UNDERSTANDING GOD (3)

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him”– John 14:7

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to help humanity in Knowing and UNDERSTANDING GOD: ^“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (Jh.14:7). For aeons, man has agonized over the question of God. Books have been written, cries of rage and frustration uttered, and tears of despair shed. But only God could fully reveal God; hence, He sent His Son to give humanity a better and complete understanding of Hmself. God is not pleased when His people do not know Him as they ought: “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider” (Isa.1:3).

Jesus is the Radiance of God’s Glory, “the express image of His Person” (Heb.1:3). The Son is the perfect manifestation of the Father: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Jh.1:18). Unlike all the Old Testament prophets who had spoken about and for God, only Jesus had the peculiar privilege of having seen the Father by virtue of His deity: “But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me” (Jh.7:29). Jesus Himself said: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves” (vv.10-11).

Jesus emphasized that whoever knew Him would know the Father (v.7). He and the Father are one (Jh.10:30). He said further: “And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me” (Jh.12:45). The Father also attested: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Mt.3:17). John the Beloved wrote: “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 Jh.5:20). As we receive a clearer understanding of Jesus, we are able to cultivate a deeper relationship with God and follow Him without wavering till eternity.

In Christ Jesus, the human race is restored to its destiny – eternal life. He broke the chains that tied all creation to death and decay; liberated us from the fetters of fear that held us in misery; and fills us with the fullness of life, light and love, to know and understand the Fatherhood of God, having “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom.8:15).