Seeing God’s Face

Photo by spoon

I had an interesting thought the other day on the way to work, something I had never really thought about before: Will we see God’s face when we’re in heaven?

You see, the night before, my youngest son had been having trouble sleeping because of bad dreams. So I sat with him at bedtime and read Scripture to him. I found myself reading out of the Old Testament… the sixth chapter of Isaiah where he has a vision of the Lord seated on his throne… Exodus 33 when Moses is on the mountaintop speaking with God.

I wanted Josh to see the bigness of God, so I read the part where Moses tells the Lord, “Now show me your glory,” to which God replies:

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

The narrative goes on to say that the Lord placed Moses in a cleft in the rock and covered him with his hand until his glory had passed by, then removed his hand so that Moses would see his back because “my face must not be seen.”

So if seeing God’s face spells certain death, will heaven be like Exodus 20:18, with the Lord on a smoke-filled mountaintop and we trembling at a distance, telling Jesus, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”?

But everything I’ve talked about so far is Old Covenant. Hebrews 7 and 8 says we have a better covenant founded on better promises. One way the New Covenant is superior to the Old is that our very nature has changed. You see, under the Old Covenant, sins were merely covered, not atoned for. That’s why the priest had to continually offer sacrifices. (See Hebrews 7:27.) But under the New Covenant, Jesus sacrificed himself “once for all.” In doing so, he took on the penalty of our sin upon himself and exchanged our unrighteousness for his righteousness:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)

That’s why David’s psalms continually exhort us to “seek his face.” I believe David foresaw the day when we, as spirit-filled, born again believers, would be able to see his face and yet live… and also to the ultimate Day when “we shall see face to face:

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)

Prayer and Faith (Part 5): Faith, The Title Deed

I’ve been talking about how the Greek word “assurance” in Hebrews 11:1 conveys the idea of a title deed:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... (Heb 11:1 ESV)

In 2005, we moved from California to Ohio. Now, escrow closed on our old house on the Friday that we left town to head for Ohio. But escrow on our new house didn’t close until Monday. So from that Friday to the following Monday, we were officially homeless. Yet we didn’t fret and agonize whether we were going to have a home to live in or not. Even though we couldn’t see the new house and we didn’t possess it yet, we had “the assurance (i.e., title deed) of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

But here’s the other thing: we never would have taken complete ownership of the house had we not showed up to sign the final papers at the escrow office on Monday morning. Remember the “blank check” analogy both both Boyd and Sittser used? Doesn’t the legal aspect of a title deed described by hypostasis more closely fit Boyd’s view than Sitter’s?

I believe it does.

Incidentally, after we signed the paperwork, they gave us the keys to the house.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. -Matthew 16:18-20

Prayer and Faith (Part 4): Faith, The Title Deed

Photo by .A.A.

In my previous post, I talked about how the Greek word assurance in Hebrews 11:1 conveys the idea of a title deed:

The word “assurance” in this verse is the Greek word hypostasis. It commonly appears in ancient papyrus business documents, conveying the idea that a covenant is an exchange of assurances which guarantees the future transfer of possessions described in the contract. Moulton and Milligan suggest rendering this verse as: “Faith is the title deed of things hoped for.” (Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, 1963, p. 660).

Wikipedia defines title deed as “documents showing ownership, as well as rights, obligations, or mortgages on the property,” and “a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership.”

Title deeds do not necessarily imply possession. Possession is a right that accompanies ownership, but just because you possess it does not necessarily prove that you actually own it. In other words, possession is the actual holding of a thing, whether or not one has any right to do so.

For example, if you buy a car, your name is on the title, but if you give that car for your teenage son to use, then he has possession.If you bought the car with a loan, then the bank holds the title as security, but you possess the car. If the car gets stolen, the thief now has possession (albeit illegally). In these examples, the rightful owner of the property could retake possession, using the title deed to enforce his or her rights.

Does that sound familiar? In my earlier post, I quoted Greg Boyd saying that “prayer is not just a two-way transaction – it also involves the principalities and powers that hinder what God is able to do on the earth.”

When Satan enticed Adam and Eve to sin, he usurped the legal authority of the planet. But when Jesus died on the cross, he returned the title deed of the earth back to us. So anything Satan possesses, he does so illegally. He may possess something, but that does not signify ownership. According to the definition of possession, he may hold a thing without any right to do so.

So title deed suggests that, even though you are the legal owner or have legal rights to a thing, you may not acutally possess it. When you look at it that way, it puts prayer in a whole new perspective, doesn’t it?

In 2005, we moved from California to Ohio. Now, escrow closed on our old house on the Friday that we left town to head for Ohio. But escrow on our new house didn’t close until Monday. So from that Friday to the following Monday, we were officially homeless, but we didn't fret and agonize whether we were going to have a home to come to. Even though we couldn’t see the new house and we didn’t posses it yet, we knew that we had “the assurance (i.e., title deed) of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

But here’s the other thing: we never would have taken complete ownership of the house had we not showed up to sign the final papers in the escrow office on Monday morning. Rememebr the “blank check” analogy that has been used by both Boyd and Sittser? Doesn’t the legal aspect of a title deed described by hypostasis more closely fit Boyd’s view than Sitter’s?

I believe it does.

Incidentally, after we signed the paperwork, they gave us the keys to the house.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. -Matthew 16:18-20

Prayer and Faith (Part 3): Praying According to Covenant

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

In The Better Covenant, Watchman Nee expresses the idea of praying “according to his will” within the context of our covenant relationship with God. Rather than a God who is reluctant to answer our prayers, Nee sees God as taking delight in our “requesting Him to perform according to all His promises in the covenant.” Using a similar blank check analogy as the previous authors I quoted, he says:

May we all remember that we have the right to pray according to covenant. We may ask God to act according to His covenant. But if there is no faith, our prayer will be of no avail. God has reserved everything in the New Covenant in just the way a person deposits his money in a bank. If the person believes, he can draw it out continually.

It’s no coincidence that all three of  these authors liken prayer as a type of financial transaction, for God himself expresses the spiritual transaction between himself and Man in similar terms:

What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Rom 4:3-5)

He goes on to say (v. 23-24) that God will also credit righteousness (i.e., equity) for us as well. (See my earlier blog post, The Economics of Self Worth.)

Hebrews 11 is a commentary on the function of faith in relation to the covenant of God:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... (Heb 11:1 ESV)

The word “assurance” in this verse is the Greek word hypostasis. It commonly appears in ancient papyrus business documents, conveying the idea that a covenant is an exchange of assurances which guarantees the future transfer of possessions described in the contract. Moulton and Milligan suggest rendering this verse as: “Faith is the title deed of things hoped for.” (Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, 1963, p. 660).

Nee puts it like this: “…all who know what a covenant is know how to pray – they may ask God with boldness.” (pp 33)

So God responding to our prayers becomes a matter of his covenant, not his sovereignty. It’s not even based on grace.