Seeing the Father Through the Son
Good morning Immanuel. What we see in Jesus is the very heart of God on display!
“Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 19:8-9)
What is God like?
Various ideas may fill our minds as we attempt to imagine. We could imagine something impersonal, like a force or a power “out there” somewhere. We could even imagine God as something like a cosmic moral calculator, coldly computing good and evil in the universe. Many more have a vague mental picture of God shaped by religion. But God is better than the image we conjure up in our minds. Whatever we think about God, let our minds go to Jesus himself. Theologian Michael Reeves reminds us, “there is no God in heaven who is unlike Jesus.” What we see in Jesus is the very heart of God! Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature (Heb. 1:3). The love, mercy, kindness, goodness, and grace we see in Jesus, are the unfolding of God’s heart towards us. We have not been wooed by the Son’s peace only to find an angry Father behind the veil. We have not been won over by the Son’s kindness only to discover a frumpy Father. We have not received spiritual abundance through the generosity of Jesus, only to find a miserly Father.
Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory, and whoever has seen him has seen the Father. Truly, there is no God in heaven who is unlike Jesus!
🙏🏼