p. 2 | 4055 - Seeing God

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 29, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 17.

4055 — Seeing God

Gen. 32:30 and many other places tell us that different people saw God face to face; and yet John 1:18, and parallel passages, tell us, "No man hath seen God," or can see Him and live.

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This is not the exact wording of these texts, but the reader can learn just what is said by referring to them. Seeing God face to face with His unveiled glory is one thing; meeting with Him as Jacob did, in the darkness, is quite another. It was Moses to whom God said, as recorded in the 33d chapter of Exodus, that no man shall see My face and live. Note Moses' question,—"I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." That is what Moses wanted to see,—the undimmed glory of God's face; but the Lord told him that that was utterly impossible. He revealed to Moses His glory, but not the most glorious part—His countenance. In other places where it is spoken of men seeing God, they did not look upon God's face. It was only God's glory veiled. This simple thought will help us to understand what is meant. God dwells in the light which no man has seen or can see, simply and solely because of its insupportable glory; but God has veiled that glory, in order that men may look upon the veiled form and still live. God's glory in its fulness of character was in Jesus Christ, but the outshining of that glory was veiled by the flesh.