Now that expression seeing the face of God' in Scripture seems to me to be employed in two somewhat different ways, according to one of which the possibility of seeing the face is affirmed, and according to the other of which it is denied.
The one may be illustrated by the Divine word to Moses: Thou canst not see My face. There shall no man see Me and live.' The other may be illustrated by the aspiration and the confidence of one of the psalms: As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness.'
A similar antithesis, which is apparently a contradiction, may be found in setting side by side the words of our Saviour: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' with the words of the Evangelist: No man hath seen God at any time.' I do not think that the explanation is to be found altogether in pointing to the difference between present and possible future vision, but rather, I think, the Bible teaches what reason would also teach: that no corporeal vision of God is ever possible; still further, that no complete comprehension and knowledge of Him is ever possible, and, as I think further, that no direct knowledge of, or contact with, God in Himself is possible for finite man, either here or yonder. And the other side lies in such words as these, which I have already quoted: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' As through a glass darkly, but then face to face.' Where is the key to the apparent contradiction? Here, I think. Jesus Christ is the manifest God, in Him only do men draw near to the hidden Deity, the King Invisible, who dwelleth in the light that is inaccessible.
Here on earth we see by faith, and yonder there will be a vision, different in kind, most real, most immediate and direct, not of the hidden Godhood in itself, but of the revealed Godhood manifest in Jesus Christ, whom in His glorified corporeal Manhood we shall perceive, with the organs of our glorified body; whom in His Divine beauty we shall know and love with heart and mind, in knowledge direct, immediate, far surpassing in degree, and different in kind from, the knowledge of faith which we have of Him here below. But the infinite Godhood that lies behind all revelations of Deity shall remain as it hath been through them all, the King invisible, whom no man hath seen or can see. They shall see His face in so far as they shall hold communion with, and through their glorified body have the direct knowledge of Christ, the revealed Deity.
Whether there be anything more, I know not;! think there is not; but this I am sure of, that the law for Heaven and the law for earth alike are,' He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'
But there is another point I would touch upon in reference to this second thought of our text, viz., its connection with the previous representation, They shall serve Him '--that is work in an outer sphere; they shall see His face'--that is contemplation. These two, the life of work and the life of devout communion --the Martha and the Mary of the Christian experience --are antagonistic here below, and it is hard to reconcile their conflicting, fluctuating claims and to know how much to give to the inward life of gazing upon Christ, and how much to the outward life of serving Him. But, says my text, the two shall be blended together. His servants shall serve Him,' nor in all their activity shall they lose the vision of His face. His servants shall see His face'; nor in all the still blessedness of their gaze upon Him shall they slack the diligence of the unwearied hands, or the speed of the willing feet. The Rabbis taught that there were angels who serve, and angels who praise, but the two classes meet in the perfected man, whose services shall be praise, whose praise shall be service. They go forth to do His will, yet are ever in the House of the Lord. They work and gaze; they gaze and work. Resting they serve, and serving they rest; perpetual activity and perpetual vision are theirs. They serve Him, and see His face.'
