John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time

No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

 

No one has seen God at any time.  The Bible states emphatically that it is impossible for mortal man to see God.  Paul wrote in 1st Timothy 6:14-16 that we are incapable of beholding the Son of God in His glory "until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."  This is also why Paul insists that we must be changed; "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God", and "this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." - 1st Corinthians 15,50,53

 

In our mortal state we may only look upon God through visions.  Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John all had such visions, and even in these visions the appearance of God's glory was so overwhelming that they fell on their faces.  They became as dead; without the strength to speak, to move, or even to breath unless the Lord had strengthened them to endure - so that He might use these close encounters for His divine purposes.

 

Moses knew God to the extant that any mortal man might know Him.  It was said that he spoke with God face-to-face. Yet this must have been said to indicate how clearly God and Moses communicated.  The New Testament indicates that God was speaking to Moses through angels.  We do not know whether these appearances of God took the form of The Angel of God, often associated with the Lord Himself.  Or whether these meetings were actual pre-incarnate manifestations of the Son, also known as a Christophany.  But the Bible makes it clear that Moses had not seen God in His glory because of the following account of his request, and God's reply.

Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory.”  Then He[God] said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”  And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.  So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” - Exodus 33:18-23

 

God did reveal Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai by allowing him to see His divine attributes.

 

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.  And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” - Exodus 34:5-7

 

God spoke to Jeremiah affirming these same divine characteristics, saying; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord. - Jeremiah 9:24

 

But God knew from the beginning that man in his fallen sinful state would not be able to endure His presence.  There on Mount Sinai when God descended, the people begged for a mediator.  They were terrified by God's glory, saying, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die."  And the Lord said to me[Moses]: "What they have spoken is good.  I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him." - Deuteronomy 18:16-19

 

The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.  Jesus is that Mediator who was to come.  That's why Jesus said those who rejected His words would also be cut off from God.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. - John 12:48

 

The Greek word for "declared" is exegesis.  It is used in the Greek Septuagint in 1st Chronicles 16:23,24: Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.  And in Acts 15:12  Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.

 

Jesus said, "I and My Father are one." - John 10:30   He is the image of the invisible God - Colossians 1:15a.  Because Jesus is in the bosom of the Father, He was (and is) able to declare God to man as never before; as Hebrews 1:1,2a says: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.

 

But Jesus assured us that He did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it.  The little children came to Him trusting the gentleness of His touch.  But even mature Christians can shrink back from the intensity of walking in the presence of God.  Some cease from fellowship.  Others use substances to numb them, so that they might just drift through life with the hope that all will be well when they die.  Yes, our God is a consuming fire.  But don't fall into doubt about the love that God has for those who have loved His Son.

 

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.  (For they could not endure what was commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow."  And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.")

 

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. - Hebrews 12:18-24

 

Let the message of the cross wash away every trace of fear.  Because . . . God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. - Romans 5:8-11

 

Jesus has come declaring the Father, and His declaration is love and peace and grace and truth!