John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, *he* hath declared [him].
If, to you, seeing is believing, this statement from John can be frustrating. But it is actually comforting: No one has seen God. No other human being can come to you and tell you that they have “the inside track” into God’s Truth. No, we are all on the same boat.
It was Jesus’ job, His mission, to come to us and reveal the Father. Only He could do it, for only He had been with the Father since eternity. Only He has firsthand knowledge. As He told Nicodemus:
John 3:11-13 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and we bear witness of that which we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe? And no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.
I quote that passage here too because it has that fascinating present tense: Even as Jesus spoke those words, as a man, in the presence of Nicodemus, the Son of man was simultaneously in heaven. Because as John said in 1:18: the Son never ceases being in the bosom of the Father.
That is Good News because that means His witness, His declaration of the Father, is never obsolete, it is never out of date, it is never wrong. As He told the Pharisees, He only said and did what he heard His Father saying and what He saw His father doing in Heaven. It is also Good News because only the Son of the Infinite God could fully understand and therefore explain and reveal the Will of His Father.
If that is so, then why are we here? The priests and the Levites asked John that very question:
John 1:19-23 And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites that they might ask him, Thou, who art thou? And he acknowledged and denied not, and acknowledged, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he says, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore to him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I [am] [the] voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the path of [the] Lord, as said Esaias the prophet.
Why are you here? Who are you to think you have something to say?
John 1:24-27 And they were sent from among the Pharisees. And they asked him and said to him, Why baptisest thou then, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? John answered them saying, I baptise with water. In the midst of you stands, whom ye do not know, he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose.
Who are you to think you have something to say? May my answer always be that of John: I am nobody special. But I have a job to do: to use my voice, even if only a wilderness is willing to listen. I am here to tell you: Get ready, the Lord is coming. In fact, He is here already.
I can’t explain to you the Father. I can’t prove to you His Glory or His Love. In fact, if you expect to see a semblance of His righteousness in my life, be ready to be disappointed. I have failed before and I will fail again. All I can do is baptize with water: To invite you to take the same plunge I took to have my sins washed away.
If you do that, the same faith with which you step into the waters, the same faith with which you say “I want forgiveness”, is the same faith that will open your eyes to see and your ears to hear the Son of God. And He will reveal to you the Father. That is what Jesus asked in prayer:
John 17:24-26 (NASB) “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
