Photo by Lynda Hinton on Unsplash
The fifth verse of our wonderful carol reads like this:
And our eyes at last shall see Him
Through His own redeeming love
For that child, so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above
And He leads His children along
To the place where He is gone
Through His own redeeming love
For that child, so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above
And He leads His children along
To the place where He is gone
The Visio Beatifica
Christians with mystical leanings - not at all to be despised - talk about the moment they will see Jesus face to face. And they call this moment in Latin, the "Visio Beatifica" or in English "The Beatific Vision."
The idea may be at first seem more romantic than Biblical, but there are Scriptures that point in this direction. 1 John 3:2 reads:
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not
yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is."
John does not mention a mystical experience per se, but seeing Jesus does, in some way, transform us into his likeness.
Closer to the mark is what Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1. On the day Jesus returns he will...
"...be glorified in his holy people and marvelled at among all those who have believed."
Jesus Christ will shine through his people ("will be glorified in his holy people") in their new resurrection bodies. And they will marvel at him, be amazed by him, gaze in wonder at him.
Then there is chapter 1 of the book of Revelation. The apostle John is wrapped up in an ecstatic vision of Jesus Christ. If this remarkable and glorious vision of Jesus is what all of God's people experience the moment we reach heaven, then I'm not sure that the poetic language of The Beatific Vision or Visio Beatifica even begins to capture the wonder we will one day experience when we see Jesus face to face.
For sure our carol writer has got it right, "And our eyes at last shall see him." One day faith will give way to sight and hope will give way to reality.
And when we talk about seeing someone's face, we mean knowing them better, for with our faces we express the content of our hearts.
But there will be no Queue!
A young Christian caught up in the excitement of heaven suggested to his older Christian brothers and sisters that he would not be interested in talking to them in the world to come because he'd head straight for the long queue in front of the throne of Jesus.
It was a touching expression of devotion but it missed a vital aspect of heaven's glory.
For, in that world of light, God's perfected people will become like Jesus "we shall be like him" says John (1 John 3:2) so that as we have fellowship with God's sanctified people in heaven who will perfectly reflect the Saviour's glory, we will at the very same experience be having fellowship with Jesus Christ whose very likeness we will see in them.
Cecily Francis Alexander, the author of our Carol, was right to draw our attention to the last chapter of God's great salvation story. The story of the birth of Jesus has a glorious ending without which it is incomplete.
That ending is dwelling of God with his people forever.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving Father,
It is only through your redeeming grace that we will one day see the face of God. We are sinners who deserve your wrath rather than your favour, so we thank you for your amazing grace.
Forgive our sins and help us to repent of them all, for only the pure in heart can see God.
And help us to look forward to the day when we will see Jesus face to face.
We ask this in Jesus' name,
Amen
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