Podcast Summary: Bearing Witness to God’s Glory

Podcast: Ultimately with R.C. Sproul
Host: Ligonier Ministries
Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the profound theme of "bearing witness to God's glory," examining humanity's unique role in reflecting God's character. Drawing from key moments in biblical history and core Christian doctrine, the discussion highlights the awe-inspiring nature of God’s holiness and our privilege—and limitations—as His image-bearers. The episode centers on the concept of the beatific vision: seeing God in His unveiled glory, which is the highest hope and desire of every Christian.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Human Capacity to Reflect God’s Character

• Human Excellence as Reflection, Not Source:
  Speaker B outlines how humans are specifically created with the capacity to reflect or mirror God's holiness, though we don’t possess holiness intrinsically.
  • “You as a human being have been so constituted and so made and so endowed by your Creator with certain faculties that you have a capacity in creation to reflect or to mirror the holiness of God. You are not holy in and of yourself. God is holy in and of himself. But God has called you in creation to bear witness to him, to refract, to reflect, to bounce to the rest of the world his very character.” [00:14]

Christ as the Perfect Image of God

• Jesus and the Fulfillment of Humanity’s Purpose:
  Speaker A connects these concepts directly to Jesus, who perfectly embodies humanity’s vocation. Christ, called the "new Adam," is the full expression of the divine nature in human form.
  • “Is that not what Christ does in his life of perfect obedience? Does he not fulfill the purpose and the destiny for which man is created? No wonder the theologians talk about Jesus as the new humanity.” [01:26]
  • “He is the brightness, God's glory, the express image of his person. And Jesus says to his disciples, if you see me, you've seen the Father.” [01:39]

The Danger and Beauty of God’s Glory

• The Moses Account:
  Speaker B retells the story of Moses encountering God on Mount Sinai. Even Moses, after beholding only a glimpse of God's "back parts," radiated a reflected glory so overpowering that it frightened the Israelites.

  • “Do you remember when Moses went up to the mountain and he talked with God face to face? Well, not face to face, but face to backward parts. He was only allowed to see the back parts of Yahweh as God hid him in the cleft of the rock. … Moses was so intimately, closely connected with the presence of God and surrounded by the glory of God that when he came down from the mountain, that glory was still reflecting from the face of Moses. And so brilliant was it that...the people's response? They hid their faces. They shrunk back in alarm, and they cried out to Moses, Moses, cover your face.” [02:06–03:26]

• Reflected Versus Unveiled Glory:
  Both speakers emphasize that if even reflected glory is unbearable, direct exposure to God’s unveiled glory would be fatal for sinful people.

  • “Not only can we not stand to look into the pure, unveiled glory of God himself, we can’t even bear the sight of reflected glory.” [00:00, 03:31]
  • “No man can see God and live, but we can't even bear the sight of reflected glory.” [03:39]

The Beatific Vision: The Christian’s Ultimate Hope

• Explanation of the Beatific Vision:
  Speaker B returns to the importance of the "beatific vision"—the hope of one day beholding God directly, made possible only in glory.
  • “The highest goal of the Christian, the thing for which we live and move and have our being, the greatest hope of the consummation of the Christian life, is what we call the beatific vision, the visio dei, the vision of God to be able to look not at the face of Moses, but to look into the face of God himself.” [03:51–04:28]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the Human Role as Reflectors of God’s Glory

  • “God has called you in creation to bear witness to him, to refract, to reflect, to bounce to the rest of the world his very character.” (Speaker B, [00:52])

• On Jesus as the Fulfillment of Human Purpose

  • “Is that not what Christ does in his life of perfect obedience? Does he not fulfill the purpose and the destiny for which man is created?” (Speaker A, [01:26])

• On the People’s Fear of Reflected Glory

  • “They shrunk back in alarm, and they cried out to Moses, Moses, cover your face. Not only can we not stand to look into the pure, unveiled glory of God himself...we can't even bear the sight of reflected glory.” (Speaker A, [03:26])

• On the Highest Goal of Christian Life

  • “The highest goal of the Christian...is what we call the beatific vision...to be able to look not at the face of Moses, but to look into the face of God himself.” (Speaker B, [03:51])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–00:14 — Introduction of the theme: humanity’s inability to perceive God’s glory directly
• 00:14–01:26 — The Christian’s purpose: reflecting God’s character
• 01:26–02:02 — Christ as the ultimate reflection and fulfillment of God’s image in humanity
• 02:03–03:26 — Story of Moses and the terrifying, reflected glory
• 03:26–03:51 — The people’s fearful reaction to Moses’ transformed face
• 03:51–04:28 — The beatific vision as the Christian’s highest hope

Summary

This episode offers a stirring meditation on the mystery and majesty of God’s glory, the privilege and burden of bearing witness to it as His image-bearers, and the hope embedded in the Christian vision of one day beholding God face to face. Through biblical narrative and theological reflection, listeners are urged to grasp both the seriousness and the privilege of reflecting God’s holiness in their lives, always looking forward to the promised beatific vision which fulfills the highest longing of the soul.