If You Want to Know What God Is Like, Look at Jesus

What comes into your mind when you think about God? Perhaps you picture an enormous throne somewhere in heaven, surrounded by countless angels, with the Creator of the universe watching everything that happens on earth. You know He is holy, powerful, and righteous. You know He has commandments, and that someday everyone will stand before Him. But have you ever stopped to consider how you would feel if you were suddenly standing in His presence?

Would you feel safe? Would you want to run toward Him, eager to see His face and hear His voice? Or would you hesitate, wondering what He might say about the things you have done and the person you have become?

Perhaps you have believed in God for most of your life without ever being entirely sure how He feels about you. You know the Bible says He loves the world, but that is a rather large statement. Does He actually enjoy being with someone like you? Does He understand your struggles, your disappointments, and the mistakes you wish you could undo? If you could sit beside Him for an hour, would you feel comfortable talking with Him, or would you spend the entire time worrying about saying something wrong?

These questions reach into the very heart of what it means to know God. Fortunately, we do not have to spend our lives guessing at the answers, because God has already done something extraordinary to help us understand Him. He sent Jesus.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came to make the Father known (John 1:18). Think about what that means. The Creator of the universe wanted us to understand His character so clearly that God the Son entered our world, became one of us, and lived among ordinary people. He knew how fear, suffering, and centuries of misunderstanding had distorted humanity's picture of God. Some imagined Him as distant and impossible to please, while others regarded Him as a stern Judge watching for opportunities to punish wrongdoing.

Jesus came to correct those misunderstandings, not merely by explaining God's character but by allowing people to see it in action. He did not come to make the Father love us, because the Father already loved us. He did not come to persuade an angry God to become merciful, because mercy had always been part of God's character. He came to show us the heart of the God who had never stopped loving His lost children.

And as we follow Jesus through the Gospels, watching how He treats people and listening to the things He says, the God we may have spent our lives fearing begins to look wonderfully different.

Jesus Made God Visible

Imagine standing beside a dusty road in Galilee when a man suffering from leprosy approaches Jesus. The people nearby begin moving away, unwilling to risk contact with someone whose disease has separated him from ordinary human companionship. Perhaps the man has become so accustomed to rejection that he no longer expects anyone to come near him. He has learned to recognize the expressions on people's faces as they retreat, and he knows what it feels like to be treated as someone whose very presence is unwelcome.

Yet he approaches Jesus, kneels before Him, and asks whether He is willing to make him clean.

Jesus could have healed the man without touching him. He had only to speak, and the disease would have disappeared. But instead, He reaches out His hand and touches him.

Try to imagine what that touch must have meant to someone who had spent so long being avoided. Before the man could fully comprehend the miracle taking place in his body, he experienced another kind of healing. Someone was willing to come close to him. Someone saw more than his disease and cared enough to touch him.

And that Someone was God the Son.

The Bible tells us that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). When Jesus reached out to that suffering man, He was showing us what the Father is like. God is not repelled by the suffering and brokenness of the people He loves. He wants to draw near and make them whole.

On another occasion, parents brought their little children to Jesus, hoping He would bless them. His disciples tried to send them away, apparently assuming that their Master had more important matters demanding His attention. But Jesus welcomed the children and took them into His arms.

Imagine being one of those children, looking into His face and seeing genuine pleasure at your presence. Perhaps you would have climbed onto His lap, listened to His voice, or simply enjoyed being close to Him. You would not have needed to understand theology or explain your beliefs before He welcomed you. His kindness would have told you something about Him long before you were old enough to put it into words.

That, too, was God revealing His heart.

Then there was the woman Jesus met beside a well in Samaria. Her life had been marked by broken relationships, disappointment, and choices that had left her searching for something she had never quite found. Jesus knew her history, including the things she might have preferred to keep hidden, yet He did not use that knowledge to humiliate her. Instead, He engaged her in conversation and gently led her toward an understanding of the spiritual life she had been missing.

