As much as people have tried, it remains very difficult to reconcile the picture of God in the Old Testament with the character of Jesus. The problem becomes even more interesting when we read the close of Jesus’ prayer in John 17. He prayed, “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You.”
Jesus came to earth for three reasons. Number one was to redeem us by His sacrifice on the cross. Number two was to prove Satan was wrong when Satan claimed it was impossible to keep God’s law. And number three was to show us what God is really like. That is why Jesus responded to Philip in John 14, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
Prior to Jesus the world had dimly seen images of God. It was like looking at an image in a steamy mirror. There is a form but it is blurred and has to be interpreted by what we think is there. Jesus blew the steam away and the clarity of a kind loving Father appeared. We must never forget the subject of the sentence in John 3:16 is the Father.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 30, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org