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The Unseen God
No man hath seen God at any time; 1John 4:12
Close your eyes! How do you see God? What is your picture of Jesus?
Do you see Jesus as a white faced man with a meticulously shaped beard and blue eyes? Do you think that is a true picture?
Only what God has chosen of Himself to be revealed can be known. One of God's attributes or qualities is "light", meaning that He is self-revealing in information of Himself [ the LORD shall be thine everlasting light Isaiah 60:19, the Father of lights, James 1:17].
In our fallen human condition, if God were to reveal Himself fully and completely to us, we would be consumed. God is a consuming fire, Deut 4:24.
Therefore, God veils Himself and appears in forms in which we can "see" Him. However, this is different than seeing God with all His glory and holiness displayed. People have seen visions of God, images of God, and appearances of God – but no one has ever seen God in all His fullness [And GOD said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. Exodus 33:20]. And God said I will make all my goodness pass before thee, Exo 33:19
God allowed Moses to see a little of His character. A little of His Glory. Moses saw some of Gods beauty!
God is a Spirit: John 4:24
God is a merciful God; Deut 4:31
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God is righteous in all his works Dan. 9:14
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God is faithful 1 Cor 1:9
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Because God is loving and gracious He gives you and me the
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opportunity to see Him. So we find He is :-
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The Revealed God Remember what took place on that first Christmas?
Immanuel God with us. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John 1:18
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; John 14:9
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God has spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by
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whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the
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express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,
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when he had by himself purged [cleansed] our sins, sat down on the right hand of
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the Majesty on High; Hebrews 1:1-3
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1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [payment] for our sins.
We need to acknowledge our need as sinners so that we can really get to know the God who really loves us. We can get to know Him in loving God and others.
The Spiritually Known God
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 1 John 4:13
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love 1 John 4:16
Gods self-giving love revealed in Jesus and made present through the Spirit is a judgement of our feeble loves. But this judgment of love is at the same time an invitation into a strange new world, into new loves, the wonder of Gods love. And this new love follows Jesus toward the crucifixion where we give up control over our love—where we learn to love without producing results. This is a love that does not seek any other ends—it doesnt look forward to another goal, another reason. Its a love that gives everything without any hope of receiving. A love that invests without desiring a return, without looking for a future payoff, without hoping for dividends.
Beloved, if God so loved us, how this passage, this word from God, addresses us three times Chap 3: vs. 1,2. Chap 4 verses 1,7,11. Beloved. We are already loved. We are Gods beloved. We dont have to earn it, work for it. We dont have to prove Gods love for us to anyone. Its already here. Thats what grace is. God is here. Immanuel. Our lives are already embraced by the God who is love. But this is just the beginning—Beloved And now we live as a response to this love.
The Holy Spirit leads us into the mysteries of the Invisible God; we come to feel the face of God as we shape our loves to the form revealed to us in the death of Jesus—a life who loved others without returns. Without expectations. Without stipulations. Without anticipations. Without manipulation. Without control.
A life that continues to risk love in the face of a history of disappointment. A love that is uncertain about results. The God who is love invites us into a life of love, to abide in the Spirit, by loving one another for the sheer joy of love, with an eye to the present that resists calculations, predictions, and predeterminations. The only reason we love like this is that God loved us we lovebecause He first loved
And we cannot live in this love without the invisible gift, the Holy Spirit, without the invasion of something alien to our human lives, the life of God by the Spirit.
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