Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Will We See God in Eternity?

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Will We See God in Eternity? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to job Week. On the podcast Monday, we
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  Speaker 1: read Job sixteen together and had to parse out what
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  Speaker 1: of Job's claims are true and which ones are false,
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  Speaker 1: one of the particular challenges of reading the book of Job.
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  Speaker 1: Today we read Job nineteen together and his bold declaration
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  Speaker 1: in Job nineteen from the lips of Job and Job
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  Speaker 1: chapter nineteen, verses twenty six and twenty seven, Job says this,
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  Speaker 1: and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in
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  Speaker 1: my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see
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  Speaker 1: for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another
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  Speaker 1: my heart faints within me end quote. So after Job dies,
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  Speaker 1: he will be in the flesh, in his flesh, and
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  Speaker 1: in his flesh he will see God. That's his claim.
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  Speaker 1: And to that claim comes this related question from Eric
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  Speaker 1: who listens to the podcast, and Joliette, Illinois pastor dun
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  Speaker 1: hell you one. Timothy six sixteen says that no one
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  Speaker 1: can see God, yet Matthew five to eight tells us
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  Speaker 1: that the pure in heart will see God. Is there
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  Speaker 1: any sense in which we will be able to see
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  Speaker 1: God physically in heaven or is this text alluding to
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  Speaker 1: the incarnate and glorified Christ it's a powerful promise, and
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  Speaker 1: I want to understand it better.
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  Speaker 2: So let's put the texts, the ones that he refers to,
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  Speaker 2: and a few others in front of us, and then
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  Speaker 2: see if we can answer answer the question. One Timothy six.
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  Speaker 2: He who is the blessed and only sovereign, King of
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  Speaker 2: kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who
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  Speaker 2: dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen
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  Speaker 2: or can see. To him, be honor and eternal dominion.
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  Speaker 2: One Timothy one seventeen. To the King of Ages, immortal invisible,
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  Speaker 2: the God, be honor and glory. One John four to twelve.
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  Speaker 2: No one has ever seen God. If we love one another,
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  Speaker 2: God abides in us. Exodus thirty three twenty. He said,
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  Speaker 2: you cannot see my face, for man shall not see
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  Speaker 2: me and live Deuteronomy four twelve. Then the Lord spoke
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  Speaker 2: to you out of the midst of the fire. You
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  Speaker 2: heard the sound of words, but saw no form. There
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  Speaker 2: was only a voice. That's one side. You can't see him.
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  Speaker 2: Now here's the other side. Matthew five eight. Blessed are
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  Speaker 2: the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jenis
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  Speaker 2: thirty two twenty. Jacob called the name of the place Penile, saying,
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  Speaker 2: I have seen God face to face, and yet my
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  Speaker 2: life has been spared Job nineteen twenty six. And after
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  Speaker 2: my skin has been thus destroyed, yet my in my flesh,
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  Speaker 2: I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself,
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  Speaker 2: and my eyes shall behold, and not another, et cetera.
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  Speaker 2: So there you have both sides of the issue, and
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  Speaker 2: the solution to this seeming inconsistency lies in the fact
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  Speaker 2: that the word see, as we all know, has several
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  Speaker 2: different uses. And if you look at all the texts,
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  Speaker 2: you see that there are two different senses in which
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  Speaker 2: his people can see God, and two senses in which
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  Speaker 2: they cannot see God. So let me break these out
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  Speaker 2: and see if people can follow me, see if they
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  Speaker 2: can see first the ways we cannot see God want
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  Speaker 2: We can't see Him with our physical eyes in this
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  Speaker 2: for the simple reason he's a spirit and he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have a body. That probably at least part of what
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  Speaker 2: Paul means when he says that Christ is the image
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  Speaker 2: of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Second
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  Speaker 2: meaning of what we mean by see you and we
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  Speaker 2: can't see God. We can't see him even spiritually with
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  Speaker 2: unmediated directness. This is partly owing to our sinfulness and
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  Speaker 2: partly owing perhaps to our creaturely weakness. He's too great,
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  Speaker 2: too bright, too glorious, and we could not live if
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  Speaker 2: we saw him with unmediated directness. We must always have Christ,
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  Speaker 2: our mediator, as a go between. And I think that's
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  Speaker 2: what Jesus meant when he says in John six forty five,
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  Speaker 2: it is written in the prophets, and they will all
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  Speaker 2: be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned
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  Speaker 2: from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has
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  Speaker 2: seen the Father except he who is from God. He
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  Speaker 2: has seen the Father. Now, when it says accept he
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  Speaker 2: who has come from God, he has seen the Father,
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  Speaker 2: he means not with physical eyes, because Jesus, I mean
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  Speaker 2: the Son of God didn't have physical eyes before the incarnation.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what he's contrasting our seeing with. Only the
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  Speaker 2: Son can see the Father with non physical unmediated direct See,
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  Speaker 2: we cannot see God spiritually the way the Son of God,
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  Speaker 2: in unmediated directness can see him. So those are the
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  Speaker 2: two ways we can't see God when we use the
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  Speaker 2: word see in different ways. And here's the two ways
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  Speaker 2: we can see God. We use the word see to
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  Speaker 2: mean that we finally understand and desern the beauty and
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  Speaker 2: glory of God after being blind to it, like when
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  Speaker 2: we say, oh, now I see. Our soul is tuned in,
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  Speaker 2: tuned in to the glory, so that the glory of
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  Speaker 2: God that shines through the Gospel is seen as glorious
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  Speaker 2: and no longer we're no longer spiritually blind to it.
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  Speaker 2: That's the first way we see him. And the second
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  Speaker 2: way is that in the narrative of the Bible, we
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  Speaker 2: see the glory of God, and finally we will see
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  Speaker 2: Him face to face through Christ. By seeing Christ. So
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  Speaker 2: John one fourteen, and the Word became flesh and dwelt
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  Speaker 2: among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as
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  Speaker 2: of the only son from the Father. No one has
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  Speaker 2: seen God, only the only God who is from the
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  Speaker 2: Father's side. He has made him known. So we see
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  Speaker 2: God by seeing Jesus. And first John three to two,
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  Speaker 2: we know that when he appears, will we like him
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  Speaker 2: because we will see him as he is. So the
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  Speaker 2: implication is pursue purity of heart, purity of faith, purity
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  Speaker 2: of life, so that our heart, your heart is able
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  Speaker 2: to see God's beauty as what it really is in
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  Speaker 2: the scripture, and so that when he comes, or when
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  Speaker 2: he calls us in death, we will see him face
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  Speaker 2: to face and be glorified with.
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  Speaker 1: Him, glorious and relevant to our lives right now. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today. If you
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  Speaker 1: have a question to ask Pastor John, find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode archive at
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  Speaker 1: askpastor John dot com. Every episode with audio and full
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  Speaker 1: transcripts available for you. Well, we have a number of
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  Speaker 1: listeners who struggle with doubt and unbelief, and that is
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  Speaker 1: true of James, the listener who is struggling to believe
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  Speaker 1: that anything is true. Deep questions, deep struggles. Up next,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Rinky. We'll see on Monday.