God: With A Face

John 14:8-10 – Philip said to [Jesus], "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"

The only glimpse ever given of God, except that curious passage when Moses is granted a discrete view of God's back (Exodus 33:18-23), is in the person of Jesus Christ.

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

And the oneness of Son and Father is the focus of John 17 and the identification of Jesus with the God of Creation.

And here we begin a journey into the very nature of the Creator of heaven and earth. People find many contradictions in the descriptions of God contained in the scriptures, and I do not find this surprising at all when I consider the times and languages and circumstances and changeable conditions and cultures that confronted the people in the days of old. But I am left with no contradiction whatsoever when I am confronted with God in Christ, when I see face to face the very nature of God expressed in Jesus of Nazareth.

Prayer: God of many names, I know you best in the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here, O my Lord, I see you face to face. Grant us a fuller vision of you as we walk through this day. Amen.

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