1 Corinthians 13:12

PRESENT AND FUTURE VISION

‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’

1 Corinthians 13:12

This fragment of inspiration appears in the Revised Version thus: ‘For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known.’ Some critics, however, prefer another and fuller rendering: ‘For now we see by means of a mirror, darkly, or in a riddle; but then face to face: now I know in part; then shall I fully know even as also I was fully known.’ But it is an open question whether the reference made is to a medium of silver or polished metal which can only reflect objects, or to that of thin horn or pellucid stone used by the ancients. No matter, each figure admirably illustrates the thought of the writer.

I. The imperfection of the present is the first thought brought out in this passage.—The medium of our vision is now defective. Nature is a mirror which reflects God; but the primal transgression has shattered it, so that it now gives but misty or distorted views of Him. The Bible, too, is as full a revelation of God as it can be; but its representations, albeit very sublime, are necessarily figurative, and therefore contain truth only in a relative form. So of nearly all the Divine facts. There is, however, one fact—‘the faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation’—which shines brilliantly on its holy pages as noontide sun on cloudless skies (1 Timothy 1:15). The capacity of our mind is also now limited. Were the medium never so perfect, we could take but slight advantage of it, because we are, in a mental and moral sense, like the man whose blindness was only half healed, and who, when asked by Jesus what he saw, replied, ‘I see men as trees walking.’ Sin has so weakened and darkened our mind that we often call good evil, and evil good. We now see by means of a piece of burnished metal, or through a plate of horn or translucent stone; consequently, we know only in part; and a child may ask a question which a philosopher could not answer.

II. But the perfection of the future is what we look forward to.—The vision will then be unobstructed. It will be as immediate as the ‘mouth to mouth’ with which the I AM spoke to the leader of Israel (Numbers 12:8). ‘Face to face.’ ‘This is,’ as an eloquent divine remarks, ‘the beatific vision’—absolutely clear and direct. A thick cloud necessarily intervened between Jehovah and Moses; but how the latter yearned to see the face of the former! (Exodus 33:18). To grant such a request would have proved fatal to the beholder. Not so in the great future. Oh, what transporting views will then be had of God! When the angels front His throne, they veil their faces with their wings; but the redeemed and glorified have no wings. With God and them it is ‘face to face’: no cloud on His face; no veil on theirs! And, if they see God thus in heaven, what can hinder them from seeing their friends ‘face to face’ there, and knowing them again? The mind will then be perfected. ‘Now,’ we are known of God rather than He is known of us; ‘then,’ God will be fully known by us; yet not so fully as He knows us, because His knowledge of us is absolutely complete from the beginning, whereas our knowledge of Him will ever be progressive. We shall spend the golden ages of the great future in the rapt contemplation of His infinite perfections as exhibited in the face of Jesus Christ. There will be no mysteries then: the full-orbed light of eternity will illumine all worlds, all beings, and all things.