Who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
//Continuing the topic from yesterday, we're talking about people who have "seen God." 1 Timothy repeats the claim of John's Gospel, noting that no man has seen nor can see God. But what exactly do these verses mean? Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Job, Samson's parents, Isaiah, and Daniel all saw God in yesterday’s verses. Once, all the seventy elders of Israel saw God. We can't just pretend that the writers of John's Gospel and 1 Timothy didn't know the scripture.
The reason no one has ever seen God, according to 1 Timothy, is because God lives in "unapproachable light." This brings to mind the day Paul saw Jesus as a blinding light from heaven.
John, in similar fashion, makes the claim that no one has ever seen God in his prologue. I provided that verse yesterday. There, Jesus is described as "the true light that gives light to every man." The logical conclusion is that the many who had seen God before never witnessed the blinding glory of God, until Jesus arrived and put that glory on display. John then makes clear that the only way one really "sees" Jesus is to be born again ... to receive new sight.
It turns out that there is one more verse on this topic:
1 John 4:12, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Putting it all together, may we conclude that no one in the Old Testament had “seen” God, but thanks to the coming of Jesus, every loving Christian since that day has?
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