The Word Made Flesh
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. John 1:18 · Berean Standard Bible
No one has ever seen God face to face, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and closest to the Father's heart, has shown us exactly what God is like.
If you've ever wondered what God is really like, look at Jesus. He's the clearest picture of God you'll ever see.
John wraps up his prologue with the ultimate claim: Jesus reveals God perfectly.
God has always seemed invisible, unreachable, mysterious. But Jesus changed that. He took the invisible God and made Him known, touchable, and personal.
No one has ever seen God, but the unique One (Greek: monogenēs theos, 'the only-begotten God'), who is at the Father's side (eis ton kolpon, 'in the bosom'), has made Him known (exēgēsato, 'exegeted, interpreted').
The verb exēgēsato (from which we get 'exegesis') means Jesus 'interprets' or 'narrates' the Father. The Son is the definitive exegete of the invisible God.
The evangelist concludes the prologue by declaring the Son as the definitive revelation of the unseen God.
The prologue reaches its conclusion: the invisible God has been made visible through the Son. Jesus is the exegesis of the Father — if you want to know God, you look at Jesus.
16From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.
19And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”
20He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, “I am not the Christ.”
Read all of John 1 — John doesn't begin with a birth story. He begins with a cosmic declaration that echoes the first line of Genesis on purpose.
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