what does god look like in the bible

The mind of man craves for some representation of the being he worships. From the degraded savage who tries to represent the supernatural forces around him by amulets and charms, to the idolater who invests his carved or molten image with divine powers, or the devotee who vainly prostrates himself before crucifix or images of saints, all betray this instinct for a tangible representation of the object of worship. Christ is the Image of God. An image of Christ is therefore absurd, and a negation of all that He is; for if He be the Image of God, why require an image of Him? God as God is invisible. He fills heaven and earth, and no finite creature could take account of so glorious a Being whose time is eternity, whose dimension is space, whose being is Spirit. There was every necessity why He should be adequately represented to our ken. But who among created beings could be the embodiment of the Uncreate? Our marvel is that all that God is in His own being is adequately set forth in Christ. There was no deficiency in Him; He brought down here the entire fullness of the Godhead — setting it forth without flaw from the stable of Bethlehem, the waters of Jordan, and the synagogue of Nazareth, right on to the grave of Lazarus, the garden of Gethsemane, the cross of Golgotha, the emptied tomb, and the throne of glory. There is no one else capable of compassing in his own person all the majesty and the nature of God. Jesus is the Son; there is therefore, no disparity between Him and God, in Him was most perfectly expressed every element in the divine nature. Renewed by grace, we draw near to our Saviour with unshod feet and gaze into His face; and in Him is the absolute, complete, final revelation of God. Never, in any religion or philosophy before, has it been written "GOD IS LOVE." But the truth is out now — in Jesus. God's nature is disclosed, set before men and celestial beings, revealed in the Man who is also, and must be, eternal Son.

He is the image of the invisible God; that is, the God whom no man can see is found in Jesus. Every eye in redeemed creation shall be lit up with the glory of Jesus. He will represent God in creation, and will present Him perfectly to all. There will be no lack of light, for the One who is the image of the Invisible is Himself God, and therefore as far as God can be seen by the creature He will be seen in Jesus. He could say when here upon earth, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” In Him, in the days of His humiliation, the manifestation of God was perfect, for He could not be other than He was, and He was God manifest in flesh. When one of His disciples said to Him, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” Jesus answered him, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?” Philip thought, like many another today, that there was something more to be seen of the Godhead than had come to light in Jesus, but what more can be seen than the Father? And He has been perfectly expressed in the Son. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When He, the Son, was here in manhood, the Father was also here in testimony, and the Spirit in power in Him; therefore all that God is in His approach to man came to light in Jesus. In His essential Being He cannot be seen. He is the invisible God, who dwells in light unapproachable, whom no man has seen or is capable of seeing.

The Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. It is in the Son of His love that we see what God is (compare John 1:18; and also 1 John 1:2). This is the first character of His personal glory, the essential centre of all the rest. Now, in consequence of this proper character of His Person, He takes by right the position of representing God in the creation. Adam was created in some sort in the image of God, and placed as centre in a creation that was subjected to him. But, after all, he was only a figure of the Christ, of Him who was to come. The Son, in His very Person, in His nature (and for us as in the bosom of the Father), is He who makes God known, because He presents Him in His own Person and in a full revelation of His being and of His character before men and in the whole universe; for all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Him. Nevertheless He is a man. He is thus seen of angels. We have seen Him with our eyes or by faith. Thus He is the image of the invisible God. The perfect character and living representation of the invisible God have been seen in Him. Wondrous truth for us with regard to the Person of our Saviour!

We read of the Word who was God in John 1, becoming flesh and dwelling among us. The written Word—the Scripture—expresses the thoughts of God, but here we have God HIMSELF, perfectly imaged and represented to us. In Hebrews 1, He is the exact expression of all that God is. Here it is Himself and not simply His divine perfections. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the beginning, gives today the light of the knowledge of all His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. We need not look elsewhere. God is seen in Him.

However, though even today and for eternity God dwells in light unapproachable, never to be seen by the creature (1 Tim. 6:15-16), yet in the person of the Lord Jesus in Manhood form we are privileged to see the face of God. “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). To the believer this is a fully satisfactory revelation of God's glory. Only in Christ will anyone ever see the face of God. Indeed, Moses had the complete answer to his prayer when, after his death, he appeared with Elijah when the Lord Jesus was transfigured on the mount (Matt. 17:1-3), and by faith “we see Jesus” - crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9), though visibly this honor awaits our being with Him in a day soon to come. The sun presents us with a beautiful illustration of this. It is too bright for us to actually see it with our eyes, yet in seeing the light from the sun we do in this way see the sun. Christ is the light that manifests the glory of God, in whom there is such brilliance that we could only be blinded by it. But Christ is God, and we shall see His face.

The Lord adds here a wonderful promise to His “blessed”: “ … for they shall see God”. At the present time we live and walk by faith, not by sight. But very soon the moment will come when all whose hearts have been purified by faith will see God. 1 Timothy 6:16 does not contradict this, where it is said that God dwells in unapproachable light, and that no man has seen or is able to see Him. God in His nature is a spirit and invisible. This is clearly said in different passages of the Word of God (John 4:24; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). But in Colossians 1:15 it is added that the eternal Son of God is the image of the invisible God. He is also the effulgence of His glory and the expression of His substance (Hebrews 1:3). He is the Word of God (John 1:1-18). These passages show that the Son, who Himself is God, is the perfect image of the triune God and His nature. When He became Man, God was manifested in flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). We shall see Him who is the Son of God, who became Man to manifest God, and in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily. We shall see Him in perfect and undisturbed glory, and will worship Him eternally. We will not only be with Him eternally, but see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

One of the essential attributes of God is His Invisibility; He is aoratos: Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17, etc. This, when applied to Him in His Essence must mean, not only that He cannot, but may not be seen; "Whom no man has seen, nor can see" (1 Tim. 6:16). Not even Moses could have looked on the face of God and lived. If God is to reveal Himself to the creature, it must be by an interpreting medium.

Now God cannot be seen. Scripture says that “God is light” and that God dwells in unapproachable light, and no man has seen Him or can see Him. That was true then and it is true now and for ever. God in His absolute character as Creator, as Father, Son and Spirit—ONE GOD dwelling in unapproachable light—cannot be seen, just as my neighbour has never been seen.

In the various ways in which I have thus far spoken of God (as coming out of the light in which He dwells to display before men some distinct and special characteristic of Himself), He remained still the invisible God. In none of them had He yet placed Himself in conditions in which He could be seen; but in the incarnation He has done so. There we see "God manifest in flesh."

Again, light is self-manifesting and therefore symbolizes the capability in God of manifesting Himself, of putting Himself in the light. The second Person of the Godhead eternally was its power to manifest itself, whether partially or fully. The partial revelations of God have been by the Word; through His incarnation and earthly life He has fully revealed God — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — revealed their moral nature. It is in this sense that the Son of God is the light of men. In Him become Man the invisible Father is seen. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). God the Spirit is able to make men sensible of His unseen immanence — that He is near even if invisible; but the Son not only manifests His nearness, but makes Himself visible — puts Himself in the light.