Has anyone ever seen God?

No one can ever see God. When Moses wanted to see the glory of God, he heard the answer: "You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). God dwells in unapproachable light, "whom no one has ever seen or can see" (1 Timothy 6:16). He is the "immortal, invisible, the only God" (1 Timothy 1:17).

Much about Him was made known in Old Testament times, but He Himself remained unrevealed. We are told in John 1:18, "No one has ever seen God"—not Adam, not Noah, not Abraham, not Moses, not David, not Isaiah, nor any of the holy prophets—"No one"! Someone else, therefore, had to come; and this has happened, as the verse goes on to tell us: "the only Son, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known"! He alone was able to do it.

Moses had the privilege of seeing the glory of God from "a cleft of the rock," and of seeing His back (Exodus 33:18–23), but it still remained true that "no one has ever seen God." In the Son come as Man, God was made known in His nature, and in His attitude of grace towards men. Until the only Son came, God was really unknown to men as He truly is.

It is not what our Lord became but what He always is. "Timeless duration" is the phrase used by an unquestioned Greek scholar. John 1:18 means that the only Son dwelt from all eternity in the full affections of the Father, sharing every thought and purpose of His heart, and so was fully able to make Him known. He always was in the Father's bosom; He was in it while serving in Manhood on earth; He is in it in His glorified Manhood today, and will be in it forever.

"No one has ever seen God" (John 1:18), but here we have One who had seen the Father (John 6:46), One who had eternally dwelt in His bosom, who could bring Him into the light before the eyes of men, so that those who saw Him saw the Father. It was God drawn near to men in the Person of the Son become Man, so that He might bring God near to man.

Upon whom have you been looking all the time I have been with you? Whose words have you been listening to? Whose works have you seen? Whose moral nature has been displayed before your eyes? "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."

How can I know and love a Person I have never seen? "The only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known." That is, in the Gospel, which is meant to set Christ before us, the sense is this: Well, you have not seen God, and yet you have; because 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 made Him known. Therefore I do know Him. It is the answer to the difficulty, that no one ever saw God.

In the Gospel, God is declared in the Son. In the letter, He is to be seen as dwelling in His children.

There is no thought here, we hardly need to say, of bodily sight, for even Jesus is now hidden from our view. It is only with the eyes of the heart, the moral vision of the soul—which is simply faith—that we can see God or appreciate His excellence and glory. The purer the heart is, the more clearly it will see God, and the more clearly it sees God, the purer it must become.