# “As a man sees his neighbour face to face, so shall we see the Lord Christ in His glory” by John Owen

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2021/07/14/as-a-man-sees-his-neighbour-face-to-face-so-shall-we-see-the-lord-christ-in-his-glory-by-john-owen/
- Published: 2021-07-14T12:00:03-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Christ Himself, in His own person, with all His glory, shall be continually with
us, before us, proposed unto us.

We shall no longer have an image, a representation of Him, such as is the delineation
of His glory in the Gospel.

We “shall see Him,” saith the apostle, “face to face,” (**1 Cor. 13:12**);—which
he opposeth unto our seeing Him darkly as in a glass, which is the utmost that faith
can attain to.

“We shall see Him as He is,” **1 John 3:2**;– not as now, in an imperfect description
of Him.

As a man sees his neighbour when they stand and converse together face to face, 
so shall we see the Lord Christ in His glory. And not as Moses, who had only a transient
sight of some parts of the glory of God, when He caused it to pass by him.

There will be use herein of our bodily eyes, as shall be declared. For, as Job says,
in our flesh shall we see our Redeemer, and our eyes shall behold Him, (**Job 19:
25–27**).

That corporeal sense shall not be restored unto us, and that glorified above what
we can conceive, but for this great use of the eternal beholding of Christ and His
glory.

Unto whom is it not a matter of rejoicing, that with the same eyes wherewith they
see the tokens and signs of Him in the sacrament of the supper, they shall behold
Himself immediately in His own person?

But principally, as we shall see immediately, this vision is intellectual.

It is not, therefore, the mere human nature of Christ that is the object of it, 
but His divine person, as that nature subsisteth therein.

What is that perfection which we shall have (for that which is perfect must come
and do away that which is in part) in the comprehension of the hypostatical union,
I understand not.

But this I know, that in the immediate beholding of the person of Christ, we shall
see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive.

The excellencies of infinite wisdom, love, and power therein, will be continually
before us.

And all the glories of the person of Christ which we have before weakly and faintly
inquired into, will be in our sight forevermore.

Hence the ground and cause of our blessedness is, that “we shall ever be with the
Lord,” (**1 Thess. 4:17**),—as Himself prays, “that we may be with him where He 
is, to behold His glory.” (**John 17:24**)

Here we have some dark views of it;– we cannot perfectly behold it, until we are
with Him where He is. Thereon our sight of Him will be direct, intuitive, and constant.

There is a glory, there will be so, subjectively in us in the beholding of this 
glory of Christ, which is at present incomprehensible. For it doth not yet appear
what we ourselves shall be, (**1 John 3:2**).

Who can declare what a glory it will be in us to behold this glory of Christ?

And how excellent, then, is that glory of Christ itself!

This immediate sight of Christ is that which all the saints of God in this life 
do breathe and pant after.

Hence are they willing to be dissolved, or “desire to depart, that they may be with
Christ,” which is best for them, (**Phil. 1:23**).

They choose “to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord,” (**2 Cor. 5:
8**); or that they may enjoy the inexpressibly longed-for sight of Christ in His
glory.”

–John Owen, “[Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851513921?tag=toletaupanre-20),”
[_The Works of John Owen, Volume 1: The Glory of Christ_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851513921?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1684/2000), 1: 378-379.

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