Question 8: In what way does Christ reflect and reveal God the Father to us?
Answer: Christ, being the Word and Son of God, fully and perfectly reflects and conforms to his character, fully reveals and expresses his mind, and is himself fully God and the one in whom the fullness of God wholly dwells.
In John 14, the Apostle records for us an exchange between Jesus and two of his disciples – Thomas and Phillip. “Let not your hearts be troubled”, Jesus says, “Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” What words of comfort these are to troubled hearts! There is much trouble to be found for us in this life. In the words of the preacher: “if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many” (Ecc 11:8). As we live on in this fallen world, so it is for us – much joy for the eyes of faith, but we know too from experience that the days of darkness are many.
In spite of Jesus’ words of firm assurance, however, Thomas responds with words of doubt: “Lord, we do now know where you are going. How can we know the way?” In spite of Jesus’ assurance that he would come personally to collect his disciples to be with himself in his Father’s house, Thomas still apparently fears that he will not know how to get there. But let’s not be too quick to laugh at Thomas, because how often have we ourselves thought or spoken such things out of the fears of our own hearts?
But Jesus is patient with Thomas (and those of us who are like him – thanks be to God!): “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Jesus’ response to Thomas’ words of foreboding is simply to assure him of Jesus’ own trustworthiness. It is as though he said: “Thomas, do not doubt what I have said. Trust in me, for I myself am the way! I myself am preparing you a place, and I myself will come and collect you to bring you there to be with me always.”
I’d like to take a moment to focus in on one particular phrase from the Lord’s words there: “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.” Jesus perfectly reflects, conforms to, reveals, and expresses God the Father. Phillip picks up after Thomas: “‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’” To the Pharisees he likewise said: “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30).
Christ is not a partial reflection of God. He is very God of very God. The Pharisees recognised that this was his claim, as they attempted to stone him for saying that he and the Father were one (Jn 10:31-33). As Christ lived and walked on this earth, every thought and motion of his heart was in perfect accord with the mind and heart of God. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (Jn 6:38). When you look at Christ, you are seeing the Father. To know Christ is to know the Father. In Colossians 1 we find two astounding statements. First, that “He is the image of the invisible God”, and second that: “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:15, 19).
As we consider these things, we begin to get an inkling of how far we have yet to come in knowing God. How little acquainted we truly are with our Saviour, and with our Heavenly Father. We are much more like Thomas and Phillip than we might care to realise. To what extend do I reflect, conform to, reveal, and express the divine mind? To what extend am I even acquainted with the divine mind? No, we very much identify with Thomas and Phillip. Fearful and unbelieving as Thomas, and I wonder if the Lord might say to us as he did to Phillip: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Isaac?” And yet Thomas did want to be where Christ was, and Phillip did in fact ask the Lord to show him the Father. Did Christ not answer Phillip’s question? If we would know the Father, we need but to be more and more acquainted with the Son.
The pressing question for each of us is simply this: Am I acquainted with Christ? Do I listen to him? Do I seek to sit in his presence? Does anything I do during the week actually reflect that I have this desire and am acting on it? Do we begin to understand that in knowing Christ there is an infinite store of treasure and wisdom? God is not far from any of us. He is near at hand, ready and willing to receive us. The door into his house is not hidden in some obscure place. “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (Jn 10:9). We know God to the extent that we know Christ, and we know Christ to the extent that we sit at his feet and listen to him speaking to us through the Word of God. We are acquainted with truth to the extent that these things are living realities in our lives. Christ perfectly reflects the mind of God, perfectly conforms to all that is in the heart of God, and perfectly expresses the thought of God to us. So then, cling to Christ, seek for him with all that is in you. Keep short, frequent intercession with him through the day, and carry his word in your heart that you may train your attention to be fixed on his voice. As we continue in these things, we will indeed come more and more to know God. SDG.
Q8. Christ reveals God.