No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, *he* hath declared [him].
No human eye has ever seen God, and yet this verse says the Son has told God out in full. Everything rests on who does the telling: the only Son, who has always lived in the closest place to the Father's heart.
The God No Eye Has Seen
The verse does not say God had shown nothing of Himself before. It says even Moses saw only a fraction, and from behind. One note on wording: where the ESV has "the only God, who is at the Father's side," the writers below use the older wording — "the only-begotten Son," God's one and only Son, "in the bosom of the Father," the closest place at His heart.
The full revelation of God, however, waited for the coming of the Lord Jesus. The most that was possible, even for so great a man as Moses, was to see "the back parts" of the Lord (Ex. 33:23). Certain divine attributes stood out, such as His mercy and patience. But God could only reveal Himself in full in the only-begotten Son, who was God and became Man.
Even after everything God said to Moses, the limit held.
The mediator himself could not look at the glory of the Lord face to face. He could not see God and live. So it still remains, despite everything God declared to him, that "no one has seen God at any time." But the Only-begotten Son has not only seen Him. As the Son of His love, in the Father's bosom, He has declared Him — told Him out.
Ever in the Father's Bosom
The verb matters. John does not say the Son came to be there. He says the Son is there — abiding, with no starting point.
Verse eighteen expresses this in its effect for us: "the Only-begotten Son who is" — literally, "the One being" or "abiding" — "in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (told Him out). Here the unchanging closeness of that eternal relationship is what qualifies Him as the perfect Revealer of God.
One common way of speaking about the Son's coming into the world needs correcting. He left one thing behind; He did not leave the other.
It is a wrong thought that He left the Father's bosom. He never did; He left the Father's house. In Christ you get the full revelation of what the Father is. The only begotten Son, all the Father's delight centres in Him, in the bosom of the Father, that is, in the full enjoyment of it, He declares the Father.
Speaking from the Heart Outward
The clause about the bosom is not decoration attached to the title. It explains where the revelation begins.
God has revealed part of Himself in creation, where we see His majesty and almighty power. Psalm 19:1, for example, says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." But the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him in full. The Son has not declared the Father from the outside. As He told what the Father was, He did not start at the outside, with creation. He started with the heart of God, with His bosom — the place of feelings, the place where love dwells. That is the starting point.
"Declared Him"
The word translated "declared" is an everyday word for telling a story. Its other uses in the New Testament show what the Son came to do.
But this one is the simplest of all, for it means to "tell the whole story." When the apostle Paul tells the church at Jerusalem how God had worked through him among the Gentiles, it is the same word. It means "tell the whole story," and that is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ came to do. He came to say everything that could be said, everything that had to be said, to make God known. It was in the bosom of the Father that He was, and so it is as the Father that He declares Him.
So God Can Be Known and Loved
The verse raises a problem and answers it in the same breath. If no one has seen God, how could anyone know or love Him?
The Gospel is meant to bring Christ before us, and I find the sense to be this: well, you have not seen God, and yet you have. He who was the very delight of the Father — who is in the bosom of the Father, the immediate and closest object of the Father's delight — He has declared Him. Therefore I do know Him. It is the answer to the difficulty, that no one ever saw God. Christ has made Him known to me.
Summary
- Hidden. No one has seen God. Moses saw only God's "back parts" — the most anyone saw before Christ came.
- Home. The Son is in the Father's bosom — "the One being" there. That relationship abides, with no starting point.
- Kept. He left the Father's house when He came into the world. He never left the Father's bosom. He declared the Father while still enjoying His love.
- Heart. He begins from the bosom, the place where love dwells. So He tells God out from the inside, not from the outside as creation does.
- Whole. "Declared" means to tell the whole story. He came to say everything that could be said, so the God no one has seen is now known.