John 1:18
Jesus Reveals God To Us
John 1:18 MKJV No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Jesus is a complete declaration of what God is like. He is the “exact representation” of His being (Hebrews 1:1-3) and the “fullness of Deity in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9) so that it could be said that Jesus and the Father were one (John 10:30) and those who have seen Jesus have also seen the Father. (John 14:9)
In practical terms that means that God the Father is like Jesus. He is not the grumpy old man sitting on a cloud throwing thunderbolts at sinners. He loves those sinners, has compassion on them, wishes to show them mercy, sends His rain on the just and the unjust, heals them, loves them and sent His Son to die for them.
If God is like Jesus then God is also kind and gracious and God also heals, and God also resurrects.
Is God really the friends of drunkards and sinners? Would God supply wine at a wedding? Would God touch a leper? Surely in Christ He did so.
Sometimes God and Jesus are almost portrayed as opposites – good cop, bad cop style. That is false. If Jesus is a prefect representation of God then there is no inconsistency between the two. They are never opposites. God is not harsh, while Jesus is merciful. Jesus is not kind while God is cruel. Jesus shows us what God is really like – good, kind, accepting, patient and compassionate.
God came in Christ to achieve reconciliation with His Creation; here it is in two versions:
2 Corinthians 5:19 LITV (19) as, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not charging their deviations to them, and having put the Word of reconciliation in us.
2 Corinthians 5:19 HCSB (19) that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
Colossians sees this as a reconciliation involving the whole cosmos:
Colossians 1:18-20 LITV (18) And He is the Head of the body, the assembly, who is the Beginning, the First-born out of the dead, that He be preeminent in all things; (19) because all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him, (20) and through Him making peace by the blood of His cross, to reconcile all things to Himself; through Him, whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens.
So God took on material form, human form, in Christ and reconciled the entire Universe to Himself. Jesus Christ is God’s perfect statement about Himself and His appeal to His Creation to be reconciled with Him. This is the King’s Son, His only Son, in His exact image, His final appeal that we must not reject. (Luke 20:9-18)
In Jesus Christ God walks among us in a human body and tells us all what He is like. God is love. God is relational above all else. God wants us back with Him; God has come to the lost to bring them home.
Since Jesus is the perfect declaration of what God is like then we must takes Jesus with utmost seriousness. He is not just a prophet, or a good teacher or a moral man rather He is God revealed to us and we must study to know Him.
Once we realize that Jesus is God revealed to us then all the “funny notions” of Jesus as a Jewish revolutionary, or Jesus as a Essene, and countless others must be dismissed. Jesus was a person of great personal authority (Matthew 7:29) who people followed and obeyed and who could rightly give new commandments (John 13:34) because Jesus Himself was God.
Jesus is the final word about God. The law and the prophets were partial and fragmentary words, but Jesus is the complete package.
Hebrews 1:1-2 MKJV God, who at many times and in many ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, (2) has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds,
What does Jesus tell us about God? That God is a living, compassionate, truthful and gracious Being who is interested in us and in our problems, who will heal a broken arm, rebuke a demon, provide bread, make wine, still a storm, and answer our honest questions.
God is someone who will go to a party and eat with you. He will even invite you to His wedding feast!
Blessings in Jesus,
