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Jesus Is What God Has to Say

The Apostle John begins his Gospel by telling us that in the Incarnation the Word of God became human flesh. John goes on to say that though the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:1-17) Because God could not say all he has to say in a book, he said it in a human life. Jesus is the Word of God to which the Bible as the inspired word of God points us. The Bible is not an end in itself, but the inspired signpost leading us to Jesus. This is what Jesus tried to explain to the Torah zealots about the nature of the Scriptures. (John 5:39–40)

At the end of the opening prologue to his Gospel, John says something very provocative. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (John 1:18)

That is an audacious claim. For when John says, “no one has ever seen God,” we could use the Bible to argue with the apostle. What about Abraham? He saw God and shared a meal with him under the oaks of Mamre. What about Jacob? He saw God at the top of that ladder as the angels ascended and descended at Bethel. What about Moses? He met God face to face on Mount Sinai. What about the seventy elders of Israel? They too saw God on top of Mount Sinai. What about Isaiah? He saw God in the year King Uzziah died, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. What about Ezekiel? He saw visions of God by the river Chebar in Babylon. With these Biblical proof-texts we could argue with John’s claim that no one has ever seen God.

But I can imagine John replying, “You don’t have to teach me the Bible. I know all the stories—from Genesis to Malachi. But no matter what visions, dreams, revelations, epiphanies, theophanies, or Christophanies people had in times past, they pale into insignificance when compared to the full revelation of God that we have in Jesus Christ!”

Or we could say it like this: Jesus is what God has to say! And if Jesus is the true Word of God, how does that influence how we read the Bible?