God has been pleased to reveal Himself in various ways and under different characters in every age and in all dispensations. Before the cross He had made Himself known to Adam, the patriarchs, and to His people Israel; but it was not until Christ came, and had glorified God on the earth, and finished the work which had been given Him to do, that all was told out, that the Father—name of God could be fully revealed. Ere this clouds and darkness were round about Him; but as soon as atonement had been made by the death of Christ on the cross, the veil was rent, and believers could thereafter be set down in the light as God is in the light. All distance and concealment were now abolished, and all that God is, together with the name of Father, was fully displayed. Christ Himself, Christ as the eternal Son, but as the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)) was Himself the revelation of the Father; but until the descent of the Holy Spirit there was little, if any, power on the part of those before whose eyes the revelation was passing to apprehend it There were a few anointed eyes who beheld His glory as of an only-begotten with a Father, but John the Baptist knew Him not, except by the appointed sign of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him, and even Philip had to be told, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14).
Practically therefore there was no knowledge of God as Father until after Pentecost. This will be plain to the reader if we trace a little the successive revelations of God which were made to His people in the Old Testament. To Abraham, God said, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:11And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1)); to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent Me unto you” (Ex. 3:1414And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14)); and when He entered into distinct relationship with His chosen people, it was under the name of Jehovah, and that was ever His covenant name with Israel. Search indeed the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures, and not even the word father will be found more than five or six times as applied to God, and in most of these cases it is used rather as indicating the source of existence than as implying relationship. All the Old Testament saints were undoubtedly born again. This is to be insisted upon, for without a new life and a new nature they would not have been able to converse with God; but it is equally true that they never knew God as Father, and therefore that they could not be in the enjoyment of the relationship. One word from Scripture definitely and conclusively settles this point, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. 11:2727All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)).
It is then abundantly proved that God was not revealed as Father before the advent of Christ. And passing now to the New Testament, it will be seen, as already stated, that Christ Himself was the revealer of the Father, and that it is in the Gospel of John He is presented to us in this character. In the very first chapter of this gospel it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (vs. 18). Not only, indeed, does this scripture inform us that the only-begotten Son declared the Father, but it also teaches that none other but Himself could have done so, and this because of the position He ever occupied—the place of intimacy and communion which He ever, and He alone, enjoyed, as marked by the words, “in the bosom of the Father.” This place He never left; He was in it (for it is a moral expression) as much when He was the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, as when He possessed the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; and on the cross itself He was still there, for He Himself said, “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again” (John 10:1717Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. (John 10:17))—His death in obedience to the commandment which He had received, supplying as it were a new motive for the expression of His Father’s love. Later on in the gospel, we find one of His disciples permitted to lean on His bosom, and this same disciple was the chosen vessel to unfold in his gospel the eternal Sonship of Christ—Christ as divine; and this in some measure may aid us in understanding that none but He who was ever in the bosom of the Father could unfold Him in this character and relationship. In divine things it is ever true as an abiding principle, that we can only tell out to others that which we ourselves know in our own souls. If we are not in the power of the thing spoken of, our words, clear as they may seem to be, will convey but little significance. The Lord Himself laid down this principle when He said, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen” (John 3:1111Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. (John 3:11)).
Let us then inquire in what way the Lord revealed the Father. He Himself has answered the question. “If,” said He to the Jews, “ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also” (John 8:1919Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. (John 8:19)); and again, speaking to Philip, “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto Him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of” (from, literally) “myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:7-117If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:7‑11)).
Christ Himself then, in all that He was, in the life He lived when down here, was the revelation of the Father; that is, He was the perfect moral presentation of the Father, in all that He is, to all who had eyes to perceive it. As He said, “I have declared unto them Thy name” (John 17:2626And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26))—name in Scripture being the expression of the truth of what a person is, and it will therefore signify, in this connection, the truth of the Father. Thus as Christ passed through this scene every feature, every moral trait, all the perfections of the Father’s mind and heart and character, were fully exhibited; so that had the eyes of those who were round about our Lord been anointed they would have perceived in Him the living embodiment of the Father. To the natural eye He was only Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son, but the eye opened by the Holy Spirit beheld in Him “the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,” and as such the declarer of the Father.
But we may come to the details of this wondrous revelation. The Lord has Himself pointed out the two channels through which it was made, as indeed there are but these two in which man can express what he is. The passage has already been cited in which He says, that He did not speak His words from Himself; and in an earlier chapter He says, “The Son can do nothing from Himself, but what He seeth the Father do” (vs. 19; see also 8:28). He did not therefore originate (for that is the force of His statement) either His words or His works. Though He were the eternal Son, He had come not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him (John 6:3838For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. (John 6:38)), and on this account His every word and work were but the expressions of His perfect obedience, the motive to both alike being found not in His own will, perfect as it was, but in His Father’s. That is, He never spoke and He never acted except as in dependence on the Father, and in subjection to His will; and on this very account His words and work were the revelation of Him who had sent Him.
