TO SEE GOD, LOOK AT JESUS

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⁷ If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” – John 14:7 NRSV

It is interesting to note that right after Jesus tells His disciples they know and have seen the Father, they aren't too sure and so they turn right back at Him and ask Him to show them the Father. The disciples must have figured if Jesus is constantly talking so highly of the Father, they’d do well to get to find out more about Him. And so this time it wasn't Peter who spoke up but Philip:

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹ Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? - John 14:8-9 NLT

The Lord then reassures His disciples that the very fact that they have seen Him, means that they have already seen God the Father, for He and the Father are One. It’s no different for us today, to see the Father, we must look at Jesus, to know the Father we must know Jesus. Not only is Christ the express image of the Father, but He is also the only way to the Father.

¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. - John 1:18 NRSV

To really know God the Father, His character, His will, His heart, what He is like, we must look at Jesus. How Jesus conducted himself, how He answered His critics, how He confronted the religious leaders of the day. He always showed mercy and compassion to the hurting, He healed people, blessed them, provided for them; never causing pain but was and is always seeking to ease human suffering. Jesus came to show us who and how God the Father really is. Matthew 11:28 comes to mind.

Jesus also said:

³⁰ I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30 NIV

Jesus also said He does nothing of Himself but only what He sees the Father doing, He also pointed out that it was the Father in Him doing the work. The Jews were so offended when He called God His Father and wanted to kill Him for saying that (John 10:33), but He wasn't deterred, He knew who He was and why He came – His very essence – LOVE, compelled Him to come and redeem us and reconcile us back to Himself.

Just look at how Jesus interacted with people, He didn't go around giving sicknesses to people, on the contrary he never refused to heal anyone who came to Him. He never caused storms but when they arose He calmed them.

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He welcomed those society thought were lowlifes, He didn't shun them like the hypocritical religious leaders did. Remember when His disciples wanted to call fire down from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village for refusing to welcome Him? He rebuked His disciples and said to them "you do not know what manner of spirit you have, the son of man did not come to destroy people's lives but to save them" - Luke 9:54-56. Now that's exactly how God the Father is; He has no ill will towards anyone but desires that all should come to know the truth and be saved.

God is Love, He loves you perfectly, passionately, unreservedly and eternally!