"They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads."
— Revelation 22:4
Quick Answer
Yes. Scripture promises that in the new creation believers will see God's face (Revelation 22:4), a privilege limited on earth (Exodus 33:20) but granted to the glorified through Christ, who alone perfectly reveals the Father (John 14:9), so we will finally know him as fully as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Old Testament Problem
When Moses asked to see God's glory, he received both a yes and a no. God agreed to let his goodness pass before Moses, but added, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live (Exodus 33:20). Even Israel's greatest prophet, who spoke with God as with a friend, was denied full, unshielded sight of him.
This was not God being unnecessarily withholding. It reflects a real danger: sinful, mortal humanity cannot survive unmediated exposure to God's unveiled holiness, any more than unprotected eyes can stare directly at the sun.
The same danger appears elsewhere in the Old Testament. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon's parents, Manoah cried out, we shall surely die, for we have seen God (Judges 13:22). Encountering God's presence, even indirectly, regularly produced fear and a sense of mortal peril in Scripture's story, precisely because sin and holiness cannot safely occupy the same unguarded space.
A Promise Reserved for the Glorified
This is why Revelation's promise is so striking. In the new Jerusalem, after the curse is entirely gone (Revelation 22:3), John writes, they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads (Revelation 22:4). What was fatal for sinful Moses becomes the crowning joy of the redeemed.
The difference is not that God has changed, or lowered his holiness. The difference is that his people will have changed — glorified, purified, made able to bear what could not be borne before.
This is part of what makes the gospel so remarkable. Christ did not lower God's holiness to make it safe for sinners to approach; he raised sinners, through his own righteousness credited to them, to a standing where approaching that same unaltered holiness becomes not just safe but the deepest joy available to them.
Already Glimpsed in the Face of Christ
We do not wait in the dark until then. Paul writes that God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Jesus told his disciples plainly, whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).
Every glimpse of Christ's character in the Gospels — his compassion, his truth, his authority, his tenderness toward the broken — is a real, if partial, look at the face we will one day see completely unveiled.
A Friendship Foreshadowed
Numbers 12:8 describes something unique about Moses's relationship with God: with him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Moses had a closeness with God that no other Old Testament figure shared — and yet even this was a shadow of what all believers will one day receive.
What was extraordinary and singular for Moses becomes the ordinary inheritance of every believer in glory. The most intimate relationship in the Old Testament becomes the baseline experience of the new creation.
Not Terror, But Perfect Love
It is worth asking honestly: would standing face to face with holy God be terrifying rather than joyful? Scripture answers with confidence, not anxiety. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). By the time believers stand before God's unveiled face, sin, the thing that made his presence dangerous, will be entirely gone (Revelation 21:27), and bodies will be transformed to bear his glory (Philippians 3:21).
What was once a fatal encounter becomes the safest, most joyful moment imaginable — like a child finally running, without any barrier, into a parent's open arms.
The Goal All Along
Paul's language in 1 Corinthians 13:12 — now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known — captures the whole trajectory of the Christian life. Everything now is partial: partial knowledge, partial sight, partial closeness. Face to face vision is the completion, not an extra bonus tacked on.
This is, in the end, what we were made for — not just a place free of pain, but a Person to be seen, known, and enjoyed forever, without a single barrier left standing between his face and ours.
So if you find yourself longing, even faintly, for something more than this world has ever offered, take that longing seriously rather than dismissing it. Scripture says it points somewhere real and reachable — toward a face you were made to see, and one day will.
In the meantime, do not underestimate what is available even now. Prayer, worship, and the reading of Scripture are not merely religious duties to check off; they are the ordinary, God-appointed means by which believers already draw near to the one they will one day see unveiled. Every honest prayer is, in its own small way, already a step toward that face.