And this characteristic brings out a very blessed truth as to Himself, and a mournful contrast as to ourselves. Being what He was, His words were as perfect as His works; and thus when the Jews asked, “Who art Thou?” He replied (as it should be rendered), “Altogether that which I also say to you” (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25)); that is, as another has said, “His speech presented Himself, being the truth.” Our words often convey either less or more than the truth, and we are frequently humbled at the discovery that we have failed to express what we even desired, and sometimes because we have left behind a wrong, if not untrue, impression, through the imperfection of our words. With Him, on the other hand, every word was perfect, and a ray therefore of His own glory as well as a manifestation of the Father. We thus find in John 14 that He identifies His words with His works. “The words,” He says, “that I speak unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (vs. 10). The words were as perfect as the works, and both alike the revelation of the Father.
Bearing this in mind, what preciousness, yea, what solemnity, attaches to all that is recorded of our blessed Lord. Some things that He said and did have not been recorded (see Luke 24:2727And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)’; John 21:2525And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25); Acts 1:33To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: (Acts 1:3)), and at times we have been tempted to desire that it had been otherwise. The truth is, every word and every act have been given which were necessary for His perfect revelation of the Father—no more, no less. If more had been given, perfect as all of necessity would have been, this revelation would not have been more complete. We have therefore suffered no loss; for divine wisdom and divine love guided in the preservation of all that was necessary for God’s glory, and our instruction and blessing. In one word, what is recorded is a perfect presentation of Himself, and thus of the Father. Omit but a single word, or but one action, and the perfectness of the picture would be marred. It is very necessary to insist on this point in such a day as the present, when men, on the one hand, are endeavoring with ruthless criticism, the off-spring of an unholy rationalism, to destroy our confidence in the authenticity of portions of the four blessed gospels, or, on the other hand, with bold presumption to construct human narratives of the life of our blessed Lord, which they offer either as substitutes for, or in elucidation of, the divine fourfold record. It were difficult to decide which of these two classes are guilty of the greater temerity. Be this as it may, nothing can be more certain than that the labors of both tend to destroy faith in the word of God, obscure the holy character of our Lord, and thereby to inflict irreparable damage upon the souls of their readers.
The Lord Himself, then, declared the Father perfectly in what He was in His life on the earth; but at the same time it is also true that His death was the consummation of the revelation He had made. As the only-begotten of the Father —yea, as the sinless One in His own abiding excellency and perfection—He could not be at any time less than what He was. There was not a moment of His life in which He could not have said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father”; and yet it is also true that His death was, so to speak, the crowning act, at least in demonstration, of His perfect declaration of the Father. It was so in two ways. First, in the exhibition and proof of His entire devotedness to His Father’s glory, in humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. On the cross it was obedience, if we may thus speak, of another sort, obedience under new circumstances and conditions; for there it was that He glorified God in the place of sin, and on account of sin, being made sin for us. Thus it was that He spoke of His death as a special ground for the Father’s love (John 10), and on this account also it is that the death of Christ was the completion of the perfect manifestation of His own moral glory (John 13:3131Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (John 13:31)). Secondly, His death was necessary for the full revelation of the Father’s heart. “And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)). All that God is—all the attributes of His character, His holiness, His righteousness, His truth, His mercy, His Majesty, and His love—were displayed in and through the cross of Christ; but when we are taught that the Father sent His Son, and sent Him in order to be a Saviour for all, Jew or Gentile, who should believe on Him, we are permitted to see into the depths of His unfathomable heart. Yea, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
It may be helpful to some if we add the following note from the writings of another. He says, “It will be found in the writings of John that, when responsibility is spoken of, God is the word used; when grace to us, the Father and the Son. When indeed it is goodness (God’s character in Christ) towards the world, then God is spoken of.” Nothing indeed can be more instructive than a close observation of the way in. which the Holy Spirit uses the different names of God, and also of our blessed Lord Himself. The meaning of many a scripture almost entirely depends upon it.
We can now perhaps better understand the Lord’s words to Philip—“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” If therefore we would know the Father more fully it can only be through a more perfect knowledge of Christ.
