No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:18 NIV
Who is Jesus? John introduced his gospel by explicitly stating who he believed Jesus to be. John started with a statement about the Logos, rendered by most translations as “the Word.” The Logos was in the beginning, was with God, and was God. And the Logos was the creator of everything created (John 1:1-3). The Logos became flesh, and we have seen his glory—the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father (John 1:14). Jesus is that incarnate Logos, the Son who came from the Father.
No one has ever seen God (the Father), but Jesus (the Son), who is himself God, has made him known to us. In the Old Testament, to see God was a death sentence (Ex. 33:20). But John tells us that Jesus, the incarnate Son, has made him known to us. When we see Jesus, we see God in the flesh. When we listen to his words, we hear God’s very words. And when we read of his life, we are reading about God.
The Father and the Son are both God. And they are in the closest relationship with each other. This verse comes as close as any that I am aware of to an explicit statement of the triune nature of God. The verse makes no mention of the Holy Spirit. But it does claim the Father and Son are both God (John 10:30). And that they are in the closest relationship. Closer than anything we experience on earth. A relationship so close that they are one.
Jesus is unique. He is the one and only Son. While all who follow Jesus are adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters (Rom. 8:15), only Jesus is the unique Son of God.
So, who is Jesus? He is the Logos, the unique Son of God, who is himself God, and who became flesh in order to make God known to us. And to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
