Face to Face

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. ”

Would you like to see God face to face? Does that prospect scare you? It should . What does the Face of God look like, do you think? Will it look very old; ancient; wise; angry; disappointed and judgmental; loving and merciful; intensely beautiful; or just plain overwhelming? Do you want to see the Face of God? How can you do this, knowing what He told Moses:

One day Moses asked God that he might see His glory. God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee.” But God added : “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” So God let Moses stand in a cleft of a rock and He covered Moses with His hand while His glory passed by. Then He removed His hand and Moses saw God's back, but not His Face. Exodus 33:18-23 God's Face is something a man may not see and still live.

Isaiah had a vision of God's heavenly throne room, with angels worshiping Him. The prophet fell down in terror, crying: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5 But he didn't claim to have seen God's Face.

Others saw a face, but it was the face of an angel. Jacob wrestled all night with one who seemed to be a man, but he proved to be supernatural. It was an encounter with God, because He had sent the angel with His purpose and power, so Jacob called the place Peniel and said: “ for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Genesis 32:24-32 Gideon, the Judge, also encountered and angel who called him to deliver Israel. The angel received his sacrifice by fire, and “when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom ,” God is peace . Judges 6:21-24

But people have always rightly shied away from looking God in the Face, even if they had the chance to see Him in this way. Ezra prayed a great prayer of repentance for Israel beginning by saying: “ O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. ” Ezra 9:6 Because of man's sins, God has often hidden His Face from His people, which means that He took His blessing and protection away and let them feel abandoned. To come face to face with God means having nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, nothing evil between you and the Lord.

St. Paul wrote the chapter on love in 1 Corinthians as an instruction on the very nature of God as well as a kind of rebuke to this troublesome church against the pride and the misunderstanding of spiritual gifts. Various claims were being made for individuals in that church on account of their spiritual gifts. He trumped the entire subject by saying: “But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.” 1 Cor. 12:31 Then he creates a proposition: “If I should speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-3 Just having spiritual gifts is not what makes you godly.

St. John in his great Epistle expands the subject: “Let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8 To love God is to begin to know Him. God is love , therefore love is the very nature of God and love makes us like Him.

This is not just any kind of love. Both John and Paul use the Greek term: Agape , meaning a selfless, benevolent and charitable kind of love. Agape is the love God has toward us. His is not a greedy or needful kind of love, nor is it romantic love, or the love we have for ice cream or excitement. Agape love is a godly love, a love that sacrifices. This love is how God loved the world so to give His Son to save us . This is how we must love God with all our hearts and souls and minds , and how we must love our neighbor as ourselves . This is how Jesus questioned St. Peter whether Peter loved Jesus, and then commanded him to “Feed my sheep.” This is a tough, unconditional, generous love. This is Christian love. This love is what God is about.

This love existed before any creature of God, because the Father, Son and Holy Ghost shared in this love for and with each other in an eternity without beginning. The love within God spilled over, as it were, giving shape and substance to a creation filled with His light.

In order for us to be able to see God's face, therefore, we have to love Him . We have to become loving in our very nature toward others. Jesus even commanded us to love our enemies. That pretty well completes a picture of love, but one more thing is missing.

Jesus' supreme achievement of love was dying on the cross for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 Mel Gibson is making motion picture history this week in the release of his film “ The Passion .” He depicts Christ's sacrifice on the cross in more graphic detail and realism than anyone has ever done on the screen. This film has drawn more fire from the Hollywood crowd, more resentment, more refusal to circulate and promote it than any major movie, and why? God's love is shown in Christ's poignant willingness to die for you and me. Mr. Gibson will probably make his investment back and then some, but that will be God's gift to him. His persecution may be the best thing that ever happened to this screen star. It unites him with Christ's loving sacrifice better than a hundred prayers.

God's love means a cross. There is one for each of us. We bear our crosses because of love. Dying to ourselves, giving up our lives for Christ, doing it only for love, in a pure outpouring of God's love for all, we may see God face to face and not fear.

Agape love is patient, kind, generous, humble, simple, unselfish, and unsuspicious. This love values truth, bears up under great burdens, inspires faith and hope, and passes the test of time. That is the last feature of our crosses: time . This love never fails. All other things will fall away. Even this earth shall come to an end. But the love that is of God never stops, never fails, but always grows. All the other spiritual gifts may fade away and cease to hold importance. But the love God gives us, the love we give back to Him, and in His Name to one another, that love becomes all.

What little we can perceive of the nature and will of God is only a sketch, only our crude idea of Who this great God of ours really is. He has revealed Himself to us as much as we need, but the greater part of His goodness has been hidden from us, as it was from Moses in the cleft of the rock. We couldn't bear it, and the knowledge of His entire nature would judge us as well—we would be responsible for what we beheld and have to come up to that level of perfection or else die. But this partial knowledge, this imperfect understanding that is common to all Christians and to every church is only a temporary handicap . We see these things as through a mirror, dimly seeing an outline, a shape, a little of it here and there.

To look upon the face of the sun in the sky may blind you. At a solar eclipse you have to look at a reflection or watch it through heavily tinted film or else have your retina permanently burned. God's face is so much brighter than the sun, how will our eyes ever adjust?

In that day, we will be transformed. The earthly gifts we had will pass into our former pride and accomplishments. None of that will stay. But the love we hold toward God and His creatures will make up the greater part of who we become. That love sees clearly and can look upon the face of our God without blinking, without shame, without fear, without damaging us. And in that look we shall know Him fully, even like He knows us right now. Face to face : we shall see God and live. The key to that vision is true and uncompromised love.

But how can we get ready for that test? How can we come to know these things? St. Paul, again writing to his Corinthian church, said: “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.” 2 Cor. 4:6 Jesus is, as in all things, the way to know God. The glory that was His from the beginning we can see in His Face. It is a human face, but His eternal and divine glory is there as well. God made Himself a man so we might know love in this new and wonderful way. Jesus is God's love turned into a human face. His is the face of love turned toward you and me. We can look upon His Face and not flinch or look away in terror.

Would you like to see the face of God? Look upon Jesus and see the Face of love. Then become that face yourself, the face of love, the face God loves.

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