What Kind of God Do We See When We Look at Jesus?
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Introduction
Part II — Jesus Christ and the Heart of Christian Faith
Faith Built on Truth — Through Christ, Through Scripture, for Life
If Jesus truly reveals God, what sort of God is standing before us in the Gospels? Do we see a distant ruler demanding submission—or the Creator drawing near in truth, mercy, holiness, and self-giving love?
People often carry a picture of God before they ever open a Bible.
For some, God is a stern judge watching for failure.
For others, God is distant—a force somewhere above the clouds, powerful but emotionally removed.
Still others imagine God as unpredictable: pleased one day, angry the next, requiring constant effort to stay on the right side of him.
Then Jesus enters the story.
The New Testament makes an astonishing claim: if we want to know what God is like, we must look at Jesus.
John says that the Word became flesh and “made his dwelling among us” [John 1:14]. He later says that the Son has made the unseen God known [John 1:18]. Jesus tells Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” [John 14:9]. Paul calls Christ “the image of the invisible God” [Colossians 1:15].
That does not mean every mystery of God can be reduced to a few Gospel scenes.
It means the character of Jesus is not an exception to God.
It is revelation.
The way Jesus treats children, sinners, enemies, women, the sick, the proud, the poor, and the powerful tells us something true about the Father.
His tears matter.
His anger matters.
His table fellowship matters.
His refusal to dominate matters.
His cross matters most of all.
Here are ten reasons to believe the character of Jesus reveals the character of God.
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1. Jesus Reveals a God Who Comes Near
Many religious instincts move upward.
Human beings climb, strive, purify themselves, search, sacrifice, and hope somehow to reach the divine.
The Gospel begins in the opposite direction.
God comes near.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” [John 1:14].
Jesus is born into an ordinary family, walks dusty roads, eats in homes, touches sick bodies, attends weddings, mourns at graves, sleeps from exhaustion, and lives among people whose lives are messy.
This nearness is not accidental.
It tells us something about God.
The Creator is not too holy to enter creation.
He is not too powerful to come close.
He is not embarrassed by human weakness.
In Jesus, divine holiness does not retreat from the world’s pain. It moves toward it.
The God revealed in Christ is not watching history from a safe balcony.
He steps into the street.
Takeaway: In Jesus we see a God who does not wait for humanity to climb up to him; he comes near and meets us in the dust of ordinary life.
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2. Jesus Reveals a God Whose Holiness Heals Rather Than Contaminates
In much of ancient life, uncleanness spread by contact.
Touch what is unclean, and you become unclean.
Jesus repeatedly reverses the direction.
He touches a man with leprosy, and instead of becoming unclean, the man becomes clean [Mark 1:40–42].
A woman suffering from bleeding touches him, and instead of defiling him, healing flows outward [Mark 5:25–34].
He takes the hand of a dead girl, and death does not conquer him; life returns to her [Mark 5:35–43].
This is holiness in motion.
Jesus does not redefine holiness as indifference to evil. He takes sin seriously. He calls people to repentance.
But his purity is not fragile.
It is strong enough to move into broken places and restore what has been damaged.
That tells us something about God.
Divine holiness is not sterile distance.
It is cleansing presence.
Takeaway: Jesus shows us a God whose holiness does not merely avoid what is broken; it moves toward brokenness to heal, cleanse, and restore.
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3. Jesus Reveals a God Who Welcomes Sinners Without Calling Sin Good
Jesus’ table becomes one of the most controversial places in the Gospels.
He eats with tax collectors.
He welcomes people whose reputations make respectable religious leaders uncomfortable.
He allows a woman known for her sinful life to approach him [Luke 7:36–50].
He tells stories about a shepherd searching for a lost sheep, a woman searching for a lost coin, and a father running to embrace a lost son [Luke 15].
The message is not that sin does not matter.
In fact, people change around Jesus.
Zacchaeus responds to grace by repairing harm and giving generously [Luke 19:1–10].
The woman caught in adultery is not told that sin is imaginary; she is told to leave it behind [John 8:1–11].
Jesus does something many of us find difficult.
He refuses both condemnation and moral indifference.
He welcomes before people have repaired everything.
Then grace creates room for repentance.
If Jesus reveals God, then God is not waiting at a distance for sinners to make themselves acceptable.
He moves toward them to make restoration possible.
Takeaway: Jesus reveals a God whose mercy does not deny sin, but whose welcome creates the space where sinners can repent and begin again.
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4. Jesus Reveals a God Who Sees People Others Overlook
Jesus repeatedly notices people the crowd has learned not to see.
