One of the most puzzling and revealing statements Jesus made about God the Father can be found in John 5:37: “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.” Jesus then repeats the fact that only He has seen the Father in John 6:46: “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father” (NIV). When Jesus mentions “the One who is from God” He is referring to Himself.
Several decades later the Apostle John repeats this assertion in one of his epistles: “No one has seen God at any time” (1 John 4:12). But in the Old Testament we are told that a number of people did see God, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron and the 70 elders of Israel, Joshua and Gideon. Nearly all of these are described as face-to-face encounters, with two specifically described as visions. Abraham ate a meal with God (Genesis 18:1-8) and Jacob wrestled with God (Genesis 32:22-32).
John explains who these individuals interacted with when they saw God: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18, NIV). The divine Being who interacted directly with humanity was “the Word [who] was with God” and at the same time “was God” and “was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). He was the One who, as John explains, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (verse 14) as Jesus of Nazareth.
Perhaps the boldest claim Jesus made about His identity is found in John 8:56-58 when He announced “Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” maintaining He existed when Abraham lived some 2,000 years earlier. Jesus then shocked the Jews even more, declaring, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM’” revealing His identity as the actual One whom the Jews knew as God in the Old Testament. When God first revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14 Moses asked Him what His name was and He replied. “I AM WHO I AM.”
Jesus clearly claimed to be this same Being—the “I AM” of Exodus 3:14, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (verse 15). This led to the Jews attempting to stone Him for blasphemy. He also made another statement that incensed them: “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). That is, the Father and Jesus were both divine.
Christ also understood He was the only One who could reveal the Father. “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). Jesus dealt with mankind on the Father’s behalf as His Spokesman under His direction (John 8:28;12:49-50). By His perfect example He demonstrated exactly what God the Father is like—that He personifies love in all that He is and does (1 John 4:8 and 16).
