A Saving Sight

If you ask, “How shall we see Him, and the Father in Him?” I shall offer you these advices, with reference to your seeing of Christ, in order to your seeing of the Father in Him, or with reference to your getting a saving sight of God in Christ.

1. Be convinced that unless He manifests Himself, you can by no means in the world see Him. Even as all the candles and torches in the world cannot discover the sun to you, when under a cloud, till it come forth itself, so all the means in the world cannot discover God in Christ to you till He manifest Himself. “I will manifest Myself” (John 14:21). It is His prerogative to do it when He pleases, therefore give Him the glory of His sovereignty, saying, “Lord, I cannot see Thee, and all the world cannot let me see Thee; but oh, manifest Thyself to me.” Be convinced that you cannot possibly see Him till He open your eyes and show Himself.

2. Be convinced of the necessity of a powerful regeneration, ere you can see God. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), and a God in Christ is the chief thing, if not the only thing in that kingdom. The eyes of flesh and blood cannot see this great sight. These eyes of flesh may see the natural sun, but you must have other eyes to behold the Sun of righteousness. Otherwise, though His glory be shining about you, your blindness and darkness comprehends Him not. Therefore,

3. Be convinced of your own gross darkness and ignorance of God. A conceit of your own knowledge, and a high esteem of yourself and your own wisdom, will both be an evidence that you know nothing as you ought to know, and also be a hindrance of your knowing and seeing the Lord. Therefore you must become a fool that you may be wise. “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (John 9:39).

4. Be convinced that it is your sin and misery both that you do not and cannot see this glory of God in Christ. It is your sin, your leading sin, and mother of all your other sins; for herein lies the formal nature of unbelief, that you do not, you cannot, you will not look to Christ and be saved. And it is your misery, for while unbelief reigns, you are under the power of the devil, hiding this light from you. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

This darkness and blindness is the strength of the devil's kingdom. Whenever light shines into the heart, his power is broken; but darkness and ignorance is the chain wherein he leads you to the place of utter darkness, to which you will be sentenced with him, if that chain be not loosed in time. What will be the sentence of the great Judge? Will He give one to the devil, and another to wicked men? No, He will make one to serve them both: “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). You joined with the devil in loving darkness, and therefore depart with him! Oh, be convinced, poor soul, that the devil is cutting your throat in the dark; and that it is both your sin and misery that you do not see.

5. Be convinced that there is a promise of divine illumination left to you to rely on. “They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me” (John 6:45). Cry, therefore, for the promised teaching, the promised drawing. And seeing His powerful drawing is just His effectual teaching, O cry for the powerful promised illumination of His Holy Spirit in the knowledge of Christ, in whom alone you can know the Father. Be restless in the use of all appointed means, till the Spirit be sent for this end.

It is His sweet counsel to you that you buy of Him eye-salve that you may see. Beg His enlightening Spirit; the Spirit is both the promise of the Father and of the Son. “I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Stay about His hand, in the use of ordinances of His institution, till the promised Spirit be poured out. Christ testifies, “And when He comes, He shall testify of Me, He shall glorify Me” (John 15:26; 16:14). Plead the promise that is left to you of this powerful illumination.

6. Be convinced that however unable and unfit you are for yielding to His call, yet it is both your indispensable duty to see and behold this glorious object Christ, in whom you will see the Father; and your present duty to essay it with a view to His enabling grace. O sirs, is not the Father calling you to look to His Son, saying, “Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42:1)? And is not the Son calling you to look to Him and be saved? “Behold Me, behold Me!” (Isaiah 65:1). And do not the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come” (Revelation 22:17)?

Is a whole glorious Trinity crying to you, “Come and see; come and see the Son, and see the Father in Him”? Why, then, unless you dare say it is your duty to trample under foot the authority of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to look to Jesus is your indispensable duty. And since He is dealing with you this moment, it is your present duty. “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Now He is saying, “Behold Me! behold Me!” Now you may see Him in mercy; and if the opportunity be slighted, you may never get another occasion to see Him till you see Him in wrath, coming in the clouds of heaven, and coming in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God because of their not obeying the gospel call of seeing God now in the face of Christ.

O sinner, then He will be seen upon a throne of judgment; a dreadful sight to His enemies! But now He is to be seen upon a throne of mercy and grace, calling sinners and enemies to be reconciled to Him, and to see the Father reconciled in Him, that thus you may find your Justifier. For now Christ is set forth of God “to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past…that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:25-26).

O sirs, see and behold Him then as the propitiation and atonement; and there take rest to your guilty soul; and see the Father in Him well pleased and satisfied. O see and behold Him as the true Jacob's ladder, with open arms ready to embrace all corners, and you among the rest. O see and behold Him as the Helper, since you cannot ascend the ladder, or get up of yourself. And see the Father constituting Him to be the Helper, saying, “I have laid help upon One that is mighty” (Psalm 89:19).

Behold this mighty Helper standing in the Father's Name, at the foot of the ladder, saying, “Man, woman, would you gladly be up? Would you have My help? Here is My helping hand, take hold of it; take hold of My strength” (Isaiah 27:5). But say you, “He must take hold of me and draw me up, otherwise I cannot take hold of Him.” Well said, man; therefore see Him as the Author and Finisher, as well as the object of faith. See Him as the ALL of your salvation, and the Father making Him so. For He “of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

If you think you can do anything without Him, you are not worthy of Him; and you go cross to this revelation made of Him. But if you can do nothing, and have nothing at all, and would have one to do all for you, and to be all to you, then see Him and take Him as God all-sufficient, to do all your works in you and for you, and to be your all for grace and glory. Thus to see Him is to see the Father, and all His fullness in Him. Thus to take Him into your heart is to take Him indeed, and His Father's blessing with Him.

O sirs, shall we hope He has come and discovered Himself to any soul here in this offer? Oh! blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, and lets Himself be seen; for “He that hath seen Christ, hath seen the Father.”

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