“His servants will worship him, and they will see his face” (Rev. 22:4, NET).
At the close of the canon of Scripture, the picture of the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem brings into focus the resolution of the entire story of God’s redemption of sinful man. This story began in a temple-garden where man walked with God. That is once again the reality portrayed at the end of the story. Human sin destroyed that reality, for God’s presence could not tolerate sin, but God provided a solution.
God’s Solution
One could say that the Bible is, collectively, God’s revealed solution to this seeming “problem” for Him: how could the one, holy, eternal God ever allow sinful man back into His perfect Presence? This is why Jesus says that all the Law and Prophets and Psalms are about Him (Luke 24:44; John 5:39). Jesus—the God-Man—is the solution.
There is one feature of the storyline throughout this one chronicle of redemption. And it must be understood as it is threaded between the covenants and individual books of Scripture. It is the notion of God’s dwelling with man. Just prior to Revelation 22, we see where this all ends: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Rev. 21:3).
Each of the components of that statement—God dwelling with human beings, that they will be His people, and the implication that He is with them as their God—can be studied throughout the pages of Scripture (try it!). This is a return to the paradise of Eden which had been lost. The story of the gospel is the revelation of God’s covenant with man for salvation and reconciliation: that God would come to us in our sinful nature and make a way of atonement for that sin and resurrection from death.
The Beauty of Grace
Sometimes we can struggle with how great this news truly is. This is imputed righteousness and innocence from a guilty eternal verdict, yes—but it comes with more, and the news is better than we could have dreamed. God is granting us adoption into the inheritance of Christ, with all the rights and privileges therein. God is granting us participation in His eternal life, and that means the eternal benefit of His full presence. Moses himself was told in Exodus 33:20 that he was forbidden from seeing God’s face, because sinful man cannot see Him and survive. But as sinful men and women with faith in Jesus, He has put on us the pure “fine clothing” of His righteousness (Zech. 3:4), making us alive together with Him and raising us up with Him (Eph. 2:4–6). Our sin is taken away, and we will behold the Almighty forever, as He is. All redeemed sinners can make a claim relating to the One God which neither Moses nor Isaiah could fathom before Christ was revealed: they will see His face.
We will behold God in His fullness—the full Presence, the divine Glory.
We will witness and partake in the full splendor of God! We will walk with Him in a garden city beyond what we can conceive in the word “paradise.” He will be the light and life, and we will be with Him forever.
Who You Really Are
If you are saved by His grace through faith in Christ Jesus, this is the truest thing about you: you will be with the eternal God forever. There is nothing more real in your life now than that secure eternal reality. You will see His face.
Do you weep with joy at this guarantee? Consider the most jaw-dropping scenery you’ve ever encountered; the purest laughter with good friends you’ve ever enjoyed; the most intimate love and acceptance you’ve ever received; the most soul-stirring and beautiful music you’ve ever heard—now consider that these are only a tiny taste of the joys to be had in the One by whom these things were created.
My hope is that the words of Revelation 21:3 and 22:4 will stir anew our fervor for eternity. The reality portrayed in these verses is the true result of the task Jesus finished in His ministry on earth. It is the chief end of man toward which God has moved all of history (so agrees the first answer of the Westminster Catechism).
If our thoughts of God will come ever closer toward the truth of Him as His revealed Word portrays Him, we will more rightly revere and desire His glorious presence. And if our thoughts of Him are closer to reality, our thoughts of ourselves will move closer to the truth as well—and we will grow in our affection for the God who would come to take our place, bearing the punishment for sin, and bring us into life with Him. And if our hearts and minds are so moved and stirred, led by the Spirit of God, and if we gaze toward an eternity in which we will see the face of God, the roots of our hearts will be shaken loose from worldly desires. For we will know and desire what is coming, and we will gladly give our lives that others may possess it.
Jordan Wilbanks
Jordan Wilbanks serves as the Director of Church Partnerships at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. He also oversees The Timothy Track, a church-based mentorship program for residential MDiv students.
