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  "description": "Ben Sirach asked the question as to who has been able to see God so as to describe him:\n\n“Because of him his messenger finds the way, and by his word all things hold together… Who has seen him and can describe him? Or who can extol him as he is?” Sirach 43:26, 31 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)\n\nThe inspired New Testament documents provide the answer: Jesus Christ.\n\nChrist is the uniquely begotten Son of God who is the exact imprint of God’s infinite, uncreated substance, being",
  "path": "/jesus-christ-the-being-who-eternally-is/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-30T20:23:55.000Z",
  "site": "https://answeringislam.blog",
  "tags": [
    "PHILLIPS",
    "DLNT",
    "LSB",
    "NLV",
    "NTFE",
    "AKJV",
    "NIV",
    "Exodus 33:20",
    "Deuteronomy 4:12",
    "Colossians 1:15",
    "1 Timothy 1:17",
    "John 5:37",
    "John 6:46",
    "John 14:7",
    "John 1:14",
    "John 3:16",
    "John 1:1",
    "John 3:13",
    "John 24:35",
    "John 10:8",
    "John 15:12",
    "John 15:14",
    "John 21:19",
    "Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament",
    "John 1:18",
    "Mark 13:16",
    "Acts 8:40",
    "John 8:32",
    "The Expositor's Greek Testament"
  ],
  "textContent": "Ben Sirach asked the question as to who has been able to see God so as to describe him:\n\n“Because of him his messenger finds the way, **and by his word all things hold together** … **Who has seen him and can describe him?** Or who can extol him as he is?” Sirach 43:26, 31 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)\n\nThe inspired New Testament documents provide the answer: Jesus Christ.\n\nChrist is the uniquely begotten Son of God who is the exact imprint of God’s infinite, uncreated substance, being the divine Agent of creation who personally sustains all things by his powerful word:\n\n“In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways.**** In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, **and through whom he made the universe**.**** The Son is the radiance of God’s glory **and the exact imprint of the divine nature. He sustains _all things by his_ powerful _word_**. After he had provided purification for sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:1-3 Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)\n\nInterestingly, Jesus does what Sirach ascribed to God Almighty, namely, preserving and holding all things in place by his word.\n\nSince Jesus perfectly and fully possesses the divine nature, he alone is capable of comprehending God in all his fullness. This explains why he alone is qualified to reveal God’s true character:\n\n“At that moment Jesus himself was inspired with joy, and exclaimed, ‘O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, I thank you for hiding these things from the clever and the intelligent and for showing them to mere children! Yes, I thank you, Father, that this was your will.’ Then he went on, ‘Everything has been put in my hands by my Father; and nobody knows who the Son really is **except the Father**. Nobody knows who the Father really is **except the Son** —**and the man to whom the Son chooses to reveal him!** ’” Luke 10:21-22 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) – Cf. Matt. 11:27-30\n\nThe Apostle John provides a further explanation why Christ alone is able to truly and completely make God known:\n\n“No one has ever seen God;  _the_ only-born God, **the _One_  _being (ho on)_ in the bosom  _of_ the Father**— that  _One_ expounded  _Him._ ” John 1:18 Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)\n\nAmazingly, John ascribes to Jesus the very phrase, which the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (referred to as the Septuagint [LXX]) employed to render the verb _ehyeh_ (“I WILL BE/I AM”) in a key text that describes the timeless existence of YHWH:\n\n“And God spoke to Moses, saying, I am THE BEING (_ego eimi ho on_); and he said, Thus shall ye say to the children of Israel, THE BEING (_ho on_) has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14\n\nSince Christ is identified as the _Ho On_ , this means he is that very timeless Being who eternally exists in the bosom or heart of his Father, which is the closest imaginable relationship one can have with God.\n\nIn other words, the phrase _Ho On_ is meant to convey the fact of Christ having always existed in the closest, most intimate union with the Father. To put this in simpler terms, there has never been a time when the Son has not been in this loving relationship with God, and there will never be a time when this union will cease to be.\n\nIt is this timeless communion between the Father and Son which makes Christ perfectly qualified to explain the character and nature of God. And since this union is timeless, the Son has always been the One making God known to all mankind from Adam’s creation and onwards.\n\nThis explains why Christ could say that he remains in the Father and the Father in him, even while on earth in his physically embodied state:\n\n“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and continue knowing **that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father**.” John 10:37-38 Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)\n\n“‘If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.’ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all so long and have you not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe **that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me**? