“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).
The Creator of all things is not visible to the corporeal eye (Col. 1:15; Heb. 11:27). No time in human history has any mere mortal man seen God as He is, having never seen His shape nor heard His voice (I John 4:12; John 5:37). God has manifested Himself to man in various ways, as when Moses saw God’s “back parts,” (for no man can see His face and live–Ex. 33:20-23), or when He appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18:1-19:1), or when He appeared to the prophets (i.e., Is. 6:1-13). But God Himself, as God, has never been seen by merely mortal eyes.
And yet, men have seen God in a way that is perhaps just as clear. The Lord said, when asked by Philip “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8), “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9). This statement of Jesus cannot mean that The Son and the Father were numerically identical for on other occasions the Father spoke from heaven while the Son was on the earth (Matt. 3:13-17). Nor does it mean that Jesus’ physical body is what the Father looked like, for God is a spirit (John 4:24) and a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39).
The Bible teaches that Jesus “hath declared Him” (John 1:18). Jesus is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). Just as the sunshine reveals the sun, so does Jesus reveal the Father. Jesus said “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30).
In everything Jesus did, He acted as would the Father (John 8:28). Just as the Old Testament was written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), the Gospel Record reveals to us, not only the historical account of Jesus of Nazareth, but they afford us a look into the divine nature itself. How do I know the love of God (John 3:16)? By looking at how Jesus loved. Jesus said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). How do I know the purity of God (Hab. 1:13)? I can see it in the sinlessness of Jesus (Heb. 4:15). How do I know the power of God (Ps. 147:5)? I can see it in the miracles of Jesus (Mark 4:41; John 3:1,2). All that can be known of God can be seen in Jesus (John 10:30)
Jesus reveals the Father in both His actions and His words. “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (John 6:45). To hear Jesus is to hear the Father! To hear and follow the Son of God is to be able to partake of that divine nature which Jesus manifested to us. Peter said “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Peter 1:3-4). Through the knowledge of Him we can fellowship, participate in, the divine nature!
How sublime a thought. Our mortal eyes may have never seen the Father, but we know Him nevertheless. Not only do we know Him, but we partake of His divine nature. We become one with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and through this the world may be led to believe in Jesus (John 17:21).
Eric L. Padgett