Rev Gav
How does God really see us?
Have you ever had a mountain-top experience – a time you felt elated and overwhelmed with a wondrous happiness or thankfulness? The phrase probably comes from this gospel story about Jesus being transfigured on the mountain, as found in Luke 9.28–36, where Jesus literally gave his disciples a mountain-top experience. In this story, Jesus took three disciples, Peter, James, and John up a mountain — most likely Mount Hermon that rises 9,100 feet to the north of the town of Caesarea Philippi. There, Jesus was transfigured, which meant he was elevated to become dramatically more beautiful. Now, I’ve written and spoken about the Transfiguration of Christ on several occasions, focusing on different aspects of the story, and you can read or listen to two of those online (I will put the links at the end). Therefore, rather than repeat myself, I’m going to explore a different angle.
When Jesus was transfigured — when his face became transformed and his clothes became a dazzling, brilliant white — his disciples were seeing him how he was seen by God. This was, of course, backed up by the words from God to listen to him! Somehow, on that mountaintop, heaven and earth collided, and as Jesus occupied both spaces simultaneously, the disciples saw the heavenly Jesus such that when rendered to earthly eyes, appeared as a pure, radiant light, and if you know your science, white light is made up of every visible colour of the rainbow.
It’s worth pausing for a moment and reflecting that, although scientifically anachronistic to the original context, Jesus embodied every colour, and as we assert, he did — through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension — represent every human being no matter what age, gender, race, class, or ability. That might be worth exploring in another Insight!
Anyway, I digress! Someone’s face being lit up, radiating, or glowing, was a sign of God’s presence. Think back to the face of Moses who, after coming down from a mountaintop experience with God, glowed with Godliness. I’m sure that God wanted Jesus’ disciples, and Luke his readers, to make the connection between Moses and Jesus. Yep, glowing is associated with encounters with God. You may have experienced how Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, radiate God’s love, joy, and peace? Well, it’s the same thing, however, the question I want to address in this short Insight is, how does God truly see us? What do we look like to God? And to answer this question, we’re going to dive into, and sweep across the pages of scripture to find out.
Let’s being in Genesis, Chapter 1
“Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness… so God created humans in his image… God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1.26-31)
Firstly, God sees us as very good. As we read in Psalm 139, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (v14) and as Paul reminds us in his letter to the church in Colossae, we are “holy and beloved” (c3.v12), therefore before our life in Christ even comes into the equation, God sees us as a good thing! You are a good thing!
However, God does not look at us through rose-tinted glasses. God is not blind to our failures and mistakes, our pride and how we put ourselves first at the expense of others and the world around us. Yep, God also sees us for who we truly are, but the good news is that there is more to it than that.
There’s another saying, and that is ‘love is blind’ meaning that if you love someone you don’t see their faults, and in a way, although it doesn’t quite fit, when God looks at those of us who are in Christ Jesus, God does not ‘see’ our faults. “Hang on!” I hear you cry, how can God both see our mistakes and failures and not see our mistakes and failures at the same time? I think that God ‘sees’ our mistakes and failures but that through Christ they are no longer of any consequence. My sins, when covered by Christ, are as consequential to God as my choice of breakfast cereal or my preference for sans-serif typefaces. Yes, God sees them, but at the same time doesn’t see them.
Okay, I’m probably confusing you, so let’s get back to scripture.
Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Colossae, “…your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (c3.v3) Hidden with Christ is a great way of putting it. When God looks at our sin, the Maker sees Jesus, metaphorically, standing in the way. Our sin is literally hidden behind Christ.
Likewise, the writer in the book of Hebrews echoes the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8.4)
And Paul in his letter to the church in Rome wrote, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8.1)
Or think about Paul’s great passage on love from his letter to the church in Corinth, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13.4-7) God is love. God keeps no record of wrongs!
Or back to the letter to Colossae again, “Jesus has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.” (Colossians 1.22)
Do I need to go on?
God sees us, not through rose-tinted glasses but through Christ-tinted glasses.
Perhaps one of the most famous quotes about how God sees us is in the book of Revelation where John wrote, “And there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!'” (Revelation 7.9-10)
The white robes in that passage from Revelation represent how God sees us — holy and blameless, clean and spotless.
Now we have established how God sees us, what does it mean for us?
I guess, for those of us with a lack of self-worth, self-doubts, and carrying burdens of guilt and shame, well, it’s not God putting that on us but ourselves, and I don’t know what we can do to move from a distorted view of ourselves to a holy view of ourselves. I can only imagine it is a case of trusting in, and reminding ourselves of, God’s promises, as I have outlined in this message. I think too, to feel God’s unconditional love and acceptance, this love is mediated through other Christians — through our Church communities.
I remember once, a grandmother who had suffered severe trauma and struggled to express physical love towards her daughter, however, when her grand-daughter came along, the grand-daughter would throw her arms around grandma in acts of unconditional love and devotion. Through this wanton expression of love, Grandma slowly began to learn how to express unconditional love and then was able to freely hug her daughter.
It’s the same with us. Sometimes we too need to learn to be loved.
So, today, may you know that you are more precious than you can possibly imagine and that God loves you, because God loves you, because God loves you, and that God remembers your sins no more. You are truly free.
Amen.
Further Reading
Why do we need to Listen to Jesus?
and then