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but **the Father abiding in Me** does His works. Believe Me **that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me** ; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.’” John 14:7-11 LSB\n\n“‘On that day you will know **that I am in My Father** , and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, ‘Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, **and _We_ will come to him and make _Our_ dwelling with him**.’” John 14:20-23 LSB\n\n“And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even **as We are** … I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; **even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us** , so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, j**ust as We are one; I in them and You in Me** , that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:11, 20-23 LSB\n\nSince Christ eternally resides in the bosom of the Father, there can never be a moment when such a union could cease to be so.\n\nThere are other texts which employ the present participle _On_ to speak of Christ _being_ God’s Son or _being_ rich, even in his incarnate state on earth:\n\n“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, **that though _being (on)_ rich**, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9 LSB\n\n“**Even _being (on)_ God’s Son**, He learned to obey by the things He suffered.” Hebrews 5:8 New Life Version NLV\n\nThis all makes sense if the Son is eternal by nature, and therefore never ceases to be what he has always been.\n\nThis point is further substantiated by the following verses:\n\n“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed  _us_ into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.\n\n“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. **For by Him all things were created** that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created **through Him and for Him. And He _IS_ (_estin_) before all things, and in Him all things consist**. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, **that in all things He may have the preeminence**.\n\n“For it pleased  _the Father that_ **in Him all the fullness should dwell** , and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:13-20 New King James Version (NKJV)\n\nHere’s another rendering of the specific verse:\n\n“**And he is ahead, prior to all else** and in him all things hold together;” Colossians 1:16 New Testament for Everyone (NTFE)\n\nNote that Paul says Christ _IS_ before all things, not _was_ , highlighting both his timeless existence and transcendence over all creation.\n\n“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8 Authorized King James Version (AKJV)\n\nHere, the inspired author uses a verbless clause to hammer the fact of Christ being unchangeable in respect to his divine nature, a point which he makes clearer in what he writes earlier in his epistle:\n\n“But God said about his Son, ‘**Your throne, O God, is forever and ever**. The scepter in your kingdom is a scepter for justice. You have loved what is right and hated what is wrong. That is why God, your God, anointed you, rather than your companions, with the oil of joy.’\n\n“God also said, '**Lord [the Son],** in the beginning **YOU laid the foundation of the earth**. With **YOUR own hands** **YOU** made the heavens. They will come to an end, **_but you will live forever_**. They will all wear out like clothes. They will be taken off like a coat. **YOU will change them like clothes._But you remain the same, and your life will never end_**.’” Hebrews 1:8-12 Names of God Bible (NOG)\n\nThe writer has the Father taking the following Psalm, which glorifies YHWH for being the immutable Creator and Sustainer of all creation,\n\n“Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth. Even the heavens are the works of your hands. They will come to an end, but you will still go on. They will all wear out like clothing. You will change them like clothes, and they will be thrown away. But you remain the same, and your life will never end.” Psalm 102;25-27\n\nAnd attributing it to his Son!\n\nDescribing Jesus as that very YHWH whom the Psalmist magnifies as the unchangeable Creator and Sustainer of the entire heavens and earth, simply reinforces the fact of Christ existing as the Being who is, i.e., the _Ho On_ Who always is and always will be.\n\nFinally, Christ’s eternal existence as God, a mode of Being that remained even after he became a Man, is also affirmed from what Paul wrote to the Philippians:\n\n“Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, **who,_existing (hyperchon)_ in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited**. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)\n\nHere’s a different rendering of the key text:\n\n“Who, **_being_ in very nature God**, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;” Philippians 2:6 New International Version (NIV)\n\nThe Apostle uses the word _hyperchon_ , which is a present active participle pointing to an abiding, ongoing action or state of existence. Paul’s employment of this participle stresses Christ’s ongoing, abiding existence in the form and nature of God.\n\nOnce again, this further confirms that the NT writes taught that there has never been a time when the Son ceased to be what he has always been. The fact is that the consistent teaching of the NT is that Jesus has been existing in the divine mode of Being from before the creation of all things, and has never stopped and will never stop existing in that mode.