Jesus Reveals the Father
This post is part of my Steps to Christ series.
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
- John 1:18 NKJV
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
- Matthew 11:27 NKJV
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
Jesus said to him, “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’?
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
- Luke 4:18NKJV
Jesus’ mission was to do good and to heal all who were oppressed by Satan. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of Jesus’ life. Isn’t it amazing how the poorest and the humblest people were not afraid to come close to Jesus and even the little children were attracted to Him? This is not because Jesus only said pleasant things.
Jesus never suppressed one word of truth, what made the difference is that he always uttered the truth in love. Jesus denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity. But when Jesus uttered scathing rebukes you could hear tears in His voice.
Could it be that many think that God is mean and a stern judge just waiting to punish those who make the smallest mistake because we behave this way? By this I mean, because we speak words of rebuke not with a tear in our voices but perhaps with a bit of joy?
Jesus’ life was made up of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. It is clear to all that every soul is precious in Jesus’ eyes. After all, it was to save us that Jesus lived, suffered, and died. The Father’s love for us is also revealed in this. The Father’s love for us is so great that He permitted Jesus to leave His side, to leave a world of indescribable glory to come to our dark, sin-filled world full of hate, pain, and suffering to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
-Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
Because of the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world (mine and yours included), Jesus felt for the first time complete separation from the Father.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
- Matthew 27:46 NKJV
Jesus took our sins upon Himself not to cause the Father to love us.
Christ was the medium through which the Father could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world.
God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.
- Steps to Christ p13
When Jesus assumed human nature He elevated humanity.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
- 1 John3:1 NKJV
The more we study the divine character in light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable pieces of evidence of a love that is infinite and a tender pity that surpasses that of a mother’s yearning sympathy for a wayward child.