The fathers to whom John writes (1 John 2), whose characteristic was that they knew “Him who is from the beginning,” that is, Christ, “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” (1 John 1:22(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (1 John 1:2)), were those who knew most of the Father; for it is in Christ, as we have seen, that the Father has been fully displayed. This should never be forgotten; for one of the evils of traditional and formal theology (and many souls are still under its influence) is that Christ, as the Son, has been too much separated from the Father. While rightly insisting on the holiness of God, and the necessity of atonement as the foundation of His gracious dealings with men, it has lost sight of the fact that Christ was the true expression of the Father’s heart, of the Father’s character and nature. The consequence is, that when the heart, under the gracious operations of the Spirit of God, has turned for relief to Christ, and the work He has wrought out on the cross, there has yet been the sense of distance from God, because He has been presented only in the aspect of a Judge. The knowledge therefore that God is for His people, that the Father’s heart rests upon them with delight and complacency, has been confined to comparatively few, and hence with the mass of believers there has been but little liberty in the presence of God, and almost no knowledge of their relationship to God as their Father. It would be an immense blessing to all such to apprehend the truth here insisted upon; that Christ is the perfect revelation of the Father; for then all that they learn of Him, they would consciously learn also of the Father, and thereby enter upon the rich and ever-increasing enjoyment of the Father’s love. He Himself has told us, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:3030I and my Father are one. (John 10:30))—one in mind, thought, purpose, and aim; He in the Father and the Father in Him, and thus of necessity He is the perfect expression of all that the Father is.
The question may perhaps be asked, “Where then can we obtain a fuller knowledge of Christ in order more perfectly to know the Father?” The answer to this question is of all importance. It is only in the Scriptures that we can learn what Christ is. There may be meditation upon Him undoubtedly; but if we would be preserved from the snares of mysticism and imagination, the word of God must be the basis of our contemplations. It should ever be strongly stated, that the only revelation of Christ is in the Scriptures; and when the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, receives of Christ, and shows it unto us (John 16:1414He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16:14)), it is through the Word. It is not too much to say that there is no contact with a living and glorified Christ except through the written word of God. There is a manifestation of Christ to the soul, giving us the special and conscious apprehension of His presence, but even this privilege and blessing are connected with keeping His commandments or His word (John 14:21-2321He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:21‑23)). Assailed as we are by the dangers, both of human reasonings and a spiritualized mysticism, it cannot be too often repeated, that we can only apprehend Christ, what He was on earth, and what He is at the right hand of God, the same Christ, His moral glories now being the same as when He was down here, but existing under different conditions—we can only learn all that He is, we repeat, through the pages of God’s inspired word. Remembering this, it will give a new incentive to the study of the Scriptures, and at the same time it will keep us while we read, like Mary, at the feet of our blessed Lord. We shall behold the man Christ Jesus moving across the scene, but the thought will ever be present to our hearts—He whom we behold in His works of mercy and love, He whom we hear speaking as never man spoke, is the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, and is Himself in all these acts and words the declaration of the Father. Reading the Scriptures in such a spirit would be an occasion for adoring worship and for grateful praise.
Before we close we may point out two things which our Lord did to aid His disciples in the apprehension of this truth. At the close of His sojourn among them He said, “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you” (John 16:25-2725These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. 26At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. (John 16:25‑27)). There was no possibility of coming to the Father but by Him, but He would have them know that they had through Him come unto the Father. They should continue to ask in His name, but He desired them to understand that the Father Himself loved them. He wanted to direct their gaze to the Father through Himself that they might know Him, and know also that they were the objects of His heart. This teaching of our blessed Lord might well be commended to many in the present day. Is there no danger to our souls of forgetting that the Father has been revealed to us, that through the Lord Jesus we are come to Him, and that we may count upon His heart at all times?
The second thing is that the Lord put His disciples, before He departed from them, into His own place. He did this when He presented them before the Father in His prayer which He uttered in their hearing: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all mine are Thine, and Thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:9-119I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 10And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:9‑11) see also verses 16-26). But after His resurrection He formally announces to them the character of the place into which they had now been brought “Go to My brethren,” says He to Mary, “and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)). We hope to expound these words in the next chapter; but we call attention now to the fact that on the ground of redemption, effected through His death and resurrection, the Lord brings His people into His own place and relationship with God. God was not henceforth to be known as Jehovah, or Jehovah-Elohim, as by Israel, but as the God and Father of His people, because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Hence it will be found in the epistles that almost all the blessings secured to us in Christ are developed in this twofold relationship. (See 2 Cor. 1:2-32Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (2 Corinthians 1:2‑3); Eph. 1:2-32Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:2‑3); 1 Peter 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3).)
Thus the gospel of John closes. Commencing with the introduction of the Word, who was with God and who was God, and who withal was the eternal Son, and as such the revealer of the Father, it concludes with His putting the disciples, in His tenderness and love, on resurrection ground into His own place and relationship to His God and Father. As yet they could not enter upon the enjoyment of this, but He had given it to them, and had brought them into it as the fruit of His own redemptive work. Blessed be His name!