Glorification; Seeing God Face-To-Face

  This morning I wanted to write on glory and glorification. However, before I studied, I was redirected; I was told to continue with the subject of “God’s Face.” It had not struck me that there is an association between God’s Face and glorification! Christians must see God’s Face to become glorified. The questions remain, “What is meant by “God’s Face” and what does “glorification” mean?

 I asked my pastor one day that last question: What is glorification? That man had a doctorate in theology but was somewhat doctrinal rather than spiritual. He replied, “It is glory.” He was well have answered, “I don’t know,” because I don’t believe he had seen God face to face! Now study the key verses:

KEY VERSES:

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

Hear, O Lord, when I (David) cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, “Seek ye my face;” my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. (Psalm 27:7-9)

 In the first of the key verses, David was looking forward to the day when he will be awakened from his sleep. Jesus likened death to sleep (John 11:11-14), and more forthrightly it is written: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).

  Since the body will return to the dust from which it came (Gen 3:19; Psalm 104:29), then the physical body shall be mixed with the earth.  That leaves two substances: (1) the soul and (2) the mind. What happens to the rest of our existence? “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecc 12:7). Our soul goes from whence it came. We know that God breathed life unto Adam and he became a living soul: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).

  Life is a combination of dust and spirit. With the Power of God, life was generated! Immediately Adam was given dominion over the animals (Gen 1:26). What man can do since they have souls is rational thinking: “I think, therefore I am.” (Rene’ Descartes). (Irrational thinking was introduced with the first sin. Descartes should have said, “I think irrationally, therefore I am NOT I Am!”)

It appears that when God combined the dust with His Spirit, that mankind was given mind as well! Before sin, man’s and woman’s minds were in harmony with God’s Mind. Soon there would be a disconnect, and chaos ensued!

  The point is that “death” is when the body is separating from the mind and spirit. Upon death, there are two possible existences: (1) iniquitous mind with the spirit of Satan, or (2) a righteous mind with the Spirit of God.

  When David is “awakened” he will have a righteous mind and his soul will be filled, not partially, but full of God’s Holy Spirit. He asked that when he awakes that he be filled with God’s likeness. He will behold God’s face!

  In the beginning, man was created in the image of God, and God used the expression “created in our image.” Why is God “El” (singular) and “Elohym? (plural)” Because he is One God Who has three images – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Adam surely saw God’s “Face” back in the Garden before sin put a veil over it, just as Moses hid is glory from sinful people.

  Adam was “generated.” David desired to be “regenerated.” That seems to be a return to the state as at generation; back to the image of God with a clean God-centered mind, a soul FULL of God’s Holy Spirit, and a perfect immortal body. That status is the Christian “glorified.” 

  Theologians refer to rebirth as “regeneration” in that “marvel not, ye muse be born again.” (John 3:7). However, as birth requires conception and gestation, rebirth does as well! Seeing the Light is the “conception” of the new creature, but life subsequent to that is the gestation: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Mat 10:22).

  However, the end is not “the end!” At birth, generation requires time to mature the personality. Subsequent to rebirth, a spiritual personality grows as well. God bestows upon the deceased Christian a new personality with a new attitude. At death, the deceased is finally spiritually full-grown; he is glorified, as Jesus was glorified at death. Glorification in all scripture is the spiritual maturity to credit God.

  Jesus glorified the Father by dying for His Namesake. His death glorified God.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.  This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. (John 21:18-19).

  Thusly, the ultimate glorification is giving ourselves to the Lord. Because The Law of Sin still influences even Christians, perfect glorification cannot occur until Christians are no longer harnessed to life in this world. Hence, we can only honor God perfectly subsequent to physical death. With the world overcome (1 John 5:5), then the spirit is able to worship “in spirit and in truth” totally. (John 4:24). Overcoming the world cannot occur for us until we are out of the world.

Generation was the creation (Gen 1:1). Mankind was generated perfectly, specifically “very good” (Gen 1:31) in the beginning. At the end of life, the Christian is again made “very good.” That is the end of the regeneration period or process. The period called “life” from rebirth to death is spiritual gestation!

  The main difference in “generation” and “regeneration” is the time interval. God created a perfect man in a moment of one day. To regenerate requires a lifetime because after sin, outside the Garden of Perfection, life is on world-time!

  Repeated for clarity, “regeneration” is the time between “born again” and death: As Paul said, “To die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Why so? At death, regeneration of the Christian is finished; thereafter the Lord can be worshiped in Spirit and Truth. That attitude is the same attitude with which Adam was designed.

