Jn 1:18  ‘No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.’

The Prologue – a unique part of Scripture.  Here we are introduced to one who is called ‘the Word’, and whose true character is gradually unfolded.  We are taught that this Word is eternal, personal, divine, creative, life-giving, revealing, and (wonder of wonders!) incarnate.

This verse forms the conclusion and climax of the whole prologue.  It stresses that God has never been seen by mortal flesh, nor comprehended by mortal minds.  The great people of God – Moses and the prophets – had barely seen glimpses and heard whispers of God.  But there is One, who has from all eternity reclined in God’s embrace, who has fully and adequately revealed God to us.  Wander no more in the dark.  Search and enquire no longer.  The answer has been revealed.  The mystery has been resolved.

But we are running away with ourselves.

1. GOD IS UNSEEN. ‘No man hath seen God at any time’.

This is a truth consistently taught in both testaments.

Ex 33:20  [God] said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Jn 5 :37  Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

I Tim 1:17  The King eternal, immortal, invisible.

I Jn 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time.

However, you may recall some occasions when some people did see God: Moes, for example, and Isaiah:-

Ex 24:9-11  Then up went Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abih, and seventy of the elders of Israel: and they saw the God of Israel.

However, it is clear from the passage that they did not dare to raise their eyes above God’s footstool.  On another occasion Moses was allowed to see only God’s ‘back parts’; ‘the afterglow of God’s glory’ (Peter Lewis):-

Ex 33:23  “Thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

Again, Isaiah well understood the grave danger of beholding the Lord even in a vision:-

Isa 6:5  “Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

The explanation is that no-one has ever seen God in his essential being.  All revelations of God have been partial, in the form of visions and theophanies.

Why?  Because God is Spirit, and we are frail flesh.  Because God is holy, and we are sinful.  No mortal man could bear to see the full splendour of God.

2. GOD HAS BEEN REVEALED – ‘The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’

There is One who has seen God.

Jn 6 :46  Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Notice the two-fold description: (a) He is ‘the only begotten Son’.  Christ has not only seen God, cf 6:46, he has eternal, personal, and absolute knowledge of the Father.  For he is ‘the only begotten Son’ – God’s ‘unique’ and ‘specially beloved’ Son.

(b) He is ‘in the bosom of the Father’ (AV).  This expression describes the closest and tenderest of relationships, as between mother and child, Num 11:12; or husband and wife, Deut 13:6; or friends reclining at a meal, Jn 13:23.  ‘In the bosom of his special love…in the bosom of his secret counsels’ (Henry).  The union of Father and Son is closer than we can conceive.  And it is a timeless, eternal, glorious union.

Jn 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

The One who has seen the Father has ‘declared him’.  He has shown him to us.  Not, of course,  that we can know God comprehensively.  The Godhead contains unfathomable mysteries.  What we can learn of God in this life is limited by our own feeble capacity.  And an eternity will be too short to comprehend fully the height, and depth and breadth of God’s being.  But God has revealed all that we need to know about himself, and he has done so supremely in his Son, who is God manifest in the flesh:-

Jn 10:30  “I and my Father are one.”

Jn 12 45  “He that seeth me seeth him that sent me.”

Jn 14:9  “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

Col 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

I Tim 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…

‘Jesus is not simply a word about God, nor even a word from God; he himself is the Word of God, and he himself is God the Word.’ (Peter Lewis).  ‘Jesus is God spelling himself out in a language that man can understand.’  (S.D. Gordon)

CONCLUSION

(a) The necessity of a divine revelation.  We can observe and study and discover and know many things.  But we have never been able to seek and find God for ourselves.

Job 11:7  Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

Man’s quest for God is a dead-end.  We can never know or understand the ways of God without a divine revelation.  We can never come to know him except through the One who shares the divine and human nature, and who declares the divine to the human.

(b) The importance a proper conception of God.  He continues to dwell in unapproachable light.  Let our first thoughts of God be as Almighty Creator, Sovereign Law-Giver, Glorious Lord.  Then let us marvel that we may approach him boldly as our Father and our Friend.  But always with reverence and awe.  Not with easy familiarity, but with a holy and godly fear.

(c) Let us honour Christ as truly God incarnate, the Word made flesh.  Christ is utterly superior to even the greatest of the prophets, such as Moses in, and over all other men – however holy or wise – in general. The best that the world’s religions can give us is advice on how to improve ourselves.  The best of the prophets have been sign-posts to God.  Jesus Christ is Emmanuel – God with us.

We can never give too much honour to Christ.  We can never think too highly of him.  Let us banish unworthy thoughts of him.  Let us seek to know him more deeply, and to trust him more confidently.

(d) The final blessedness of the redeemed.  The sense of this verse is, ‘no-one has ever yet seen God.  But there is a future blessedness to which all God’s peole can look with eager anticipation.  And that blessedness consists in seeing God ‘as he is’

Mt 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

I Jn 3:2 We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Let us follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, Heb 12:14.