What is God Like?

Imagine a house with a large window that provides a direct view of majestic mountains. Can you see the mountains from other windows in the house? Yes, but the other windows are smaller, perhaps dirtier, and don’t give a direct view. If you want the best view from inside the house, go to the crystal clear, wall-sized window that takes your breath away.

A Divine Window

What is the large, crystal clear window through which we see God?

Jesus.

If we want to know what God is like we have to look at Jesus. He gives us the perfect view of God.

Consider the New Testament statements below.

1. “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18). Jesus is the only one who can make the Father known.
2. Jesus said, “whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn. 5:19). Jesus perfectly imitates the Father. 
3. Jesus said, “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me” (Jn. 12:45). When we look at Jesus we see the Father.
4. Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). To see Jesus is to see the Father.
5. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). God’s love is revealed in Christ’s death for sinners.
6. “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). How can we see the invisible God? By looking at Christ who is his image.
7. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20). God’s fullness lived in Jesus and through Jesus, God reconciled all things to himself.
8. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). Christ is the bodily form of God.
9. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb. 1:3). Jesus shows us God exactly.

The Christian God is triune—Father, Son, and Spirit. But the Father has given humanity an exact expression of himself in his Son. If we want to know what God is like, we must focus on Jesus because he is “the image of the invisible God” and “the exact representation of [God’s] being.” When we think of God we should not think of Zeus holding lightning bolts. We should think of Jesus—the fully human one, who was crucified and raised from the dead.

Les Bridgeman

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a high school Bible teacher in Asia. I enjoy traveling, writing, and playing the drums. My latest book focuses on Paul’s work as a tentmaker and what it means for today.