Please explain John 1:18.
John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Let’s break this precious verse down and may our hearts take in the truth that is found in these simple yet profound words.
“No man has seen God at any time…” The apostle John also proclaimed this same truth in 1st John 4:12, “No one has seen God at any time.” Thousands of years before that Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18). How did God respond? He said, “I will make all My goodness to pass before you” (verse 19) and He went on to say, “You cannot see My face; for NO MAN SHALL SEE ME, AND LIVE.” Of course, God is a spirit, which means He is invisible to man’s natural eyes, so He was really telling Moses, “No man shall see me in MY ESSENTIAL NATURE and live.” The apostle Paul spoke of this as he was inspired to write 1st Timothy 6:16, “who alone has immortality, dwelling in UNAPPROACHABLE LIGHT, whom no man has seen or can see.” He also said in 1st Timothy 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, INVISIBLE, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
“The only begotten Son…” Here we are introduced to God’s “only begotten Son.” Who is that? We learn the answer to that question in verses 1 and 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER, full of grace and truth.” This means that the only begotten Son IS GOD! He is “God the Son” who humbled Himself and “became flesh and dwelt among us.” We know this is speaking of JESUS, for the truth of His miraculous Incarnation is found in Luke 1:31 & 35, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS…The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” The result of the Son of God becoming a true human being was His disciples could look upon Him and “behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” In other words, they could see, in Jesus, the glory of God the Father.”
“He has declared Him…” Because Jesus IS GOD, He could “declare Him.” The word “declare” means to “make known.” While He walked this earth, He spoke the words of God the Father (John 12:49) and He did the works His Father gave Him to do (John 14:10-11), and in speaking the Father’s words and doing the Father’s works, He was “making the Father known.” This is why Jesus told Philip (who had asked Jesus to ‘show us the Father’), “He who has SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER” (verse 9). This, dear friends, is one of the main reasons the Son became a true Man, to “reveal the Father” to the eye of faith since men cannot see God with the natural eye. He has, in effect, “made the invisible God visible!” We have this confirmed in Colossians 1:15 which says, “who is the image of the invisible God.” What a marvel, that God the Son would be willing to humble Himself by becoming flesh so He could walk among men and manifest God to men! This amazing truth is declared in 1st Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: GOD WAS MANIFEST IN FLESH.”
You may be thinking, “Hey, you left out part of John 1:18 for after the words “The only begotten Son” it says, “who is in the bosom of the Father.” What do those words teach us? Do you remember when the disciples ate the Passover with the Lord Jesus and then the Lord’s Supper? We read of this in the gospels and in John 13:23 it says, “Now there was LEANING ON JESUS’ BOSOM one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” We believe John was speaking of himself, for He “loved to be close to the Lord Jesus” and “the Lord Jesus loved Him for being close to Him.” The bosom that John leaned one was literally “Jesus’ breast,” but the “bosom of the Father” speaks spiritually of “a position of nearness.” This phrase teaches us that God’s only begotten Son has always, and will always, have the closest place in the Father’s heart. He is His “only, unique Son” that was “daily His delight in eternity” (see Proverbs 8:30) and their mutual love and affections for each other flow uninterrupted from eternity to eternity! Because of this, He is perfectly qualified to “declare Him”; to “make the Father known” to men who have the eye of faith and are able to “behold His glory.” (DO) (582.1)