When
Christ comes, God will be seen by men
From a treatise Against
Heresies by Irenaeus, 130-200 A.D.
There is one God, who by his word and wisdom created all things and
set them in order. His word is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in this last
age became man among men to unite end and beginning, that is, man and God.
The prophets, receiving the gift of prophecy from this same Word, foretold
his coming in the flesh, which brought about the union and communion between
God and man ordained by the Father. From the beginning the word of God
prophesied that God would be seen by men and would live among them on earth;
he would speak with his own creation and be present to it,
bringing it salvation and being visible to it. He would free us from
the hands of all who hate us, that is, form the universal spirit of sin,
and enable us to serve him in holiness and justice all our days. Man was
to receive the Spirit of God and so to attain to the glory of the Father.
The prophets foretold that God would be seen by men. As the Lord himself
says: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. In
his greatness and inexpressible glory no one can see God and live, for
the Father is beyond our comprehension. But in his love and generosity
and omnipotence he allows even this to those who love him, that is, even
to see God, as the prophets foretold. For what is impossible to men is
possible to God.
By his own powers man cannot see God; yet God will be seen by men because
he wills it. He will be seen by those he chooses, at the time he
chooses, and in the way he chooses, for God can do all things. He was seen
of old through the Spirit in prophecy; he is seen through the Son by our
adoption as his children, and he will be seen in the kingdom of heaven
in his own being as the Father. The Spirit prepares man to receive the
Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, and the Father, freeing him
from change and decay, bestows the eternal life that comes to everyone
from seeing God.
As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those
who see God are in God sharing his glory, and that glory gives them life.
To see God is to share in life.
