The Old Testament records that Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Job encountered or "saw" God. We don't know whether they "saw" Him physically or as a vision. When Moses encountered the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-22) he heard God speak but did not actually see Him.
God is a Spirit.
As humans, we cannot understand or fathom what a spirit is. Is it a bright light? A transparent shape? A soft breeze or a presence?
How would you describe a spirit?
When the Disciples asked Jesus to "show them" God, He said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “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. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:1-14
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After comforting the Disciples Jesus asks them to trust (believe) in God and to trust in Him and re-iterates that to see Jesus is to see the Father. He, (Jesus) is in the Father and the Father is in Him.
And that's presumably how, over the generations, we have grown to imagine God in human form. The Disciples saw Jesus as a human, (Whom He was, as well as being God), so they assumed that God the Father is also a human form. As no doubt have we, in our minds, envisaged God in human form.
The Bible says that God created us in His image. This means that we possess the same qualities of love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness as God has. It does not mean He created us in His physical image.
God offered Himself on the Cross for us by sending us His Son Jesus. The Creator became part of His Creation.
Our Christian faith does not teach that we should climb up to God for our redemption. God has come down to us, and offered Himself as sacrifice on the Cross.
The Father is God. And Jesus is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Trinity - three in one.
Does God look like Jesus, i.e., human? I don't think that Jesus meant it literally when He said anyone who knew Him knew the Father. Rather, Jesus was embodying the perfect will of His Father. That's what we should emulate with God's help, of course. Blessings, Victor!
ReplyDeleteWell said, Martha. I agree 100%. It is we, (humans), who in our arrogance have assumed that God looks like us. The paintings from the old masters took their clue from "in His image" and assumed that having always existed God must be an old man with a beard sitting on a cloud.
DeleteThank you and God bless always.
We cannot truly imagine what God "looks like," if that's even the way to describe it. Our bodies will be redeemed, but I think the eyes will do more than "see" as we do now, and how we will experience God will be different from anything we can now think about with our five senses.
ReplyDeleteYes, you have a good point, Mimi. We will "experience" God and His presence rather than see Him in the true sense of seeing.
DeleteGod bless.
And of course, in Jesus, God took on a real human body!
ReplyDelete"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
Amen Debby. Jesus was/is fully God and fully human.
DeleteGod bless you.
As an early Christian, I pondered this often...What does God look like. I think I spent way too much energy and concern about this....UNTIL I let it go and placed my focus on God being the GREAT I AM and His amazing love for me.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to focus on the wrong thing when thinking about God. Our human minds can only envisage a human form as our Creator, rather than the Great I am - as you say.
DeleteGod bless, Shug.
Good article. I too wondered what God looks like.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous. God bless.
DeleteWow. Unlike Jesus, God's appearance isn't something I've ever thought about. Off the top of my head, my thoughts are more along the lines (that) he is a Being, a Force Field, an Energy which radiates love -- much greater than man's own imagination.
ReplyDeleteThank you for prompting me to think!
I think you're right, Mevely. We cannot visualise what God looks like and all we can imagine is a loving living "Being".
DeleteThank you for visiting this new website. Let us pray that it is successful in spreading God's Word to those who do not know Him.
God bless you, Mevely.
I know Jesus looked like a man; I am not sure what God will look like. I can't even imagine.
ReplyDeleteI think many people would agree with you, Sandie.
DeleteGod bless you.