“No one has ever seen God”. Do you know where this phrase appears? Maybe in some best-selling atheistic book? Something like “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, or maybe “God Is Not Great” by the late Christopher Hitchens. Maybe it does appear in those books. But the phrase “No one has ever seen God” is in the Bible! Twice!
We see the same sentence twice by the same author, the apostle, John. It says in John 1 and in 1 John 4, “No one has ever seen God, but…”
That little word ‘but’ is really important, isn’t it? John is saying, “No one has ever seen God, but for these two examples.” What are they?
Firstly, “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
John admits no one has ever seen God. God the Father is Spirit. Ok, in the Old Testament people saw only partial revelations of God. No one could ever hope to see God and live if they saw the complete glory of God.
But John says, to see God in Christ is a better, complete way to see God. John is saying if you want to see God, look at Jesus, because Jesus ‘has made God known’.
This is extraordinary. Charles Wesley wrote the brilliant words in a hymn, “Our God contracted to a span, Incomprehensibly made man.”
If you or your unbelieving friends want to see God, John is saying they need to look at Jesus. And in fact, when you open your Bibles and read the pages of Scripture about Jesus, you are meeting God. That should make us think about our approach to the Bible.
Secondly, “No one has ever seen God, but… if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:12
Again, this is extraordinary. John is saying there is another place to see God, in the Church! When the world sees believers loving one another, caring for one another, praying for one another, John is telling us the world is seeing God at work.
And again, this should change the way we see and treat one another. For the sake of our witness, for the sake of the lost to see an all-loving God, we need to be loving each other.
Martin Luther wisely said, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbour does.”
The world needs to see a church that cares, because then they will see a God that cares.
Lloyd
John Jones says
Thanks again Lloyd.
Had to search the hymn you took the verse from!
Some more amazing words in this hymn as well.
Let earth and heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man.
He laid his glory by,
He wrapped him in our clay;
Unmarked by human eye,
The latent Godhead lay;
Infant of days he here became,
And bore the mild Immanuel’s name.
Unsearchable the love
That hath the Saviour brought;
The grace is far above
Or man or angels thought;
Suffice for us that God, we know,
Our God, is manifest below.
He deigns in flesh to appear,
Widest extremes to join;
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.
Made perfect first in love,
And sanctified by grace,
We shall from earth remove,
And see his glorious face:
Then shall his love be fully showed,
And man shall then be lost in God.
Charles Wesley (1701-1778;