Why did John say, “No Man Has Seen God?”
Another of the passages commonly cited by skeptics of the deity
of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity is John 1:18, which says:
“No one has seen God at any
time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
The argument goes that since John says God has not been seen, but Jesus was seen by
lots of people, He, therefore cannot be God. Pretty straightforward.
Of course, this verse has been a part of John’s gospel since it was
first written down nearly 2 millennia ago. And throughout the history of the Church,
even going back to the earliest days of its existence, esteemed Christians have not had any
problem maintaining their confession that Jesus is truly God in full recognition of this verse.
For as much as groups like Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other unitarian groups point to
John 1:18 as a supposed refutation of the trinitarian position, these assertions don’t
explain why well-read Christians have maintained a trinitarian confession down through the ages.
So…how can this be the case? If John 1:18 is really a refutation of any
claim to divinity on Jesus’ part, how has the Christian
faith consistently understood this verse while confessing Christ to be truly God?
In order to answer this question, as well as the question of what John is talking about in
this verse, we need to look at it in context. John 1:18 does not exist as a single verse
in pure isolation. Rather, this verse, and every other verse in the Bible, is part of
a greater narrative that the author has written. In order to properly understand John’s words here,
we have to consider the narrative in which he has placed this statement.
First, is it, in fact, true that God has never been seen?
Many Old Testament passages speak to this:
“I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, ‘Smite the capitals so that the thresholds
will shake, and break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the
sword; they will not have a fugitive who will flee, or a refugee who will escape.’” (Amos 9:1)
“Micaiah said, ‘Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and
all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.’” (1 Kings 22:19)
“Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face,
just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua,
the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.” (Exodus 33:11)
These are just a few examples. Two passages to draw attention
to specifically are Isaiah 6 and Genesis 18. Isaiah 6 states:
“In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted,
with the train of His robe filling the temple…(5) Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I
am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For
my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’” (Isaiah 6:1-5)
This passage is particularly of interest because John cites it in chapter 12:41, wherein he states
that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of Jesus in his ministry. Therefore,
two conclusions we can draw from this are that 1) John recognized God had been seen before
and 2) he believed that the God who was seen (at least in Isaiah’s case) was the pre-incarnate Son.
The other passage of interest to us now, Genesis 18, is replete with testimony that
Abraham did not just see God, but he had very intimate fellowship with him:
Abraham washed God’s feet, he fed God a meal, he sat with God under the Oaks of Mamre,
and he had a prolonged face-to-face conversation with God wherein he pleaded for Sodom & Gomorrah.
Genesis 18 tells us that not only did God appear to Abraham, but he appeared
to him in something akin to a physical human body (along with the two angels with Him.)
John also makes reference to this portion of scripture in chapter 8,
where he quotes Jesus, in passionate argument with some Pharisees, as saying, “Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” (v.56). Further, he quotes Jesus earlier
in this chapter as making reference to the fact that Abraham had a real opportunity to kill Him:
“They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them,
“If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me,
a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.” (John 8:39-40)
Notice the charge Jesus levels at the crowd. “You are seeking to kill me;
if you are really Abraham’s descendants, you should be treating me the same way Abraham did.
Abraham did not try to do this.” Jesus’ whole point is that the
crowd is really trying to kill him and he contrasts their behavior with Abraham.
The force of His condemnation though is that Abraham had, if he had wanted to,
the same kind of real opportunity to kill Jesus. But how can this be? Jesus lived somewhere between
1,500-2,000 years after Abraham. Even the Jewish crowd was bewildered by Jesus’ claim:
…the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” (John 8:57)
It is to this question that Jesus would famously say, “Before Abraham was, I am,” in verse 58.
His point through this dialogue is that He is the God that Abraham interacted with in Genesis 18.
Again, this affirms the two points we have previously concluded about John: 1) he recognized
God had been seen before and 2) he believed that the God who was seen was the pre-incarnate Son.
But if this is true, then why would John say, “no man has seen God at any time?”
Obviously, the answer to this cannot be the, “plain,” reading that Muslims,
Jehovah’s Witnesses and other unitarians assert this verse means, because that would
put John in contradiction both with the Old Testament and with himself later in his gospel.
We’ve looked at some of the greater context of John’s statement; now,
to properly understand him in verse 18, we have to look specifically at the context of chapter 1.
Verse 18 is the bookend to what is known as John’s prologue – the introductory
statement that begins his gospel. This means that verse 18 is part of a single
statement that precedes back to the very first verse. The first verse of John’s gospel reads:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
I have done a whole video about how to properly interpret John 1:1 so I will direct you there for
detailed explanation. For purposes of this video, note how John is using, “God,” in this verse. In
the second clause, John says, “God,”as a personal reference. We know this because: 1) in the Greek,
“God,” is articular (it is accompanied by, “the”) and 2) “God,” is in opposition to,
“the Word.” John hasn’t yet told us who either, “God,” or, “the Word,” is, so let’s not assume
to know for the time being. Moving into the third clause, John again makes reference to, “God,” but
this time, it is not a personal reference, it is a qualitative reference. We know this here because
“God,” is an anarthrous predicate nominative for, “the Word,” connected by a linking verb,
“was.” What John is saying in the third clause is that the Word was, by His nature, God.
To put it another way, the Word was truly Divine or the Word was qualitatively God.
The important thing to recognize with respect to verse 18 is that
John has set a precedent in verse 1 of using, “God,” of more than one figure
– “God,” of clause 2 (Whoever that is) and the Word in clause 3. John states later in verse 14
that, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” so we know from this verse that the Word
John is speaking of is the pre-incarnate Christ, who later became the man, Jesus.
But this still leaves the question, “who is, ‘God,’ in the second clause of verse 1?
This brings to verse 18 proper:
“No one has seen God at any time;
the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Obviously, we’ve noted that God was seen many times
in the Old Testament, so what is John saying?
Look closely at the rest of the verse – the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father…
We have been introduced to a new character – the Father. John also states that,
“the only begotten God,” is in the bosom (or in intimate fellowship) of the Father.
This means that the Father must also be truly divine – truly God. Now we know that the, “God,”
of clause 2 of verse 1 is the Person of the Father contrasted with the Word, the Person of the Son.
But this begs another question…if John has used, “God,” in reference to both the Father
and the Son thus far, Who is he referring to when He says, “no one has seen God?” Is he saying,
“no one has seen the Father,” or is he saying, “no one has seen the Son?”
John is obviously not saying the latter, because He has already stated in verse 14, “…the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from
the Father…” Therefore, John is saying that no one has seen the Father…but look at what else he says…
“…the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Compare this with verse 14. The, “only begotten God,” is the Word – the Son, Jesus. Look at what
John says He did for the Father because no one has seen Him; the Word has explained the
Father (or made Him known). The Word can do this because He is God just as the Father is (v.1).
John’s point in this verse is this – God was seen many times
in the Old Testament, but the Person of God who was seen was not the Father
(as many of his Jewish readers would have assumed). Rather, the God who was seen by Abraham,
Moses, Isaiah and all the rest was the pre-incarnate Son – Jesus before He came as a man.
He is the one who has been revealing Himself to God’s people all this time.
Yet, He is the same one that they have crucified because they did not believe His testimony (v.11).
Rather than being a refutation of Christ’s deity, John 1:18 is actually one of the most powerful
assertions that Jesus is, in fact, truly God, just as the Father is.
For more information on the Deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity,
please see this playlist on my channel or view the corresponding
lectures from my Fundamentals of the Christian Faith class.