NT Promise 165: God’s Face and Name

Revelation 22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

We have the promise that when we ”enter into the joy of the Lord” in His Eternal Kingdom we will see God face to face, and we will bear His Name on our foreheads. ”Face” and ”name” are concepts used in the Bible to depict the Presence of God. His servants (baptized believers) will be overwhelmed in the glorious, awesome, all-consuming power of love in His naked presence.

Standing in His brilliant Presence and seeing the face of God, beholding the beatific vision, will be an eternity-changing event, and we will be forever changed. We can’t even imagine what that will be like. We shall see Him as he is. Until then, the Face, the Presence, and the palpable Love of God comes to us in hidden form, through means, like the water of Baptism, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the words of absolution, the preached Gospel, and the fellowship and care of the brethren. But hidden behind these means we see the Face.

We will be forever branded as belonging to Him with His Name in our forehead. The ”name” of God is the presence of God, His soul, His character, His personality, His person, His being. It is Love. The Name will be on the forehead for all to see. In this present earthly life God places His Name upon us in Holy Baptism. The priest blesses with the Benediction (Numbers 6:24-26), and in so doing, the priests ”put my name upon the people.” Then He commands us not to ”take (bear, or wear) the name of the Lord your God in vain.” The name is in your forehead now, and even though people do not see it, God does. And we know it’s there, so we behave accordingly.