I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. . . . His eyes were like a flame of fire. (Revelation 1:12–14)
What will it be like to look Jesus in the eye?
You will. The day is coming. Are you ready for that heart-stopping instant? What thrill, or dread, will flood your soul when at last you see his face, and look into his eyes?
Those Eyes
The apostle John must have been haunted by those eyes on the isle of Patmos — or at least unnerved. That first look at the glorified gaze of Jesus was doubtless seared into his mind and soul, both terrifying and thrilling. As fire dances with light and heat, alive with both warmth and threat, so Jesus’s eyes marked John so profoundly that he draws attention to them three times in the Apocalypse.
In the opening chapter, a loud voice, from behind him, rings in his ears like a trumpet. “I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. . . . His eyes were like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:12–14). A chapter later, John recalls those eyes in the letter to Thyatira: Jesus is “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire” (2:18). Then once more in Revelation 19: Jesus, called “Faithful and True,” sits on a white horse, judging righteously and making war (verse 11). What does John see? “His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems” (verse 12).
In this apocalyptic style, John doesn’t mean for us to take this literally and draw pictures of Jesus with embers for irises. These visions signify realities beyond concrete description. Jesus’s eyes are not actually ablaze; they are like a flame of fire — just as his hair is white like wool and snow, his feet like burnished bronze, his voice like the roar of many waters.
What then might we see when we look into the flame of Jesus’s eyes?
Eyes That See All
First, the fire in his eyes means he sees all. The risen, glorified God-man now possesses divinely penetrating sight. No creature is hidden from him; no act unseen. All stand naked and exposed to his piercing gaze (Hebrews 4:13). He sees and knows all — in every nation, in every church, in every heart. He knows who is faithful, and who is faithless. He knows precisely whose hearts are soft toward him and whose are diamond-hard.
In the vision of Revelation 5, the Lamb — once slain, now standing in resurrected strength — has seven horns, the fullness of regal power, and seven eyes, the fullness of divine omniscience and wisdom (verse 6). Nothing escapes his sight and insight. He not only sees and knows all, but sees and knows all perfectly, without any error or mistake in judgment. His penetrating vision is both pure and perfect, leading to infallible discernment.
Eyes of Anger — and Grief
The war horse beneath him reveals another aspect of his vision (Revelation 19:12). The flames in his eyes are “a devouring fire” (Isaiah 29:6), the “consuming fire” of God himself that will destroy his foes and the enemies of his people (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). For the wicked, the fire in Jesus’s eyes flashes with the horrors of his impending justice.
Holy anger is no stranger to his eyes. In the days of his flesh, Jesus looked with anger on the conniving wicked, even as he looked with grief on their hardness of heart. Mark, who pays particular attention to Jesus’s eyes, captures the key moment. On the Sabbath, Jesus encounters a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees watch with accusing glances. Jesus asks them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” When they refuse to answer, Jesus “looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored” (Mark 3:4–5).
Here his eyes flare with righteous anger — even as he grieves. These craven Pharisees cannot bring themselves to concede the obvious answer to his question. They would rather roll over in their sin than repent. Their hearts have been laid bare, not just their legal oversight. And on such conniving, hard-hearted men, Jesus looks with holy anger at their actions, even as he looks with grief on their unbelief.
Eyes Alight with Love
Ever attentive to Jesus’s gaze, Mark also reports the mercy in his eyes. When a chronically diseased woman in the crowd touches Jesus from behind, he looks to see who has done it (Mark 5:32). The woman fears his ire and falls before him trembling. But she is no Pharisee. When she raises her head and looks into his face, she must have seen the affection in his eyes as he assures her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34).
Jesus looks with love on the humbled, repentant sinner. His eyes fill with compassion for a sea of hungry humanity, for the harassed and helpless masses (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; John 6:5). But perhaps the surprising eyes of Jesus for the rich young man remain most memorable. Mark tells us that the man had run up to Jesus, knelt, and asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus threw the book (of Moses) at him. Naively, the man replies, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth” (Mark 10:20). There’s no way. We expect the flare of anger Jesus has for devious Pharisees. But he sees no guile: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:21). Oh, to see such love in the eyes of Jesus! Still, the rich man walks away. What soul-destroying danger lies in the love of money.
Yet don’t assume Jesus’s love and compassion make him anything less than all-powerful. In Revelation 19, above his piercing eyes lies not only a single great crown but “many diadems.” He is King over all kings, Lord over all lords, sovereign over all in authority and power — an authority he demonstrates with that fateful look into the eyes of Peter.
Eyes That Give Strength
John was not the only apostle to meet the stunning eyes of Christ in an unexpected moment. How much did Jesus say to Peter without any words? Who knows (other than Jesus and Peter) what all we might make of that salient look across the courtyard? Did it all come together — knowledge, warning, anger, grief, love, power — in that one arresting moment?
Jesus told Peter ahead of time that Peter would deny him. Jesus also said, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). That same night, Peter indeed denies his Lord three times. The rooster crows as the third denial leaves his lips. “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61).
At the very least, this look prompts Peter to remember what Jesus had said. His prediction proved right. Peter goes and weeps bitterly. But how much more than disappointment must have been in the eyes of Jesus? Unlike Judas, Peter does not hang himself. Jesus had prayed for him. His look is not just convicting but empowering. Rightly would Peter mourn his failures and weakness. But now, freshly humbled, he also has a commission from the sovereign Christ, who sees and knows all.
Jesus’s look of grace upholds him. Peter’s faith does not fail. In the eyes of Jesus, he finds renewed strength to strengthen the brothers.
Eye Contact with God
So, imagine that instant when you look at last on the face of Jesus. You “will see his face” (Revelation 22:4). You will look into his eyes. And you will see his eyes looking back.
He sits in glory, on the throne of power at the right hand of Majesty. His piercing, dazzling eyes have found you.
What will you see, and feel, when you look into the fire of his eyes? What a fearsome wonder that will be. What a horror for an unshielded sinner. And what a purifying, exhilarating, unnerving, satisfying thrill for those who love him, worship him, and know themselves rescued by him.
What will it be like to look Jesus in the eye?
Desiring God