“I want those you have given me… to see my glory.” John 17:24 (NIV)
Will you see Jesus’ glory with your eyes, or will you simply understand it more fully in your mind? One of the great Puritan writers, Thomas Manton, says it will be both.
There is a glorified eye as well as a glorified mind. Job said, “Though… worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:26 KJV). You will see the Son of God as the disciples saw their risen Lord.
But, Manton says, there’s more. The angels do not have bodies (they are spirits and spirits do not have eyes), and yet the angels always behold the face of the Father in heaven (Mat. 18:10). So not only will we see Christ’s glory with our eyes, we will perceive and know and grasp His glory with our minds.
F. F. Bruce, in his commentary The Gospel of John, points outs that the disciples had seen the divine glory in the incarnate Word on earth (John 1:14). But he says, “‘They will see it [Christ’s glory] more fully when they live in the presence of the glorified Lord—not, perhaps, because he will then be endowed with more of that glory but because they will be better able to behold it.”
Isn’t this what Paul was getting at when he said, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12)?
Praise the Lord, someday we will see Him face to face!
Is seeing Jesus your great aim in life? How are you pursuing Him this week?