Children are brought to him, and the disciples treat them as interruptions. Jesus welcomes them [Mark 10:13–16].
A blind beggar cries out while others tell him to be quiet. Jesus stops [Mark 10:46–52].
A widow gives two small coins, and while others notice large gifts, Jesus sees her [Mark 12:41–44].
A Samaritan woman lives with social and religious barriers around her. Jesus speaks with her publicly and seriously about worship, truth, and living water [John 4:4–26].
Again and again, Jesus gives full attention to people who have been reduced to labels.
Blind.
Unclean.
Foreigner.
Woman.
Child.
Sinner.
Poor.
He sees a person.
That is not merely good manners.
It is revelation.
The God Jesus reveals is attentive to those society places at the edge.
He knows names behind categories.
He sees the person hidden by the crowd.
Takeaway: When Jesus notices the overlooked, he reveals a God whose attention reaches people human systems have learned to ignore.
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5. Jesus Reveals a God Whose Compassion Is Not Weakness
The Gospels repeatedly say Jesus is moved with compassion.
He sees crowds like sheep without a shepherd [Mark 6:34].
He sees a widow grieving her only son and is moved toward her before she asks for anything [Luke 7:11–15].
He feeds hungry people.
He heals.
He weeps beside Lazarus’ grave [John 11:35].
But Jesus’ compassion is not sentimental softness.
He can confront religious hypocrisy with fierce clarity.
He can overturn tables in the temple.
He can rebuke exploitation.
He can tell a rich man that his possessions have become a rival god [Mark 10:17–22].
His tenderness and his truth belong together.
This matters because people often imagine two different gods: one loving, one holy; one gentle, one just.
Jesus refuses the split.
The same person who weeps also confronts.
The same person who welcomes also warns.
The same love that comforts the wounded opposes what wounds them.
Takeaway: Jesus reveals a God whose compassion is strong enough to confront the evil that destroys the people he loves.
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6. Jesus Reveals a God Who Uses Power to Serve
Human power often climbs upward.
It protects status.
It creates distance.
It expects others to bend.
Jesus turns the picture upside down.
He tells his disciples that rulers “lord it over” others, but “not so with you” [Mark 10:42–45].
Then he gives them the pattern: the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.
On the night before his death, Jesus kneels and washes his disciples’ feet [John 13:1–17].
This is not a temporary disguise before Jesus returns to “real” power.
The Gospel presents service as the revelation of divine power.
The Lord takes the towel.
The Teacher kneels.
The King serves.
If Jesus reveals God, then divine authority is not domination magnified to infinity.
It is power directed toward life, healing, liberation, and service.
This challenges every human institution that claims power in God’s name.
The closer power becomes to Jesus, the more it bends toward service.
Takeaway: Jesus reveals a God whose greatness is seen not in crushing others beneath authority, but in using authority to lift, serve, and restore.
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7. Jesus Reveals a God Who Loves Enemies
Jesus does not merely command love of enemies.
He embodies it.
He teaches his followers to love enemies, bless persecutors, and imitate the Father who gives sun and rain to both the righteous and the unrighteous [Matthew 5:43–48].
Then, at the cross, he lives inside that command.
He refuses violent retaliation.
He heals the ear of one of the men who came to arrest him [Luke 22:50–51].
He prays for those involved in his execution [Luke 23:34].
Paul later interprets the gospel by saying that Christ died for us while we were still sinners and enemies [Romans 5:6–10].
This is one of the most radical revelations of God in the New Testament.
God does not love only those who first become lovable.
His love moves toward enemies.
That does not mean evil is ignored.
The cross exposes evil precisely by refusing to become evil in order to defeat it.
Takeaway: Jesus reveals a God whose love is so strong that it moves toward enemies without surrendering truth or becoming like the violence it opposes.
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8. Jesus Reveals a God Who Is Angry at What Destroys Life
Some people are comfortable with a gentle Jesus but uncomfortable with his anger.
Yet his anger matters.
Jesus is angry at hardened hearts when suffering is treated as less important than religious rules [Mark 3:1–5].
He confronts leaders who burden others while protecting themselves [Matthew 23].
He overturns tables when the temple system becomes entangled with exploitation and blocks prayer for the nations [Mark 11:15–18].
This anger is not wounded ego.
Jesus is not furious because people fail to flatter him.
His anger rises when life is crushed, truth is distorted, and religion is used to harm.
That reveals something essential about God.
A God who never becomes angry at abuse, oppression, corruption, or hypocrisy would not be loving.
Love has an enemy: whatever destroys the beloved.
Jesus’ anger is therefore not the opposite of his compassion.
