gospel.

Psalms 67:1-2 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. {2} That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

    This is a prophetic Psalm concerning the Messianic kingdom. Notice that God's face shines IN ORDER TO make His way known upon the earth and His SAVING health known among all nations:

First we must recognize that one aspect of this must BEGIN to take place (God shining His face) before the other (revelation of His saving health). The question is, has God's saving health (His way) been made known among all nations?

Romans 16:25-26 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, {26} But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

Is this Gospel really salvation?

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Is this salvation really a revelation of God's saving health?

Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Having the righteousness of God is having His saving health, or having the Gospel (Christ crucified), which Paul said was "made known among all nations."

The Psalmist says, "that Thy WAY may be known among the earth." What is this WAY? Futurists are very quick to identify Jesus Christ as the WAY the truth and the life, with which we agree:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Psalms 25:8-9 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. {9} The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
Hebrews 10:19-20 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, {20} By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

We see that not only has this saving health been revealed, the Way has also been revealed.

Now we must deal with the issue of SEEING His face, which CLEARLY (according to the Psalmist) would take place at the time of the revelation of the Way of God and His saving health. The Psalmist says:

Psalms 67:1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

As a true believer in sovereign grace, I would be negligent to not point out the fact that the Psalmist was a STAUNCH believer in sovereign and irresistible grace when he says, "CAUSE His face to shine upon us." This effective working of God's power is seen elsewhere in relation to the Messianic period:

Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
Jeremiah 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Of course rivers (Christ, the living waters), straight way (Christ, the Way), the HOUSE of God (the church, the Temple), are all synonymous with Jesus Christ. This Messianic time would be a time when God would do the impossible-bring forth the salvation of helpless sinners, previously just a prediction, but under the New Covenant a reality:

Romans 4:13-25 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. {14} For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: {15} Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. {16} Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, {17} (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. {18} Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. {19} And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: {20} He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; {21} And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. {22} And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. {23} Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; {24} But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; {25} Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Concerning the "shining of His face" upon us, here is a passage that clearly teaches that the face of God was becoming clearer and clearer as the first-century church was coming to its maturity into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The first-century church was in the process of "being changed" (NKJV) into the New Covenant image of Christ, out of the Old Covenant glory, hence from glory (OC) to glory (NC). Notice that they were "WITH OPEN FACE BEHOLDING as in a glass the GLORY of the Lord" :

Psalms 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

This is very likely the passage to which Paul was referring.

Paul addresses this subject even further in the next chapter of 2 Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

As they grew closer and closer to the fullness of the stature of Christ, their "SEEING" became clearer and clearer. This seeing was through the Gospel, which cannot be referring to a physical seeing, but a spiritual seeing:

Romans 15:20-21 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation: {21} But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

Even in the Gospel of John this aspect of spiritual seeing is addressed in relation to the rejection of the Gospel:

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The futurists sing the song, "Open our eyes, Lord, we want to SEE Jesus; to reach out and TOUCH Him and say that we love Him. Open our EARS Lord, and help us to LISTEN; open our EYES Lord, we want to SEE Jesus" etc. What do they mean by "TOUCHING, SEEING, LISTENING, EARS, EYES" etc.? We believe that the kingdom of God is NOT meat and drink, nor (I might add) flesh, eyes, ears, etc. but rather, the kingdom of God is Christ in us, something the first-century saints did not quite have:

Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

They were WAITING for the consummation of the HOPE of righteousness:

Galatians 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

The Spirit had begun the work of changing them into the righteousness of Christ:

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Not to get too detailed, but the verb 'perform' is in the future active indicative tense implying that Paul was telling these first-century believers POST-PENTECOST that the SPIRIT would still be doing a covenantally transforming work PRIOR to the return of Christ to indwell them.

This was the glorious hope of all believers prior to Christ's presence at the destruction of the Temple:

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {15} Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, {16} That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; {17} That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; {19} And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

This filling was IN THE PROCESS of taking place:

Ephesians 1:22-23 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, {23} Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth (present tense, lit. "IS FILLING") all in all.

The glorious hope of these believers was to have their Husband come and have intercourse with them, His bride, His wife. Christ was her Desire, her tree of Life:

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Many are still waiting for some physical sight of Christ or tree of life, but to those whom God has given sight, our vision is clear and it is sweet:

Proverbs 13:19 The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul...

May this strengthen you and give you courage as you deny the fleshly views of physical resurrection and proclaim the glories of the light and face of Jesus Christ and your life with Him. Believe Him, if you are in Him you lack NOTHING:

2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

For the glory and kingdom of Christ,

Ward Fenley

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