No doubt every Christian believer would love to be able to repeat this phrase one day in the truest sense of it: “My eyes have seen the Lord.” In a future sense there is a living hope within these words; it carries a longing in the heart of the true believer which governs his life now on earth, through death, and into eternity.
Well, in one sense our eyes have seen the Lord by His light, His truth, His grace and power. We have seen and known Him spiritually through the holy scriptures. If not we would not have believed and followed Him while we await to see Him face to face.
In the post-resurrection account of Christ, we are reminded of Mary Magdalene who saw the Lord, as well as the other disciples who later confirmed to Thomas: “We have seen the Lord,” and yet Thomas did not believe until He saw Him with his own eyes. Then he declared in worship: “My Lord and My God.” To this the Lord replied, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:28-29). Notice that Thomas literally fell into worship when his eyes had seen the glorified Lord. Shouldn’t we have a similar response in a moment as such?
The Holiness and Power of God
Any student of the Bible is familiar with Isaiah’s vision of Christ in the Old Testament, and what his attitude was in this uncommon situation:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6: 1-5).
There in this short passage we behold the holiness of God, His power, His glory, and His mercy to Isaiah. What a magnificent vision! What a tremendous work of grace it is as the Lord opened Isaiah’s eyes to behold His glory, His power and holiness! This passage of Holy scriptures contains more that we can think, more than we can understand or explain. Yet we can clearly see the highlights of Isaiah’s response and attitude to seeing the Lord’s glory.
This vision kindled as with a flash Isaiah’s consciousness of sins. The light has been shown on the darkness of his soul, he all of a sudden has seen the uncleanness of his lips which originates from his heart, his hidden flaws have been disclosed by that light. When confronted with the glory of the Lord, Isaiah with his own unclean lips sentenced himself to be cursed – undone. We can be certain that Isaiah expected to be judged on the spot. Therefore he was broken not only by the consciousness of his sins but the terror of the personal evil consequences, for he knew that the Lord would not let the guilty go unpunished. Why all this terror and curse upon himself? Again, because he said, “My eyes have seen the Lord.”
A Proper Response
Many have written books and falsely claimed to have seen the Lord Jesus Christ. We have heard multiple stories and all sorts of experiences of Jesus showing up to some while they are alone in the bathroom or kitchen, or while they are alone driving the car. Some have even claimed to have seen his face on a piece of tortilla, some in the snow, some on the surface of still water, on the window glass… a lot more have seen his appearance in the clouds. Not to mention those who have claimed to have gone to heaven in their spiritual state, to have seen the Lord and then come back. Among all these experiences, pictures of Jesus have been painted and put on walls, unbiblical accounts stack up like so many fairy tales. Heretical contradictions have been spread all over the world like poison.
I would pose this question, “What was their response when they saw the Lord?”
The apostle John saw Him in his vision in the book of Revelation, and he fell down on his face like dead until the Lord touched him and brought him back to life (Rev 1:17). For who can see The Lord in His glory and stand. As Paul said, “He who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” (1 Tim. 6:16).
One other account we have in scriptures is the great catch of fish in Luke chapter 5. When Simon Peter saw the power, the authority, the omniscience and glory of Christ, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8). Now Peter and the other disciples could have said, “We are going to prosper! For we have an omniscient and powerful Man amongst us who can command the fishes to our net.” But no! It is said that all the other disciples were astonished while Peter fell on his knees in brokenness and repentance. Why? Because His eyes have seen the Lord. The light has been shown, therefore the darkness of his heart and the consciousness of his sins have been revealed.
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
The nearer a man gets to God, the greater he sees his sin.
How can we forget this repentant declaration of Job after he sees the grandeur of God and His incomprehensive majesty:
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). Job was not in this case an unconverted man who saw the power of God and came to repentance when he made this declaration. He was a servant of YAHWEH. As per the Lord’s testimony, blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1; 1:8). But when his eyes had seen the Lord for who He really is, he repented in dust and ashes.
Again shouldn’t we have similar responses and attitudes before God? Repentance and worship…
Alexander McLaren wrote and rightly so:
The easy-going Christianity, which is the apology for religion with so many of us, has no deep sense of sin, because it has no clear vision of God.
This is so evident and true in our time. It is an urgent need for the church today to have a clear vision of God in the scriptures. Seeing God for who he is will open our eyes to who we are in brokenness and terror. There alone lies the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. Anyone who does not repent from his sins does not know God; and anyone who condones immorality has no clear vision of Him (1 John 3:2-9).
We have this promise then, that one day our eyes will see Him face to face, without sin in us. There the longing of our hearts will be satisfied, and then we can at last repeat this phrase in its truest sense, “My eyes have seen the Lord.” Then we’ll worship Him in our sinless state without interruption, forever (1 Cor 3: 18, Ps 17:15).
