TO SEE GOD

The statement is shockingly simple yet infinitely profound.  "From now on (απ αρτι) you know Him (God) and you have seen Him" (John 14:7). You all (plural) know God now (γινωσκετε). The present tense indicative verb emphasizes continuing knowledge from this point onward. You all have seen God (εωρακατε). The perfect tense indicative verb emphasizes past action that stands accomplished in the present (Burton, Moods & Tenses, p.40). Jesus expands His thought with two more perfect tense verbs in response to Philip's question. "The one who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). It is not that they will see God. They have seen God - in Jesus. Jesus makes a staggering claim.

There are two Greek words often used for sight. βλεπω means to see in terms of the physical senses or as an intellectual function of paying attention. The word used here, οραω, refers to spiritual perception (BAGD, Lexicon, p.578). John uses οραω for what the Son in His preexistence saw when He was with the Father in eternity past (John 3:11, 32; 6:46; 8:38; Colin Brown, NIDNT, 3:515-517). No one else has seen the Father - until now, Jesus asserts! The Bible teaches that God is invisible (Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17). The word is a verbal adjective related to οραω with the alpha negative added (α - ορατος). Moses "saw" God in the Old Testament but it was a theophony - a manifestation of God (Ex. 33:13,18). Jesus now claims that the disciples have seen God in a way that Moses never did precisely because they have seen Jesus.

How have they seen God?  John uses the word for seeing by faith (John 12:45). The believer perceives the Father in the Son. The unbeliever does not. I like what John Baillie said, "Through God alone can God be known!" Jesus is not saying here that He represents the Father or is the Father's ambassador to humans.  You cannot know someone through knowing someone who knows him. Jesus claims that you actually know the Father when you know the Son. He claims that when you see Jesus, you have seen the invisible God!