John 1.18

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

This verse gives us more support for the idea of the trinitarian God, and it shows some of the difficulty associated with talking about him. A rephrasing of the verse would be as follows: “No one has ever seen the fullness of God, except that God the Son, who is now at the side of God the Father, has revealed him to us. This is valuable information for us for it tells us that we can know God without actually seeing him, which is great since we haven’t. 

When John remarks that no one has ever seen God, he likely has in mind the passage of Exodus 3: Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

The fact that no one has ever seen God is not because God is shy or he has something to hide. He is not the Wizard of Oz. It’s more of a problem of our capacity. The glory and purity of God is simply overwhelming to humans in our present sinful state. Isaiah had a vision in which he saw God and even in a vision he found the experience overwhelming. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6.5).

The fact that we have not seen God is a big problem. We have a tendency to think of the problem as related to believing in him. Seeing is believing. If God really loved me he would reveal himself to me. But Jesus was God and most who saw him, heard his authoritative words, and saw his many signs still did not believe in him. In fact, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, apparently interacted with God on a physical level when they were in the Garden of Eden. After they had eaten the forbidden fruit they heard the Lord walking in the Garden and they hid themselves from him. Perhaps this was Jesus, cloaked in human flesh. It is clear that God did not reveal himself to Adam and Eve as he did to Moses or as he did in Isaiah’s vision. Nonetheless, he was there with them and yet they failed to trust him. As a consequence they were banished from the Garden and they lost the privilege of being in God’s presence. This loss has generated all sorts of problems for the human race. Some of those problems have been erased by the sacrificial work of Christ. Some have been erased by Christ’s sending of the Holy Spirit, but we still live in a world where the absence of God is deeply felt. If not deeply felt, his absence is evident in every direction we might look. 

But this situation is coming to a close. The apostle Paul spoke with excited anticipation of what is to come: Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1Corinthians 13.12). Paul is making this wonderful point, that when we are with God in the future, there will be no more barriers between us. Estrangement will be replaced by intimacy. In the kingdom of God all relationships will be intimate. Do you know anyone with whom you are completely open? Even husbands and wives hold back some thoughts, perhaps out of fear of causing harm, or perhaps out of fear of negative reactions. But what a difference it will be when all our thoughts are met with understanding and kindness. How wonderful it will be when we open ourselves up to others only to be loved more by them. Seeing God is something we have been promised. This seeing opens up all blessed understanding. 

John says that God (Jesus) is at the Father’s side. This is not the only place we see this mentioned in the New Testament. For example, Luke described Stephen just before he was stoned to death: But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7.55,56). The writer to the Hebrews made this observation: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1.3).

Perhaps these verses are literal—I am unclear on that point. But their significance is clear. Jesus’ position at the right hand of the Father is the place of greatest honor. God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2.9-11).

And, finally, in spite of the difficulties we still experience because of God’s distance from us, John proclaims that Jesus has made God known. How did Jesus make God known? His entire life was a revelation. I will not pretend to give an exhaustive presentation of the revelation but here are what I hope are the main aspects:

1. He revealed his humility. It is a strange thing to have a God who is creator of the universe, who is all-powerful and full of knowledge, who demands to be worshipped, and yet who reveals himself in a completely humble way. He was born a child. Jesus has always existed. He could have flown onto the earth in a chariot, with angels and fanfare, but he was born a helpless baby to poor parents in a backwater town in a backwater country that wasn’t even independent. He was not handsome or especially noteworthy. Even his siblings did not think of him as particularly special. Odd, perhaps. He never had any money or earthly power. He was a provincial whose travels were limited to Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon.  When it came time for him to to be tried and crucified, he was passive. In short, from a worldly perspective, his life was unremarkable and, if not for a few exceptional actioins, he would have been quickly forgotten by all. 

2. He revealed God’s interest in the people he had created. He came to dwell with his people. He was called Emmanuel, (God with us). He revealed God to be relational and personal. 

3. He revealed God through his teachings, which focused especially on love through service. He confirmed Old Testament teachings about morality, while clarifying the importance of their spiritual depth. His Sermon On the Mount, in itself, captures most of God’s wonderful thinking.

4. He revealed God through his miracles. These miracles did two basic things. The first is that they proved that he was either a prophet sent from God, or he was himself God. John presents him as the latter. The second focus of the miracles was healing. Wherever he went he healed people of their maladies, demonstrating his compassion for those in need, and demonstrating the initiation of his new Kingdom in which both spiritual and physical corruption were to be corrected. 

5. He revealed God’s interest in ongoing provision for his people. He did this via calling the Apostles who, in turn, established the Church, and who also recorded the teachings of Christ in order to help the Church remain true, as well as to help the Church remain salt (a blessing) to the earth. Similarly, he sent the Holy Spirit to give his Church comfort and power for the tasks it was to continue.

6. He sacrificed himself for the sake of his people. He demonstrated his absolute love in this way, even as he demonstrated the critical elements of service and sacrifice to the meaning of love. His sacrifice also demonstrated the severe importance of holiness. 

7. He revealed God’s power over death through his resurrection. While he had already raised others from the dead, most notably, Lazarus, this resurrection was of a different sort. Lazarus was raised but was returned to his corruptible body. Jesus, in contrast, was raised to an incorruptible body. This proved that his kingdom was not to be like the kingdom of David and Solomon. While theirs was the highlight of historic Israel, it was a glorious flash and then gone, sputtering to a halt in a morass of corruption. Jesus’ resurrection stood as a promise to all who would be in his kingdom, that they would rise to live forever in an incorruptible society.

John believed these revelations to be true, as did the other Apostles, as well as many other early witnesses to the life of Christ. Would they have believed it if they had not seem him after the resurrection? The Bible makes it clear the answer is, “No”. Even Peter, the most audacious of the Apostles, denied knowing Jesus during the night of Jesus’ trial. The Apostles were defeated, fearful, and in disarray when Jesus was hung on a cross. Naturally they would be. But they were a different set of men, as were all the early disciples, after the resurrection. They had been confronted by a new and wonderful disturbance of a disturbed world. From that time on they were radically committed to serving Jesus. Tradition has it that 11 of the 12 Apostles were martyred for the faith. The one who was not martyred? John, the writer of the Gospel.