It is compassion refusing to become passive.
Takeaway: Jesus reveals a God whose anger is not unpredictable temper, but holy opposition to whatever deforms, exploits, and destroys his creatures.
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9. Jesus Reveals God Most Fully at the Cross
The cross is where every easy picture of God breaks apart.
If we imagine God mainly as raw power, the cross looks like weakness.
If we imagine God as distant holiness, the cross looks impossible.
If we imagine God as demanding sacrifice from others while remaining untouched, the cross overturns the image.
In Jesus, God gives himself.
The one who tells disciples to love enemies loves his enemies to the end.
The one who teaches service becomes obedient unto death.
The one who welcomes sinners carries sin’s weight.
Paul says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself [2 Corinthians 5:19].
John says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” [1 John 3:16].
The cross does not tell us that Jesus is loving while the Father is reluctant.
The New Testament presents Father and Son acting together in saving love [John 3:16–17; Romans 5:8].
Golgotha is not God acting out of character.
It is God’s character exposed.
Takeaway: At the cross we see that God’s deepest power is self-giving love that enters human evil in order to defeat it without becoming evil.
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10. The Resurrection Confirms That the God Revealed in Jesus Is the True God
The cross could be dismissed as one more beautiful failure if Jesus remained dead.
The resurrection changes the meaning of everything.
God raises the crucified Jesus [Acts 2:22–36].
The one who served rather than dominated is vindicated.
The one who forgave enemies is vindicated.
The one who welcomed sinners is vindicated.
The one who called peacemakers blessed is vindicated.
The one who gave himself is vindicated.
Resurrection is therefore not merely God’s power defeating death.
It is God’s “Yes” to the character revealed in Jesus.
This is what true kingship looks like.
This is what true holiness looks like.
This is what true power looks like.
This is what God is like.
And because the risen Jesus is the beginning of new creation, Christians believe the future belongs to this character—not to violence, pride, greed, domination, or death [1 Corinthians 15:20–28; Revelation 21:1–5].
Takeaway: The resurrection declares that the self-giving, enemy-loving, life-restoring character we see in Jesus is not weakness destined to lose; it is the character of the God who will renew the world.
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Truth and Your Decision: If the Character of Jesus Reveals the Character of God
What kind of God do we see when we look at Jesus?
A God who comes near.
A God whose holiness heals.
A God who welcomes sinners without pretending sin is harmless.
A God who sees people the crowd ignores.
A God whose compassion tells the truth.
A God whose power serves.
A God who loves enemies.
A God whose anger burns against what destroys life.
A God whose deepest self-revelation is the cross.
A God who vindicates that way of being through resurrection.
This matters because many people reject a picture of God that Jesus himself would challenge.
Some reject a tyrant in the sky.
Jesus does too.
Some reject a God who protects the powerful and ignores the wounded.
Jesus does too.
Some reject religion that loves rules more than people.
Jesus does too.
The Christian claim is not that every religious picture of God deserves defending.
It is that God has given us a face by which false pictures can be judged.
Jesus.
This does not make God less holy.
It shows what holiness looks like when it has a human face.
It does not make God less powerful.
It shows what power looks like when it is free from insecurity.
It does not make God less just.
It shows justice moving toward restoration, truth, and the defeat of evil.
So the question is not only:
“Do I believe God exists?”
The more searching question is:
“Do I trust the God who looks like Jesus?”
Because if Jesus truly reveals God, then following him is not merely learning Christian ideas.
It means allowing our own character to be reshaped around the character of the God we have seen in him.
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Closing Prayer
Father, I have carried pictures of you shaped by fear, pride, disappointment, culture, and sometimes by religion itself.
Bring them into the light of Jesus.
Where I imagine you distant, show me the Christ who comes near.
Where I imagine holiness without mercy, show me the Christ who touches the unclean.
Where I imagine mercy without truth, show me the Christ who calls sinners into new life.
Where I imagine power as domination, show me the King who washes feet.
Where I imagine love as weakness, show me the cross and the empty tomb.
Teach me not only to believe that Jesus reveals you, but to let his character reshape mine.
Make me merciful without becoming careless about evil, truthful without becoming cruel, strong without dominating, and holy without becoming distant.
Let my life become a small reflection of the God I see in Jesus.
Amen.
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Join the Conversation
Which part of Jesus’ character most changes the way you think about God? Is there an old picture of God that the Gospels have forced you to reconsider?
Share your reflection, question, or testimony as we continue the Reasons to Believe series—Faith Built on Truth, Through Christ, Through Scripture, for Life.
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