Jesus: Living Exegesis of God

This Christmas morning (Australia) or eve (USA), let me show you some different translations of John 1:18.

No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him. (CSB)

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (NASB95).

No one has ever seen God. But God the only Son is very close to the Father, and he has shown us what God is like. (NCV).

No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day. (MSG).

The Greek word behind “made known”, “explained”, and “revealed” is the verb ἐξηγέομαι/exēgeomai which means “to set forth in great detail, expound” often with respect to “divine secrets” and “divine beings” (BDAG).

Aussie biblical scholar, Colin Kruse comments that, “The evangelist is saying, then, that the Word (Jesus), being God the one and only, at the Father’s side, the only one who has seen God, has ‘expounded’ him, made him known, through his person, words and works.”

Jesus, as God-in-the-flesh, is the exegesis or exposition of God.

God is made known through, in, and as Jesus.

Jesus is God with a human face.

Jesus is God with us and God for us.

Christmas is when we remember how God has exegeted himself in the person of Jesus, so that we never forget that God is love (1 John 4:8) and light (1 John 1:5) because we see the light and love of Jesus.