THE FACE OF GOD

The Face of God

A headwind is a wind blowing against the course of an aircraft or a ship. It also slows us down when we are walking. A headwind can be a formidable foe. We much prefer to show the wind our back than our face. A headwind may even cause us to break bones by bowling us over. Though we cannot see the wind, we see its effect. Jesus likens God the Holy Spirit to the wind, ‘The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit’ John 3:8. Under inspiration of the same Spirit Solomon says, ‘As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything’ Ecclesiastes 11:5. If a headwind is a formidable foe, then how much more God who makes everything?

Walking on the hills above Loch Lomond as a boy I used to wonder why all the grazing sheep (like sheep!) faced the same way. Then I saw that they all had their backs to the prevailing wind. According to the Bible all of us, in some way, shape and form, have turned a cold shoulder toward God. Like sheep we have followed Adam our forefather joining with the devil in the great rebellion against God. Denial is a big aspect of this rebellion, denial that we are rebelling against God, even God-denial. Of this Scripture says, ‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death’ Proverbs 16:25, and, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way’ Isaiah 53:6a. Also, ‘The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”’ Psalm 14:1.

How many in their unconverted and rebellious state have tested God by demanding that He prove His existence to them by appearing before them! However, it is not God who is to appear before us. Rather it is we who have an appointment with Him. For Scripture says, ‘It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment’ Hebrews 9:27. In His Parable of the Rich Fool – about a man who wanted to build bigger barns to store his accumulated goods – Jesus said, ‘But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you!”’ Luke 12:20a.

Baby’s breathing is momentarily interrupted simply by his big brother blowing on his face! None of us know the exact moment when God will take away our last breath. What kind of effect will you as a mere puff of breath have on the face of the Almighty? Will your spirit cause His Spirit to stall? As a disembodied soul will you take His breath away momentarily? My friend, ‘The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are as grass’ Isaiah 40:7.

Good news? ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ Matthew 5:8. What does God look like? ‘God is Spirit, and therefore does not have a material face. So Christ’s saints will never see the Triune God from face to face. For they are creatures, and He is the Creator. But they will, from time to time, indeed see the creaturely face of the fully-divine Lord Jesus Christ (according to His created human nature). For “we know that, when He shall appear – we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is.”’ Francis Nigel Lee in his John’s Revelation Unveiled.

There are those that want to see the face of God and those that don’t. But either way, all will get to see Him. For, ‘God has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead’ Acts 17:31. Regardless of all the images and movie portrayals, no one living on earth today knows what Jesus really looks like. However, everyone will see Him from face to face on Judgment Day. For Jesus says, ‘Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation’ John 5:28-29.

God makes the headwind. Sometimes gentle, sometimes strong. He forms the babe in the womb. Though there is travail for the mother, some babes are born gently and others roughly. Likewise, for those born of the Spirit, some births are gentle and others rough. However, it is the same God the Spirit that forms you in the womb that also gives you new birth. And you know that you have been born again when you believe in Jesus Christ and His work. For Jesus says, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent’ John 6:29.

‘What is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away’ James 4:14. Are you ready then to see the face of God in Jesus Christ?