# “We shall see Christ face to face” by Charles Spurgeon

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2025/02/19/we-shall-see-christ-face-to-face-by-charles-spurgeon/
- Published: 2025-02-19T12:00:00-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“Jesus is represented in the Bible; there is His portrait; we look on the Bible,
and we see it. We see Him ‘_through a glass darkly_.’ (**1 Corinthians 13:12**)

Just as sometimes, when you are looking in your looking glass, you see somebody 
going along in the street. You do not see the person; you only see Him reflected.

Now, we see Christ reflected; but then we shall not see Him in the looking-glass;
we shall positively see His person.

Not the reflected Christ, not Christ in the sanctuary, not the mere Christ shining
out of the Bible, not Christ reflected from the sacred pulpit; but ‘_we shall see
Him as He is_.’ (**1 John 3:2**)

Again: how partially we see Christ here. The best believer only gets half a glimpse
of Christ.

While here one Christian sees Christ’s glorious head, and he delights much in the
hope of His coming.

Another beholds His wounds, and he always preaches the atonement.

Another looks into His heart, and he glories most in immutability and the doctrine
of election.

Another only looks at Christ’s manhood, and he speaks much concerning the sympathy
of Christ with believers.

Another thinks more of his Godhead, and you will always hear him asserting the divinity
of Christ.

I do not think there is a believer who has seen the whole of Christ.

No. We preach as much as we can do of the Master; but we cannot paint him wholly.

Some of the best paintings, you know, only just give the head and shoulders; they
do not give the full-length portrait.

There is no believer, there is no choice divine, that could paint a full-length 
portrait of Christ.

There are some of you who could not paint much more than his little finger; and 
mark, if we can paint the little finger of Jesus well, it will be worth a life-time
to be able to do that.

Those who paint best cannot paint even His face fully. Ah! He is so glorious and
wondrous, that we cannot fully portray Him.

We have not seen Him more than partially. Come, beloved; how much dost thou know
of Christ?

Thou wilt say:

> “Ah! I know some little of him; I could join with the spouse, when she declares
> that he is altogether lovely; but I have not surveyed him from head to foot, and
> on his wondrous glories I cannot fully dwell.”

Here we see Christ partially; there we shall see Christ entirely, when “_we shall
see him as He is_.”

Here, too, how dimly we see Christ! It is through many shadows that we now behold
our Master.

Dim enough is the vision here; but there “_we shall see him as He is_.”

Have you never stood upon the hill-tops, when the mist has played on the valley?

You have looked down to see the city and the streamlet below; you could just ken
yonder steeple, and mark that pinnacle.

You could see that dome in the distance; but they were all so swathed in the mist
that you could scarcely discern them.

Suddenly the wind has blown away the mist from under you, and you have seen the 
fair, fair valley.

Ah! it is so when the believer enters heaven.

Here he stands and looks upon Christ veiled in a mist—upon a Jesus who is shrouded;
but when he gets up there, on Pisgah’s brow, higher still, with his Jesus, then 
he shall not see Him dimly, but he shall see Him brightly.

We shall see Jesus then “_without a veil between_”— not dimly, but face to face.

Here, too, how distantly we see Christ! Almost as far off as the farthest star!

We see Him, but not nigh; we behold Him, but not near to us; we catch some glimpse
of Him; but oh! what lengths and distances lie between!

What hills of guilt—a heavy load!

But then we shall see Him closely; we shall see Him face to face; as a man talketh
with his friend, even so shall we then talk with Jesus.

Now we are distant from Him; then we shall be near to Him.

Away in the highlands, where Jesus dwells, there shall our hearts be too, when heart
and body shall be ‘_present with the Lord_.'”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “[The Beatific Vision](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Revival+Years+New+Park+Street+Pulpit+Spurgeon&i=stripbooks&tag=toletaupanre-20),”
in [_The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 2_](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Revival+Years+New+Park+Street+Pulpit+Spurgeon&i=stripbooks&tag=toletaupanre-20)(
London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1856), 2: 64–65.

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