John 14:9 - Forerunner Commentary

John 14:9

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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain John 14:9:

John 14:7-10
Excerpted from: Holiness (Part 1)

Tie that together with Matthew 11:27. Those who can know the Father are those who are having the Father revealed to them by the Son.

It is through the life, the works, and the words of Jesus Christ that we come to know the names of God. Moses asked God to show him His way. If you want to see what God is like, if you want to see the mind of God, if you want to see the nature of God, if you want to see God's whole attitude, Jesus Christ is saying, look at Me! He is the way because, of all of mankind (all who have ever lived), He is the only one who has intimate knowledge of the Father that is totally, completely, unmarred by sin. His vision of God is absolutely perfect and accurate.

Jesus Christ shows the way men should walk. Actually, I should not say, should. The way men must walk. He shows us the direction, the manner, the method of doing things. The way to God lies in knowledge of the Son. This is exactly what Christ has done, in declaring the glory of the Father to mankind.

When you go to Jesus Christ and you ask Him the way, He says, Come. Follow Me. I'll show you. That is why He is the way. He shows us! It is not just in words. He shows us the mind of God, so that we know the name of God - because we see Him in all kinds of circumstances. As Jesus acted, so would the Father act. (If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.) And so we have no excuse when we say that we cannot understand the Father, or that we cannot know God - that He is distant from us. How can I keep the third commandment if I do not know God, and I do not know His name? It is right there in the New Testament. We have been shown.

In addition to that, He is truth. There are people who can speak truth. They can teach us truth. I can teach you truth. Many others can teach us truth. But Jesus Christ was truth. He embodied it! Everything that He did and said was absolutely right on the mark - every time, without fail. No misleading, no shadow of turning. No time, at any time in His life, was there ever even the tiniest hint of deception about God, about what He is, or the way to go, or the way to do things. Everything is right on the mark.

These are two of the strongest statements in the entire Bible about the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not only equal to God - He is God! Jesus Christ not only reflects God - He reveals God. He was not a mere statue - like the moon reflecting the glory of something else. He was a channel for it, completely and totally. Completely holy, He has the authority to judge the world. There is no clearer view anywhere of what God is like!

Now what did He do when He became a man? The full revelation of God, the complete expression of God in a human body - He is unique. He imposed upon Himself all the time and space limitations that are imposed upon all other human beings. He had every opportunity to waste time, to get drunk, to be a glutton, to get angry, embittered, depressed, upset, frustrated, to have headaches, to strike out at others.

He had the opportunity to live through the deaths of loved ones, and to face His own death as well. And so, in Jesus Christ, we see God coping with life on the same terms as other men. And we are able to see the kind of character that God possesses. We are actually able to see it in actual, real life, everyday kinds of experiences, if we will just dare to meditate on these kinds of things.

We can have firsthand information about how we ought to react in our situations in our life. We see God teaching. We see God healing. We see God laying down His life. We see God correcting in love. We see God patiently counseling.

John 14:6-9
Excerpted from: Defining Grace

The prospect of any man, at any time, ever seeing God in His glory, is virtually non-existent. But for those who were privileged to live back then, they had a flesh and blood witness—God incarnate. And for those of us who live now, we have His Word that is based upon eyewitnesses of His glory, of His grace. This is why Jesus said what He did, in John 14, when He was asked to show us the Father. In John 14:6, Jesus said:

Grace incarnate arrived before men. The great gift, you see, that gives us delight from which we receive salvation; from which, as we just saw, we receive the calling. No one can go to the Father except through Him.

So God uses this introduction to the book of John to make clear a very important fact and concept. The fact and concept are one and the same, and that is that God is not a being detached and separated from His creation. He is not merely exalted and worshipped, but God is involved. He takes part in the process. He loves, He yearns, He suffers, He gives, He corrects, and He saves. He enters right into the storms and conflicts of life on earth, and in the life of Jesus, He was subject to all of its conditions and He rose above it. He conquered sin and Satan. It says in Hebrews that "He was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin."

And so in Christ, then, in a life lived, God ceases to be an abstraction and becomes a reality. The incarnation, then, was the fullest manifestation of grace and truth because it was the greatest expression of God's concern and compassion for people, and the clearest way of conveying for our understanding. No one can ever forget the power of an example.

Articles

God Is . . . What?
God's Two Witnesses
Living by Faith and Humility
Lying to the Holy Spirit
Sex, Sin and Marriage  (2)
The Nature of God— What's Love Got To Do With It?
The Sovereignty of God: Introduction
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment (1997)
The Ultimate Father's Day
Was Mr. Armstrong an Apostle?
What's Going On Up There?

Bible Studies

The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing Malchus' Ear (Part Two)

Booklets

For the Perfecting of the Saints
God Is . . . What?

Essays

Christ, the Way
Overcoming Troubled Hearts (Part Two)
The Bible's Claims About Itself
The Necessity of Biblical Infallibility
The Relationship Deficit (Part Three)

Sermons

Malachi's Appeal to Backsliders (Part Two)
Glorify You Me
A Son Is Given
The Third Commandment: Idolatry
All in All (Part 2)
Foundations
The Trinity and the Holy Spirit (Part 1)
Marriage and the Bride of Christ (Part 7)
What's Wrong With Christmas?
Assurance That We Know Him!
Living by Faith: Humility and God's Justice
Experiencing God
In The Likeness of Men!
Defining Logos (Part Two)
Malachi's Appeal to Backsliders (Part Three)
You Are My Witnesses That I Am God
Back to Life (Part One)
Christ's Revelation of the Father
Christ's Revelation of the Father
Running God's Marathon With Christ
The High Christology of Colossians
Truth-Based Worship Vs Spiritual Confusion
Hebrews (Part Fourteen): Chapter 2, A Mind Bending Purpose (Part Three)
The Glory of God (Part 3): From Glory to Glory
All Sifted Like Wheat (Part Three)
Who Do You Trust? (Part One)
To the Glory of God
Abraham's Sacrifice (Part Four): Providence Manifested
By This We Know Love!
Leavening: The Types
Image and Likeness of God (Part Three)
The Unleavened Life Is a Happy Life!
The Nature of God: Elohim
Our Father
Christ Our Standard
Our Core Business
The Commandments (Part Two)
God the Father (Part 2)
Focus
The Father-Son Relationship (Part One)
John (Part 22)
John (Part 25)
The Father-Son Relationship (Part Five)
Why Are We Called To Overcome?
The Father-Son Relationship (Part Seven)
Speaking the Truth in Love

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