What God looks like in the Bible

"God is a spirit." He is the Being Who is spirit in essence. It is not merely that this is His character, as would be expressed if the phrase were "God is spirit." But God is a spirit. It refers to His being, to the Person. He has no bodily shape. He is not circumscribed like ourselves, and He is an omnipresent spirit, and therefore though in heaven, He is here, and we being spirit are in His presence.

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.

The apostle Paul tells us that God dwells in light — unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). He is the invisible God (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27). No man has ever seen Him. It is not possible for man to see God in His essential Godhead. Man's constitution makes him able to see only what is within the range of his vision — not the invisible.

The Lord God is indeed a sun, and He is thus set before us in His greatness. But He is the invisible God, remember, though there are glories belonging to Him that can be manifested. Moses had to be told that no man could see Him and live. But He who is the image of the invisible God, the only begotten Son, has declared Him.

This great statement is confirmed in 1. John 4:12. No one can ever see God. When Moses wanted to see the glory of God he heard the answer. “Thou canst not see my face, for Man shall no see me and live” (Ex. 33:2). God dwells in an unapproachable light “whom no man has seen, nor is able to see” (1. Tim 6:16). He is the “incorruptible, invisible, only God” (1. Tim 1:17).

The testimony that no man can ever see God is not in contradiction to the revelations of God in the Old Testament. God did indeed reveal Himself in a certain way in Old Testament times. He did so in the creation. He did so in His dealings with man. He did so in the form of an angel. Still it remains true that no man has ever seen God as He is. This remains impossible. No man can see God in His absoluteness, in His nature and in what He is in Himself. Therefore the statement of our verse is not inconsistent with what Isaiah said: “… for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts” (Isa 6:5). In the Old Testament God showed Himself in a form that was perceptible to man but this did not allow man to contemplate and realise who He really is.

We now pass on to other subjects in this section. It will be remembered that in John 1:18 it is said, "No man hath seen God at any time." That statement is repeated here, but not for the same reason or purpose. There, it is in connection with the revelation of God. No one has ever seen God to be qualified thus to witness to what He is — only the Son who has come from the bosom of the Father, who has personal knowledge of God, is personally acquainted with the perfections of His nature and character; He is thus a competent witness; He speaks what He personally knows — what He has seen and heard (John 3:32).

Let me premise that the Lord Jesus, in this scene, was declaring who God is. "No man hath seen God at any time — the only-begotten Son hath declared Him." "Whosoever hath seen Me," saith the Lord, "hath seen the Father." Hence, if we see the Lord showing compassion to the hungry multitude, we see a manifestation of the pity of God; and calling Lazarus from the dead — the power of God is exhibited by Christ in that act; and speaking peace to the poor woman, I see the grace of God in forgiving sin. Perfect God Himself, while He was perfect Man; but He takes the place of a servant, of one come to do "Thy will, O God." (May we all learn of Him. Let all God's saints imitate Him in this. He who was everything — Creator, Preserver, Lord, comes here to be nothing; takes the place of the true servant. He was the true exponent of God. May all of us who are now savingly and eternally linked-up with Him, be His reproducers in this earth. This is indeed the privilege of every saved one. "As my Father sent me, even so send I you.")

Verse 12. "No man hath seen God at any time." I cannot know God by seeing Him; but in John's Gospel (John 1:18 ), "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." He who knew what was God's love has told it out - the Son who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, who enjoyed the Father's love without any alloy, He is the One who comes to tell it to me, as He knew and enjoyed it Himself, and I know God according to that revelation He has made; for "He hath declared Him." In the Epistle of John he goes a step further. It is communicated livingly to us. "True in Him and in you." (1 John 2:8). It was true in Him, and now it is true in you who believe.

Lastly, closing this part, we have another most remarkable contrast. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. Now, it is no longer a question of nature, but of relationship; and hence it is not said simply the Word, but the Son, and the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God — "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." Observe: not which was, but "which is." He is viewed as retaining the same perfect intimacy with the Father, entirely unimpaired by local or any other circumstances He had entered. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. He entered this world, became flesh, as born of woman; but there was no diminution of His own glory, when He, born of the virgin, walked on earth, or when rejected of man, cut off as Messiah, He was forsaken of God for sin — our sin — on the cross. Under all changes, outwardly, He abode as from eternity the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Mark what, as such, He does declare Him. No man hath seen God at any time. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Hence the Son, being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not God only, but the Father. Thus we all not only receive of His fulness, (and what fulness illimitable was there not in Him!) but He, who is the Word made flesh, is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and so competent to declare, as in fact He has. It is not only the nature, but the model and fulness of the blessing in the Son, who declared the Father.

The meaning of this must be considered in the light of John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time,” and 1 Timothy 6:16; “whom no man has seen or can see.” Therefore it was not God personally whom they saw, but evidently some partial manifestation of His nature or character, for the language is symbolical that tells us, “there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity” (v. 10). This appears to be a vision that would inspire awe in all who were observers, realizing that it was indeed the great God of creation who was dealing with them. Compare the vision of Ezekiel 1, which ends with the words, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (v. 28).