Finding The Real Jesus - A Face Like The Sun

Finding The Real Jesus - A Face Like The Sun

“...and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” —Rev. 1:16

As John relates his vision of the heavenly Jesus, he attempts to describe for us what happened when he finally glanced at the Lord’s face. The face is the most important thing we look at when we want to know someone. Every detail in a person’s face reveals to us something about who they are.

Jesus’s face is not like that. Have you ever noticed that the Bible never describes His face? When Jesus walked on this earth, He did so in a body that we know absolutely nothing about. The Bible never mentions His skin tone, the color of His eyes, His nose, ears, mouth, chin or any facial feature at all. We know literally nothing.

The only description we have of His face is found right here, in Revelation 1. But it still doesn’t reveal Jesus to us, does it? Instead, John describes an incredibly intense light that shines in strength, like the sun, illuminating everything around it.

You see, His face is not like other faces. The face of Jesus doesn’t reveal who He is. The face of Jesus reveals who you are.

John didn’t expect that. He wasn’t prepared for the trauma of staring into the illuminating light of Jesus’s face. He was suddenly exposed. The reality of his sin and his own unworthiness was revealed for what it was and the very next thing we read is that John collapsed “like a dead man.”

That is exactly what happened to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:28) and Daniel (Daniel 10:6-9).

In Colossians 1:12, Paul calls believers “Saints in the Light.” Literally, that means holy ones in the Light. It is the illuminating Light of Jesus Christ, who calls Himself the Light of the World, that makes us holy.

The face of Christ is an illuminating Light that exposes us, reveals to us who we are and drives us to our knees as utterly unworthy to stand before a holy and pure God.

Now, if that were the end of the story, we would be forever doomed and there would never be any hope for any of us ever again. But there is more. Tomorrow, we will look at the final piece of John’s vision and we will see why it is a thing of beauty and joy, not of dread and fear.

Hebrews 4:12

“For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”