The Return of Christ • Devotion 2: We Will See His Face!

Pastor Roy Townsend

When I think of all the things that I have learned in the last few years, I cannot believe the importance of seeing someone’s face. My friends that are working in the school system tell me of the difficulties with not being able to see the student’s face or with the students’ difficulty in not being able to see the teacher’s face. As a teacher and pastor, it is my desire to be in a personal relationship with others, and we rely heavily on looking at someone’s face to understand them better and be in a better relationship with them. In today’s Scripture, we will learn about when believers get to see the face of God.

Revelation 22:1-5 reads, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Recently, I was teaching a lesson on Heaven, and we were looking at this Scripture. We were discussing all the wonderful descriptions of what Heaven looks like. Water flowing from the throne of God is as “bright as crystal.” The Tree of Life is bearing twelve different types of fruit, a different type for each month. Nothing bad will be there. These are exciting facts, but then we got to what I believe will be the best part, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” 

The Scriptures make it clear that nobody can see God’s face and live. Moses was told this is Exodus 33:20, “‘But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’” The Apostle John reiterates this fact in John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

Wow, so now we know that those who have accepted Christ as their Savior will see God face-to-face. We will not just be living in a paradise, but we will be living and seeing God. God’s plan in the Garden of Eden was to live with man. The Scriptures portray that we were in an intimate face-to-face relationship with God, and His wonderful plan is to restore that intimate relationship with man.

We have seen the need for mankind to have face-to-face relationships, and that face-to-face intimacy with God will be restored as described in Revelation chapter 22.