June 17 I Monday

Nehemiah 7-9

Acts 3

“If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”   

—John 14:7

What is God like? We can try and answer that question by defining God by His attributes: He is all-powerful, all knowing, unchanging, everywhere at the same time and eternal. We can define God in those terms, but in so doing, we share that understanding with most religions and their idea of God. All the monotheistic religions hold this concept of what God is like.

But when we ask, “What is God like?” we are not really asking about His attributes. We are talking about His character. The ultimate answer to “What is God like?” is that He is like Jesus. John tells us, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known” (John 1:18). If we want to know what
God is like, we can simply look at Jesus, who is the revelation of God to us.

When Jesus was teaching His disciples in the Upper Room, Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8). Jesus replied: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Philip was asking Jesus, “What is the Father like?” and Jesus
simply replied, “The Father is like Me.”

In other words, the Father is Christ-like. As Paul explains, “The Son is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). God Himself is invisible, but the visible revelation and portrayal of God is in Christ. It is not that Christ is like God but that God is like Christ. The reference point where we have some tangible concrete understanding of the character of Jesus Christ is the character of God.

There is a dichotomy in the minds of many people between knowing what God is like and what Jesus is like. Some are afraid of God but very few are afraid of Jesus. In the Old Testament, God is the judge of sinners; while in the New Testament, Jesus is the friend of
sinners. There are some people who like Jesus but are unsure about God.

But the reality is that we know God by knowing Jesus, not the other way around. That is why we do not preach God but Christ; where we do not introduce people to God, we introduce people to Christ. In introducing people to Christ, through Him, they get to know the Father. Hence, Jesus says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). We can know the Father by
getting to know the Son, because the only God there is, is a Christ-like God.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I am grateful that You are not an imperceptible God but one that is personal and near to us.