Face to Face for Eternity

Hey Church Family:
This week, for me, has been a week of dwelling on marriage as I been preparing for a wedding tonight. I have been with the bride and groom in personal conversations and counseling. I have prepared a wedding. I went to a wedding rehearsal and dinner last night. During all of this the one thing you cannot escape experiencing from these interactions is that the groom is absolutely smitten over the bride and the bride is besotted, love-struck over the groom. There is not one moment that you will escape the visible and verbal expressions of love that reverberate from the bride and the groom.

Tonight, I will stand arm’s length from the bride and groom giving the vows unto marriage. I will see their eyes affectionately focused on the other, eye to eye. I will see their captivated smiles for each other. I will see the tears of joy welling in their eyes. I will hear the deep breaths of being loved. They will stand face to face and declare to the entire world how much they love each other with unending, unconditional love. The moment will be intense, exhilarating, heavy, joyful and a little frightening. 

And the question that rings forth from my soul is, "Do I love Jesus, the bridegroom of the Church, with such passion and intensity?

This love exchange from the bride and groom is the exact picture that Jesus gives us to understand the intensity of His love for us and the intensity of the love that we are to return to Him. It is such an amazing picture! In Revelation 22, we are reminded that as the bride of Christ we will see the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, face to face. This is called the “beatific vision,” which means “the sight that makes happy.” We, the bride of Christ, will be infinitely happier than the bride will be tonight as she sees her groom face to face. 

To see Jesus face to face is more than physical sight. It also means that we will know Him in the infinite depths of who He is, we will enjoy Him in all His glory, we will experience and feel His love for us and go deeper into intimacy and affection with Him than we could possibly imagine in this life. This is our great happiness that is to come! We will see God face to face when we see Jesus in glory face to face. Seeing Jesus is seeing God. As the Church, we will be united with Jesus Christ once and for all, never to be separated. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not ever experience a second death but they shall see Him face to face in the new heavens and new earth as He reveals to them His immeasurable graces for an eternity.

I look forward to worshipping the bridegroom with you, Steve

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.