TF Torrance comments on John’s vision of Jesus:
We might have expected, surely, from John such a description as comes from an intimate disciple bearing the familiar traits of a beloved Master and Friend, and yet when he sees Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, John says “When I saw Him I fell at His feet as one dead.” Surely something must have happened for John to talk like that. . . it was the resurrection and ascension. Though humbled for a season, here was Christ glorified with the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. he was so transfigured that when John saw Him he could hardly find words to describe Him, and he fell at His feet quite stunned.
That is how Jesus appears to the man who has seen Him in the power of His resurrection. That is what Jesus becomes for the man whom He has forgiven and redeemed. . . until we have seen Jesus like that, we have not seen Him in His full reality. We have seen Him only in the reality of His fleshly garments and have not seen Jesus who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. (The Apocalypse Today, 15-16 [1960])