To See and Know the Father

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him (John 14:7).

What does it mean to ‘know’ and ‘see’ the Father? To ‘know’ is ginosko. It means to know in a complete sense, especially through personal experience. To ‘see’ is horao. It means to perceive, see, or discern through personal experience.

Jesus said, ‘if’ you had known Me. . . . This clause is a 2nd class conditional statement, meaning that it is presumed contrary to fact and assumes the premise to be untrue for the sake of argument (whether or not it is untrue). So, what is Jesus’ point? We cannot consider the ‘if’ statement as being true, since you had known Me, you would know My Father also, but contrary to fact for the sake of argument, if you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. In other words, for 3 years the disciples had been in the company of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. During those 3 years, Jesus taught them about God, His Kingdom, His love for them, and His desire to save them. They saw the power and love of God when Jesus healed people, fed them, raised people from the dead, defended them, encouraged them, forgave them. His point was this - all that they had heard Jesus say and seen Jesus do was the Father speaking and working through Him.

The problem the disciples had is the same problem we have - we look at the Godhead as 3 Persons separate and distinct from each other. God the Father does His thing, Jesus the Christ does His thing, and the Holy Spirit does His thing. That is incorrect. The word ‘trinity’ means ‘tri-unity’, 3 in 1. There are 3 Persons in the Godhead, but only 1 God. They are the same in essence, character, nature, purpose, etc. so that “The work of One is the work of All, and the work of All is the work of Each” (Cecil Hyatt, Prof. Old Testament, Cal Baptist University).

We cannot know God the Father without knowing Jesus Christ His Son because Jesus Christ is more than just the physical manifestation of the Father, He was, and is the Father revealed in human flesh. If we know the Holy Spirit, we know Jesus Christ. If we know Jesus Christ we know the Father. This is far more important than just explaining the mystery of the Godhead. The salvation of the human soul is dependent upon knowing Jesus Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, He prayed, And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

Will we see and know Jesus Christ in heaven? If you are saved, yes. We will see with our own eyes, and know with our own mind, God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit when we get to heaven. It will be glorious beyond our greatest imagination. But for now, we can ‘see’ and ‘know’ Jesus Christ and the Father by knowing the Holy Spirit, and seeing His work in us, among us, and through us until we reach our final home in heaven. Amen.

Pastor