\n\n**What the Expositors Say**\n\nI quote a few commentators that bring out the significance of Jesus being called _Ho On_ in the context of John 1:18, which relates this expression to Jesus exegeting or explaining the Father. All emphasis will be mine.\n\n**No man hath seen God at any time**(θεον ουδεις εωρακεν πωποτε). \"God no one has ever seen.\" Perfect active indicative of οραω. Seen with the human physical eye, John means. God is invisible (Exodus 33:20; Deuteronomy 4:12). Paul calls God αορατος (Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). John repeats the idea in John 5:37; John 6:46. And yet in John 14:7 Jesus claims that the one who sees him has seen the Father as here.\n\n**The only begotten Son**(ο μονογενης υιος). This is the reading of the Textus Receptus and is intelligible after ως μονογενους παρα πατρος in verse John 1:14. But the best old Greek manuscripts (Aleph B C L) read μονογενης θεος (God only begotten) which is undoubtedly the true text. Probably some scribe changed it to ο μονογενης υιος to obviate the blunt statement of the deity of Christ and to make it like John 3:16. But there is an inner harmony in the reading of the old uncials. The Logos is plainly called θεος in verse John 1:1. The Incarnation is stated in verse John 1:14, where he is also termed μονογενης. He was that before the Incarnation. So he is \"God only begotten,\" \"the Eternal Generation of the Son\" of Origen's phrase.\n\n**Which is in the bosom of the Father**(ο ων εις τον κολπον του πατρος). __The eternal relation of the Son with the Father like προς τον θεον in verse__ John 1:1. In John 3:13 there is some evidence for ο ων εν τω ουρανω used by Christ of himself while still on earth. The mystic sense here is that the Son is qualified to reveal the Father as Logos (both the Father in Idea and Expression) __by reason of the continual fellowship with the Father__.\n\n**He**(εκινος). Emphatic pronoun referring to the Son.\n\n**Hath declared him**(εξηγησατο). First aorist (effective) middle indicative of εξηγεομα, old verb to lead out, to draw out in narrative, to recount. Here only in John, though once in Luke's Gospel (John 24:35) and four times in John 10:8; John 15:12; John 15:14; John 21:19). This word fitly closes the Prologue in which the Logos is pictured in marvellous fashion as the Word of God in human flesh, the Son of God with the Glory of God in him, showing men who God is and what he is. (Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament_(A.T. Robertson)_)\n\nVerse 18\n\nJohn 1:18 . θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν … ἐξηγήσατο . This statement, “God no one has ever seen,” is probably suggested by the words διὰ Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ . The reality and the grace of God we have seen through Jesus Christ, but why not directly? **Because God, the Divine essence, the Godhead, no one has ever seen**. No man has had immediate knowledge of God: if we have knowledge of God it is through Christ.\n\nA further description is given of the Only Begotten intended to disclose His qualification for revealing the Father in the words ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός . Meyer supposes that John is now expressing himself from his own present standing point, and is conceiving of Christ as in His state of exaltation, as having returned to the bosom of the Father. **But in this case the description would not be relevant. John adds this designation to ground the revealing work which Christ accomplished while on earth** ( ἐξηγήσατο , aorist, referring to that work), **to prove His qualification for it. It must therefore include His condition previous to incarnation. ὁ ὤν is therefore a timeless present** and εἰς is used, as in Mark 13:16 , Acts 8:40 , etc., for ἐν . εἰς τὸν κόλπον , whether taken from friends reclining at a feast or from a father’s embrace, denotes perfect intimacy. Thus qualified, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο “He” emphatic, He thus equipped, “has interpreted” what? See John 8:32 ; or simply, as implied in the preceding negative clause, “God”. The Scholiast on Soph.,  _Ajax_ , 320, says, ἐξήγησις ἐπὶ θείων , ἑρμηνεία ἐπὶ τῶν τυχόντων , Wetstein. (The Expositor's Greek Testament  _(William Robertson Nicoll)_)\n\n**1:18**. _No-one has ever seen God_ , John writes, as if to remind his readers not only of a commonplace of Judaism, but also of the fact that in the episode where Moses saw the Lord’s glory (Ex. 33–34), to which allusion has just been made (1:14), Moses himself was not allowed to see God (Ex. 33:20). ‘We should perhaps say, less anthropomorphically but equally metaphorically, that Moses saw, so to speak, the afterglow of the divine glory’ (Bruce, p. 44). In that diminished sense, God speaks with Moses ‘face to face’, and Moses ‘sees the form of the Lord’ (Nu. 12:8). The vision of the Lord seated on his throne that Isaiah saw was so vivid and terrifying, so close to the ‘real thing’, even though it was but the hem of the Lord’s garment that filled the temple, that he could cry, ‘Woe to me!… I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips … and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’ (Is. 6:5). Such language is so startling that the translators of later Judaism toned it down. The fact remains that the consistent Old Testament assumption is that God cannot be seen, or, more precisely, that for a sinful human being to see him would bring death (Ex. 33:20; Dt. 4:12; Ps. 97:2). Apparent exceptions are always qualified in some way.