  Adam was glorified at generation in that he was able to look at God face to face and live. He was able to worship in perfect fidelity because the Garden was “very good.” Adam was generated with life breathed unto him. Christians will finally be regenerated when death is sucked out of them! That’s what Paul meant by “To die is gain.” We are nourished on this Earth by being in Christ, but after death come maturity; Christians can worship the Lord face to face!

  The ability to worship God without the interferences of the world is “glorification.” Ironically, glorification is not what God can do for us, but what we can do for Him!

  That sort of reminds me of Kennedy’s speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  Substitute “God” therein for “country” and that is glorification. Of course, the ability to do God’s Will is not in this world, but the next. In this world, it is the willingness “to do” that counts as servitude. What God does for Christians is not a ceremonial washing, but a thorough cleansing just as he did with the world in Noah’s time and the world with fire in the end.

  Water is used at the commencement of regeneration to start the cleansing, but fire is required after the regeneration process is completed. At glorification, Jesus “gave up the Ghost” (Mark 15:37). At the glorification of Christians, they are “filled” with the Ghost of Jesus. During the process of regeneration, Christians are not filled with the Spirit because sin still resides in the soul.

Examine this passage:

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4).

  Focus on “filled.” In the Greek, that word is “pletho.” The Jewish Christians were not filled that day but “supplied” or “influenced” (Strong’s Dictionary). During the regeneration process the Christian is influenced by the Holy Ghost, and at death (gain) the filling can occur because sin will no longer be in the soul as it is again, “very good.”

  “Regeneration” seems to be more like “sanctification” which is a spiritual growing process culminating in perfection only after death. Sanctification would be the time set apart for growth between rebirth and glorification. Entire sanctification commences with glorification as perfection cannot occur until death sets Christians free from the world!

  When early Christians “glorified the Lord” it was an imperfect glorification. At death, Christians are free to glorify the Lord perfectly because they have finally overcome the gravity of the world!

We think of “gravity” as the Earth’s pull.  It is not? It is an invisible force in space pushing down on the Earth. Likewise, spiritual gravity is an invisible demonic force pushing down on us in the world. Overcoming the world is overcoming that “spiritual gravity.” Will there be gravity in Heaven. I don’t believe so. Christians ought to be able there to move about without restriction. Of course, glorification will be our perfect willingness to glorify God! How better to glorify God than face to face?

  Moses got a little touch of glorification. God came down to him and made that possible:

And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. (Exod 33:9-11)

  Moses didn’t see God face to face, but communed with Him directly without an intermediary. Since Jesus is God manifested and Jesus is the mediator, The Word (Jesus; John 1:1-2, 14) was present there speaking to Moses. If he did see God, he was seeing Jesus because Jesus’s  death would tear the curtain that he may be seen directly (Mat 27:51). Moses understood grace! He knew the penalty for sin which is death and that only God’s death was sufficient. He surely spoke to the Lord’s “face” (Jesus) and didn’t die because he trusted the Purpose of Jesus… which was to die for mankind so that we could gain!

  Moses didn’t see the Lord’s “face” clearly if at all. It was obscured by the cloud. That “Cloud” was God made manifest to mankind. Its substance was what Jesus’s flesh would become later.

Then subsequent to that, by grace God showed his Glory, but again not His “face:

 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. (Exod 33:16-23)

  Moses never saw God’s “Face” before he died, but when the Lord put on Flesh, Moses was there at the transfiguration seeing God’s Face, face-to-face. The Lord glorified Jesus. He took the cloud off and finally revealed His own Face concealed all those years. Jesus was transformed. Perhaps the transformation was merely the unveiling for a few, but his death rent the veil for all to see Him.

Perhaps Jesus was glorified by God because he was about to glorify the Father! God would never leave nor forsake His only begotten. I believe that Jesus, already spiritually glorious, was physically glorified in preparation to defeat death.

  You see, “glorification” is not something God merely does for us, but is a relationship. Christians glorify God and God glorifies Christians. In life, Christians are willing to do that, but fail. In death, God makes them able to glorify God. “Glorification” is a harmonization between the free will of mankind and the Lord’s Will. He does that by grace, and regeneration commences when the will of Christians begin to harmonize with the Will of God. Total harmonization does not occur until we see God face-to-face on His throne. When we look at his Glory there, we will clearly see Jesus’s face for he alone is the Face of God!

  God is Glorious already. The reward is ours when death rewards Christians with the ability to see God’s Face after Jesus was glorified by God.

Some of the patriarchs did see God’s face long ago. Scripture speaks of a transparent “sea of glass” on which God’s throne sits. (Rev 15:12). David may have seen Jesus through that barrier. It took bright eyes with bright natures to see what others could not see! David surely received that ability after his regeneration (Psalm 51). He could see his own “son” sitting at the right hand of God as his psalms proclaim! They are worth the reading because David was looking at God’s “Face.”