| If You Want To See the Father, Look At the Son The Bible tells us that Jesus went around “preaching the good news about the kingdom of God.”[78] The good news was about God’s kingdom—particularly, how does he run his kingdom and government? What kind of a person is God? After all, these were the questions that ultimately brought about the war in Heaven and started the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. Satan would have us believe that God is like him—arbitrary, vengeful, unforgiving and severe. Jesus came to earth personally and said, “The Father is like me.” When one of his close friends asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus replied, “I’ve been with you for so long, and you don’t know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”[79] When we see Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me!”[80], we know that the Father would also let children sit on his lap. When Jesus forgave the men crucifying him, we know that the Father would also forgive them. When Jesus didn’t expose the scoundrels who had set-up a woman to be caught in adultery, we know that the Father would do the same thing, because “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of his being.”[81] Jesus is called, “the faithful and true witness,”[82] because he told us the truth about the Father. Jesus was always touching somebody; the untouchables, like lepers, the dead, blind, deaf, paralyzed, the demon-afflicted, the sinful. He sought out not the famous or rich, but the sinners, the beggars, the blind, crippled, and useless of society. We can be certain that the Father has the same interest in people. Jesus had a personal concern for people. His healings were accompanied by deep feeling[83]. He did not consider the sick merely as cases, but as individuals. He dealt with each one with the most tender considerateness, taking into account their special problem and special need. Again, since Jesus came to show us what God is like, his compassion paints a portrait of the Father’s concern for each person. The Harsh God of the Old Testament Many people have thought that the Father, the God of the Old Testament, was harsh and vindictive; that Jesus, as the “mediator” between God and man[84], shields us from the Father and his justice. When God led his people out of Egyptian slavery, he spoke to them directly[85]. It was the people who said, “Don’t let God talk to us. Moses, you talk to God for us.”[86] God did give us “someone in between” us and him. He sent Jesus. However, it is fundamental to understand that Jesus is fully God. Therefore, there is really no one in between us and God. Furthermore, the God who led ancient Israel was Jesus. The same God who thundered from Mount Sinai gave the sermon on the mount. If someone’s child was getting closer and closer to a deadly cliff, that parent would speak more loudly and firmly the closer the child got to the danger. He or she would not care that there were people who, outside the line of vision, unaware of the circumstances, would judge them as harsh or bad parents. They would risk being feared and misunderstood temporarily, to save their child’s life. In the same way, God has taken many drastic measures in the past. While God had risked being feared and misunderstood as being exactly the kind of person Satan had made him out to be, Jesus came to show us what God was really like. “I have used figures of speech to tell you these things. But the time will come when I will not use figures of speech, but will speak to you plainly about the Father. When that day comes, you will ask him in my name; and I do not say that I will ask him on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you.”[87] The Bible does not picture one member of the Godhead “working on” the other to forgive us; rather, God the Father is “for us,”[88] the Son is our advocate along “with the Father,”[89] and the Holy Spirit “Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”[90] All three members of the Godhead are in perfect unity. If the Father had come instead of the Son, the history we have of the life of Christ would not be changed one word. For they are one in character, nature, purpose and Deity. |
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| 78 Matthew 4:23, 9:35; Mark 1:14 79 John 14:8, 9 80 Matthew 19:13, 14 81 Hebrews 1:3 NIV 82 Revelation 3:14 83 see Mark 7:31-37; Mark 1:40, 41, Hebrews 5:7 84 I Timothy 2:5 85 Exodus 20 86 Exodus 20:18-21 87 John 16:26,27 88 Romans 8:31 89 I John 2:1 90 Romans 8:26 NAS |
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