We Shall See Him As He Is

Hear the announcement first, because everything else in this post stands under it. The seeing that completes the saints is not a reward for a vision they achieved. It is a gift that arrives with His appearing, and it finishes what His word began. The herald does not announce a ladder for men to climb toward God. He announces a Lord who appears, and a people who are made like Him by seeing Him.

The anchor stands at the head of the passage, and it must be heard whole before it is explained: "Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is" (1 John 3:2). Now we are children of God. That word now is not a hope deferred to another age. It is present possession, given before the appearing, not earned by it. And in the same breath the apostle confesses what has not yet been revealed. What we will be is hidden. The children are known, and the full form of the children is not yet shown. The two truths are held together without softening either one. We are His now, and we are not yet what we shall be then.

The order in the verse is the doctrine. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). The likeness does not come first, as if men were first made fit and then admitted to the sight. The sight comes first, and the likeness follows from the sight. Seeing is the cause, not the prize. The eye is opened to Him as He is, and the beholder is changed by what the eye beholds. No man lifts himself into likeness by the strength of his own gaze. The gaze itself is given when He is revealed, and the change follows the gift. That order guards the whole post from the oldest error, the error that turns a promise into a program. Man does not choose his way into likeness. The heart that would choose is itself deceitful, and Scripture names it so (Jer 17:9). God gives the seeing, and God gives the increase that follows the seeing.

Before the verse, the apostle sets the love that explains why children are called children at all: "See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1). The love is given, not bargained for. The name is bestowed, not seized. So the seeing at the end is not the first time God has looked upon His people. It is the first time they see Him without a veil between, face to the face that has always known them.

The next witness does not begin at the appearing. It begins now, in the beholding that already changes. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18). The face is unveiled, and the veil is not lifted by the beholder's hand. The turning to the Lord takes the veil away (2 Cor 3:16). Then the beholding transforms, from glory to glory, gradual now and still His work, for it comes from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). The same image appears in both witnesses. In Corinth the image is formed by beholding in a mirror. In the epistle of John the image is completed by seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2). The mirror does not contradict the face. The mirror prepares for the face.

Between the mirror and the face stands the promise spoken on the mountain. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt 5:8). The pure in heart are not men who have scrubbed their own hearts clean and now present the result for inspection. No man purifies his own heart by resolving to be pure (Jer 17:9). The purity here is given by the word that cleanses and by the Spirit who transforms. The pure shall see God, not because purity purchases sight, but because the God who purifies also opens the eyes of those He has purified (Matt 5:8). They are blessed now, and they shall see then.

Paul gives the same movement its sharpest contrast, and the contrast is between two kinds of knowing. "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known" (1 Cor 13:12). Now and then. In part and fully. Dimly and face to face. The present knowing is real, and it is partial. It is not false because it is partial, and it is not complete because it is real. The mirror gives a true reflection, and a reflection is not the face. The man who knows in part now is not left to guess whether he is known. The verse ends where it must end, not with his knowledge of God, but with God's knowledge of him: even as I was also fully known (1 Cor 13:12). He was fully known before he knew fully. He was known before he saw. The face-to-face seeing at the end does not create the relationship. It completes the knowledge inside a relationship that already stood, because God knew His own first and fully.

Faith here is not a ladder, a bargain, or a proof. Faith is present possession, held now and not postponed until sight arrives (John 6:47). The believer has eternal life now, while still seeing dimly. The evidence of the Scriptures corroborates faith, but evidence is never its foundation (1 John 5:9-10). The testimony of God about His Son stands under the believer's trust, not the strength of his own seeing. Because testimony is the foundation, the dim mirror is enough for the road, and the face to face is the end of the road.

Then the last witness brings the chain to its city. "They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads" (Rev 22:4). The servants in the city are not strangers admitted for a single audience. They serve Him, and the service and the seeing belong together (Rev 22:3-4). The name on the forehead is the mark of belonging made visible. It is not a name they wrote upon themselves. It is His name, placed where it cannot be hidden, on those who are His. They see Him because they are His, and they are seen to be His because they see Him.

Read the witnesses together now, in the order Scripture gives them, and the movement is plain. The pure in heart shall see God (Matt 5:8). The beholders in the mirror are transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). The knowers in part will know fully, even as they were fully known (1 Cor 13:12). The children now will be like Him when He is revealed, for they will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2). The servants in the city will see His face, with His name on their foreheads (Rev 22:4). No witness stands alone, and no witness contradicts another. The mountain promises the sight. The mirror practices the sight. The letter to Corinth names the partial sight. The epistle of John names the completing sight. The Revelation shows the sight as the life of the city. The thread runs from promise to practice to partial knowledge to completion to dwelling, and Christ stands at the center of every stage, because the glory beheld in the mirror is His glory, and the face seen in the city is His face.

And the hope that holds the thread does its own work before the appearing arrives. "Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). The hope comes first, and the purifying follows. The verse does not describe a man purifying himself in order to earn the appearing. It describes a man seized by the hope of the appearing, and the hope purifying him toward the measure of the One who is pure. The hope is set on Him. The purity is measured by Him. The child does not become a child by purifying. The child purifies because the hope of seeing the Father's Son has taken hold of him (1 John 3:2-3).

So the post ends where it began, but the beginning has deepened. Hearing cleansed, as the last post declared. Seeing will complete. The word spoken cleanses the way now. The face seen will transform the beholder then. The mirror will give way to the face, the partial to the full, the dim reflection to the direct gaze, and none of it will be the work of the beholder's hands. God gives the name. God gives the purity. God gives the beholding. God gives the appearing. God gives the likeness that follows the seeing. The herald's announcement is therefore not a task. It is a promise, and the promise is a person. We shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him, because the seeing itself is His gift, and the increase belongs to Him alone.