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Detailed question
I understand that “God is spirit”, that he is “invisible”, that we will see his face and we will behold the Lamb but Will we see the three Persons of the Trinity in heaven, or will we only see Jesus and He will reveal to us the Father and the Spirit in some way? I would like to specify my question.
What kind of *sensible* interaction might we have with the Trinity in eternity to come and the new heavens and new earth. Will it be visible? Or will we simply be aware (cognitively or by faith) of the Father and the Spirit without any visible manifestations of them? Jesus’ words of “whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” come to mind).
Summary
How will we experience the Trinity in heaven? Will we see the Father, Son, and Spirit visibly, or only Jesus, who reveals the Father and Spirit to us? Wrestling with these profound questions, the discussion emphasized that God is Spirit and infinite, and His essence remains incomprehensible to us. In heaven, we will see Jesus as He is, glorified and whole, as affirmed in 1 John 3. While our relationship with the Trinity will remain deeply connected—reflecting the Trinitarian nature of prayer—we will still be human, freed from sin and weariness. The new heavens and earth will be a restored physical creation where we praise God eternally, beholding the Lamb in glory.
Got a question on Christianity, Gospel, Scripture, Theology? Submit your own questions here.
Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
heaven, trinity, spirit, father, jesus, god, sin, trinitarian, question, lamb, visible, weighed, weariness, understand, beatific vision, physical, day, wrestling, eternity, infinite
SPEAKERS
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Wim Kerkhoff
Wim Kerkhoff 00:08
Okay, this is a long question to summarize it with the title, How will we see the Trinity in heaven? I understand that God is spirit, that He’s invisible, that we will see his face, and we will behold the Lamb. But will we see the three persons of the Trinity in heaven, or will we only see Jesus, and He will reveal to us the Father and the Spirit in this in some way? And then the person, kind of like the next day, sent a follow up. I posed a question about the interaction with the Trinity and eternity a few days ago, I would like to specify my question. What kind of sensible interaction might we have with the Trinity and eternity to come and the new heavens and new earth? Will it be visible, or will we simply be aware, cognitively or by faith, of the Father and the Spirit without any visible manifestations of them? Jesus’ words of whoever has seen me has seen the Father, come to mind.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick 00:59
From what little I know about this tough question, I feel like the person answered it as they were wrestling through it.
Pastor Jim Butler
It does sound that way. Yeah, it really does.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick
Well, especially when you consider the fact that God is Spirit. He doesn’t stop being God when we get to heaven, and we don’t stop being man when we get to heaven. And so, you know, there’s, you know, we’re never going to be able to exhaust the infinite beauty and infinite majesty of God, and we’re never going to be able to comprehend his essence. But I think, you know, 1 John 3 does speak about seeing Jesus as He is, and we shall be like Him. And I think, as the questioner says, you know, we’ve seen Jesus, we’ve seen the Father and reality, everything we do is Trinitarian, even when we pray, it’s Trinitarian. We see this in, you know, Galatians, chapter four, God sent forth his Son and then born of a woman, born under the law. But then also we have the Spirit of adoption, who’s been poured out in our hearts. And we cry out to God, so we cry out to the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. And certainly there are a lot of things I don’t think I understand about the beatific vision, the Blessed Vision. I’d like to read more on that, to be sure. But certainly, seeing Jesus as He is clear in 1 John 3. Certainly the fact that God’s not going to change because He cannot change, is clear, and the fact that we will still be humans is very clear as well, but we will certainly not be weighed down by sin, weighed down by the weariness of this world, and we’ll get to praise our God, world without end.
Wim Kerkhoff 02:41
Yep, and seeing the Lamb, it’s not like we’re seeing a sheep or a physical lamb, right? This is Jesus, the man that’s right in his flesh or a human nature. See the holes in His hands, etc. But he’s, yeah, healed and whole and glorified, yeah? And that’s the new heaven, the New Earth. It’s a physical place for physical people, right? So there’s continuity, but discontinuity, like it’s sin, is gone. It’s restored creation.
