What is God like?

“No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). In thinking about this verse this morning, I jotted down the following notes: If I wanted to really know what President Obama was like and who he really was inside and out, I would attempt to build a relationship with those who are closest to him and have known him the longest. They are the ones most likely to fully understand him and willingly or even unwillingly reveal things about him — his strengths/weaknesses, habits, dreams/vision, character, likes/dislikes, you name it…. In the same way, if we really want to know God — who He is and what He is like inside and out, we need to find someone who has known him for a long time and has the most intimate association with Him. Abraham, Moses and a few others had close but brief relationships with God but Jesus has known God from the beginning and his relationship from the beginning has always been far more intimate than any others. In short, John says no one knows God the way Jesus knows God; but, unlike those who know the president best and usually try to protect his privacy and hide his idiosyncrasies, Jesus (himself God) fully reveals all there is to know about God. And John makes it very clear that Jesus is the ONLY one who knows God well enough to fully reveal (exegete) Him. So, never take your eyes off of Jesus for, as Jesus Himself said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” And, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). And what does Jesus reveal about God? One thing that comes readily to mind this morning is that God is love and does not delight in the death of anyone.