Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.’
—John 14:9   

Reflection

When we do not truly know someone, we can easily assume things about that person that are not true.

As a sixth-grade student, I once placed another boy’s model airplane inside my desk without thinking when the bell rang for recess. When the class returned, I had completely forgotten what I had done. After the teacher searched our desks and found the airplane in mine, she accused me of lying and stealing.

The teacher was mistaken. The truth was that I was a sensitive young boy who did not practice lying or stealing. But because I had not been in her class long, she had no way of knowing who I really was.

In the same way, we can assume things about God that are not true because we do not fully understand who He is. When we do not know much about God’s nature, what He is really like, we will often see Him with distorted vision or even fail to see Him at all.

This was certainly the case when Jesus walked the earth. The very people who awaited the Messiah’s arrival and knew hundreds of prophecies about Him still missed seeing Him when He lived before their eyes. Many were devoted to God’s Law, knowledgeable of His ways and commands, and had His words committed to memory. Yet many still failed to recognize Yeshua for who He really was.

How could people so devoted to God miss seeing Him up close and personal? One primary reason was that they understood only a limited aspect of who He was rather than seeing the whole of His character.

If Yeshua truly was the Messiah, then some long-held beliefs about God were not accurate. Recognizing Messiah required understanding how He fulfilled God’s commands in the Torah and the Messianic prophecies throughout the Tanakh. Yeshua revealed the true nature of God.

Jesus was a perfect reflection of His Father. He was a mirror image of God. He said: “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” By looking at Jesus’ character, who He was when He walked on earth, we see God’s nature revealed in the flesh.

Yet people often disconnect the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament. They treat Him as if He were two different Gods with two different natures. One emphasizes holiness, while the other is all about grace. Many think the God of the Old Testament is holy and judging, while Jesus is loving, kind, and full of grace.

But God’s nature is consistent. He is identical in the Tanakh and the B’rit Hadashah. His holiness and grace are not divided. Yeshua is the fulfillment of both. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Application

• Ask the Lord to expose every distorted belief you have formed about His character.
• Look closely at Yeshua to see the Father’s holiness, grace, love, and true nature revealed.

Prayer

Father, forgive me for the ways I have misunderstood Your nature and assumed things about You that are not true. Remove every distorted vision and help me see You clearly in Yeshua. Show me the consistency of Your character throughout the Tanakh and the B’rit Hadashah. Teach me to recognize both Your holiness and Your grace without separating one from the other. Let the character of Messiah reveal to me more deeply who You truly are. Amen.