How Jesus Reveals God

One of the bedrock themes of New Testament Christology is that Jesus uniquely reveals God to us. The historical Jesus can do this because of his identity as the Son of God — he has a unique and intimate relationship with the Father (Matt. 11:27). The Son was sent by the Father, and came down from heaven (Gal. 4:4; Rom. 10:6). He is the Son, who from the Father’s side revealed God’s glory and made him known (John 1:14, 18). He is Immanuel, God with us — the Word made flesh (Matt. 1; John 1:14). Other metaphors were used as well to describe this capacity of the Son to reveal the Father. The beloved Son is confessed as “the image of the invisible God . . . in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:13, 15, 19). The Son is “in the form of God” and participates in “equality with God” (Phil. 2:6). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb. 1:3).

But this motif is not merely a celebration of the deity of Christ. It is surely that. But it is also a confession that Jesus, in his unique capacity as the revealer of God, teaches us about God. He reveals to us how God exists, and shows us the ways of God. Jesus reveals to us that God exists in loving communion, not only in the Father-Son relationship, but also in the eternal fellowship of the Father and the Son with the Spirit. This is how God exists, as an intimate communion of Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son teaches us about this, not only in theory, but in practice. The Son cries, “Abba, Father,” and then in the heart of believers, the Spirit echoes the same cry, “Abba, Father.”

Jesus has also taught us that God’s ways are counter-intuitive: unlike the gods of this world, his heart is oriented toward the needs of others (Phil. 2:6–7), toward the weary and heavy laden (Matt. 11:28). If we want to know this God, Jesus can teach us about him.