This is John 1:18 in the Common English Bible:
No one has ever seen God.
God the only Son,
who is as the Father's side,
has made God known.
We find out more about how Jesus has made our invisible God known in Colossians 1:15. The CEB reads:
The Son is the image
of the invisible God,
the one who is first over all creation...
“Image” is eikon, in the Greek. It indicates a precise reproduction, not just a likeness. “Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father...” (p. 477, vol. 4, Word Pictures in the New Testament).
We find more in Hebrews 1:3. The CEB reads:
The Son is the light of God's glory and the imprint of God's being...
The word for “imprint” is charakter. It is used only here in the New Testament and comes from charagma, a stamp, impress. Robertson translates charakter es hupostaseos as “The very image of his substance.” (p. 336, vol. 5, Word Pictures in the New Testament) Robertson notes that hupostaseos indicates the being or essence of God.
Vincent says, “Here...the Son bears the exact impress of the divine nature and character.” (p. 383, vol. 4, Word Studies in the New Testament.)
Jesus is the exact representation of God's being, the exact representation of God's essence, His nature, His character. Perhaps that is why Jesus said no one could know God except by knowing him (John 14:6).
What is amazing to me is that we Christians are to become that image!
Rom. 8:28-29a says, in the CEB:
We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. We know this because God knew them in advance, and he decided in advance that they would be conformed to the image is his Son.
And, if that was not enough, here is 2 Cor. 3:18b in the CEB:
We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory.
And yet again, Col. 3:9b-10 in the CEB:
Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it.
I am taking part in a blog tour of the Common English Bible. I'll be blogging more about this Bible as the days go by.
You can see the blogs of others taking part of this tour here: http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour
I received a complimentary copy of the CEB from its publisher for the purpose of this blog tour.
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