\n\nBut, John adds, the unique and beloved one (the term is _monogenēs_ : see notes on 1:14), [himself] God, has made him known. That is probably the correct text (see Additional Note). What it means is that the beloved Son, the incarnate Word (1:14), himself God while being _at the Father’s side_ —just as in v. 1 the Word was simultaneously God and with God—has broken the barrier that made it impossible for human beings to see God, and _has made him known_. This prepares the way for 6:46 and 14:9: ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’\n\nThe words translated _who is at the Father’s side_ in the niv might more literally be rendered ‘who is in the bosom of the Father’. A similar expression is found elsewhere: Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom (Lk. 16:22–23), and John rests on Jesus’ bosom at the last supper (13:23). It apparently conveys an aura of intimacy, mutual love and knowledge. ‘No-one has ever seen God’, John has told us, but he will go on to add, ‘except the one who is from God’ (6:46), the one who is in the bosom of the Father. **It is this intimacy that makes it possible for Jesus to know and speak about heavenly things (3:12–13;_cf._ Mt. 11:27). This Word-made-flesh, himself God, is nevertheless differentiable from God, and as such is intimate with God; as man, as God’s incarnate Self-expression, he _has made_ God _known_**. Ben Sirach could ask who could describe (_ekdiēgēsetai_) God (_Ecclus_. 43:31); John declares that the incarnate Word made him known (_exēgēsato_). From this Greek term we derive ‘exegesis’: **we might almost say that Jesus is the exegesis of God**. Elsewhere in the New Testament the verb means ‘to tell a narrative’ or ‘to narrate’ (Lk. 24:35; Acts 10:8; 15:12, 14; 21:19). **In that sense we might say that Jesus is the narration of God. ‘As Jesus gives life and is life, raises the dead and is the resurrection, gives bread and is bread, speaks truth and is the truth, so as he speaks the word he is the Word’** (C.H. Dodd in oral tradition: _cf._ Beasley-Murray, p. 10).\n\nThe emphasis of the Prologue, then, is on the revelation of the Word as the ultimate disclosure of God himself. That theme is dramatically reinforced by the remarkable parallels between v. 1 and v. 18, constituting an _inclusio_ , a kind of literary envelope that subtly clasps all of 1:1–18 in its embrace. **Thus ‘in the bosom of the Father’ is parallel to ‘with God’** ; ‘the unique one, [himself] God’, is parallel to ‘was God’; and to say that this unique and beloved Person has made God known is to say that he is ‘the Word’, God’s Self-expression.\n\nThe Prologue anticipates many of the themes and terms in the rest of the book. If ‘Word’ itself does not recur in this Christological sense (though _cf._ Rev. 19:13; perhaps 1 Jn. 1:1), it is probably because the Evangelist consciously looked for a term that neatly summed up his principal Christological emphases. A term that recurred throughout the Gospel might well have been taken as merely one title amongst many, rather than a summary of the whole. To use the language of Paul, Jesus is the visible ‘image of the invisible God’ (Col. 1:15).\n\nIt is important to note **that the closest _conceptual_ parallels in the New Testament to the Prologue are probably the so-called ‘Christological hymns’ (_e.g._ Phil. 2:5–11; Col. 1:15–20), material almost universally dated early, and certainly widely scattered**. This suggests that John’s Prologue is less innovative than some have thought. The form of the presentation is fresh; the underlying Christology is not. And that in turn argues that John and his circle are not ‘sectarians’ fundamentally out of touch with the rest of the church (so Meeks). The connections between the Prologue and other parts of the New Testament are intuitively picked up in Christian hymnody, as in this hymn of praise by Josiah Condor (1789–1855):\n\n_Thou art the everlasting Word_ ,\n\n_The Father’s only Son;_\n\n_God manifestly seen and heard_ ,\n\n_And Heaven’s beloved One._\n\n_Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou_\n\n _That every knee to Thee should bow._\n\n_In Thee most perfectly expressed_\n\n _The Father’s glories shine;_\n\n_Of the full Deity possessed_ ,\n\n_Eternally divine:_\n\n_Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou_\n\n _That every knee to Thee should bow._\n\n_True image of the Infinite_ ,\n\n_Whose essence is concealed;_\n\n_Brightness of uncreated light;_\n\n_The heart of God revealed:_\n\n_Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou_\n\n _That every knee to Thee should bow._\n\n_But the high mysteries of Thy name_\n\n _An angel’s grasp transcend;_\n\n_The Father only—glorious claim!—_\n\n _The Son can comprehend:_\n\n_Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou_\n\n _That every knee to Thee should bow._\n\n_Throughout the universe of bliss_ ,\n\n_The centre Thou, and sun;_\n\n_The eternal theme of praise is this_ ,\n\n_To Heaven’s beloved One:_\n\n_Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou_\n\n _That every knee to Thee should bow._\n\nHow the Son, the Word-made-flesh, ‘narrated’ or ‘exegeted’ God to man, John now proceeds to tell us. (D. A. Carson, _The Gospel of John_ , The Pillar New Testament Commentary [Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991], pp. 134–137)",
  "title": "Jesus Christ: The Being Who Eternally Is",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-30T20:38:20.277Z"
}