We're back for another week of answering your tough pastoral and ethical and biblical questions. And today's question comes in to us from Eric in Joliet, Illinois. Pastor John, hello. First Timothy 6.16 says that no one can see God, and yet Matthew 5.8 tells us that the pure in heart will see God.

Is there a sense in which we will be able to see God in heaven, or is it talking about the incarnate and glorified Christ here? It's a powerful promise, and I want to understand it. Pastor John, what would you say to Eric? So let's put the texts, the ones that he refers to and a few others in front of us, and then see if we can answer the question.

First Timothy 6, "He who is the blessed and only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion." First Timothy 1.17, "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory." First John 4.12, "No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us." Exodus 33.20, "He said, 'You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.'" Deuteronomy 4.12, "Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form." There was only a voice.

That's one side. You can't see him. And here's the other side, Matthew 5.8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Genesis 32.20, "Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, 'I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been spared.'" Job 19.26, "And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another," et cetera.

So there you have both sides of the issue. And the solution to this seeming inconsistency lies in the fact that the word see, as we all know, has several different uses. And if you look at all the texts, you see that there are two different senses in which his people can see God, and two senses in which they cannot see God.

So let me break these out and see if people can follow me, see if they can see. First, the ways we cannot see God. One, we can't see him with our physical eyes for the simple reason he's a spirit, and he doesn't have a body. That's probably at least part of what Paul means when he says that Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Second meaning of what we mean by see, we can't see God. We can't see him even spiritually with unmediated directness. This is partly owing to our sinfulness and partly owing perhaps to our creaturely weakness. He's too great, too bright, too glorious, and we could not live if we saw him with unmediated directness.

We must always have Christ our mediator as a go-between. And I think that's what Jesus meant when he says in John 6, 45, "It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me, not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God." He has seen the father.

Now when it says, "Except he who has come from God, he has seen the father," he means not with physical eyes, because Jesus, I mean, the son of God didn't have physical eyes before the incarnation. And that's what he's contrasting our seeing with. Only the son can see the father with non-physical, unmediated, direct seeing.

We cannot see God spiritually the way the son of God in unmediated directness can see him. So those are the two ways we can't see God when we use the word "see" in different ways. And here's the two ways we can see God. One, we use the word "see" to mean that we finally understand and discern the beauty and glory of God after being blind to it.

Like when we say, "Oh, now I see." Our soul is tuned in, tuned in to the glory so that the glory of God that shines through the gospel is seen as glorious and we're no longer spiritually blind to it. That's the first way we see him. And the second way is that in the narrative of the Bible, we see the glory of God, and finally we will see him face to face through Christ by seeing Christ.

So John 1.14, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father. No one has seen God, only the only God who is from the father's side. He has made him known." So we see God by seeing Jesus.

And 1 John 3.2, "We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is." So the implication is pursue purity of heart, purity of faith, purity of life so that our heart, your heart is able to see God's beauty as what it really is in the scripture.

And so that when he comes or when he calls us in death, we will see him face to face and be glorified with him. I have not seen what that will be like. Such a glorious promise and a promise with a lot of ramifications for the media that we consume in our lives.

Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the question, Eric. And of course, thank you listeners for making the podcast a part of your daily life. You can find our audio feeds and our episode archive and you can reach us via email all through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

Well speaking of seeing Christ, how soon is his appearing? Is Christ's return imminent or is it far off like another thousand years away? We'll ask Pastor John that question on Wednesday. I'm Tony Reinke. As always, thank you for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We'll see you next time.

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