He offered her living water, something that could satisfy the deepest thirst of her soul. In doing so, He showed her that God knew everything about her and still wanted a relationship with her.

Perhaps one of the most moving glimpses into God's character occurred when Jesus stood beside the tomb of His friend Lazarus. He knew that He was about to call Lazarus back to life, and that the grief surrounding the grave would soon give way to astonishment and joy. Nevertheless, when He saw the sorrow of Mary and the others who had gathered, Jesus wept.

He did not dismiss their pain because He knew how the story would end. Their suffering mattered to Him, even though He possessed the power to reverse its immediate cause. His tears revealed a heart deeply affected by the grief of those He loved.

Have you ever wondered whether God notices the tears you wipe away when no one is looking? Have you questioned whether your private disappointments matter to the One who governs the universe? When you see Jesus weeping beside Lazarus's tomb, you are seeing the compassion of God. Your sorrow is not insignificant to Him merely because He understands things you cannot yet see.

These were not isolated acts of kindness performed by an unusually compassionate man. They were windows into the character of the Father, opened by the Son who had come to make Him known.

Jesus Revealed the Father's Heart

One evening, while Jesus was speaking with His disciples, Philip made a request that may sound surprisingly familiar to anyone who has struggled to understand God.

“Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” — John 14:8 (NLT)

Perhaps Philip imagined that if Jesus could somehow arrange for him to see the Father, all his questions would finally be answered. He had spent years listening to Jesus and witnessing His miracles, but he still longed for a clearer revelation of God Himself.

Jesus responded with words that must have astonished him.

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” — John 14:9 (NLT)

Consider what Philip had been witnessing without fully realizing it. He had watched Jesus heal the sick, welcome the rejected, forgive sinners, comfort the brokenhearted, and patiently teach disciples who frequently misunderstood Him. He had seen His Master become weary, experience disappointment, and endure the selfish ambitions of people who claimed to love Him. Yet through it all, Jesus had continued to demonstrate extraordinary patience and compassion.

Now He was telling Philip that these very things revealed what the Father was like.

The tenderness in Jesus' voice, the compassion in His eyes, and the patience He showed toward struggling people were not qualities that belonged to Jesus but were somehow missing from the Father. They were expressions of the Father's own character.

This is an important distinction, because many people have grown up with a picture of God in which the Father seems stern and demanding while Jesus appears gentle and forgiving. They imagine Jesus standing between them and an angry Father, persuading Him to show mercy to people He would otherwise prefer to punish.

But Jesus never described His Father that way. He said, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30, NLT). Their unity includes their love, their purpose, and their desire to save humanity. Jesus was not attempting to change the Father's feelings toward us. He was revealing feelings that had been there all along.

When Jesus knelt to wash His disciples' feet, He was showing us the humility of the God who rules the universe. When He welcomed people whom society had rejected, He was revealing the Father's willingness to receive those who felt unworthy of His attention. When He forgave sinners and helped them begin again, He was showing us that God's desire is not to leave His children crushed beneath the weight of their failures but to lift them into a better life.

Perhaps this is where our understanding of God needs to change most. We may have spent years trying to become the sort of people God could love, never realizing that His love was already reaching toward us. We have imagined that we must somehow persuade Him to welcome us, when all along He has been inviting us to come home.

The Cross Shows God's Love

As beautiful as these glimpses of God's character are, the clearest revelation of His love came during the darkest hours of Jesus' earthly life.

The people He had come to save turned against Him. One of His closest companions betrayed Him, another denied knowing Him, and most of the others fled when He was arrested. He was falsely accused, mocked, beaten, and condemned, although He had spent His life bringing healing and hope to others.

Finally, they led Him to Calvary.

The hands that had touched lepers, blessed children, and lifted suffering people were stretched out upon a wooden cross. The One who had given life to humanity allowed human beings to drive nails through His own hands.

Try to imagine the suffering of that moment, not merely the physical pain but the rejection of those He loved so deeply. These were the very people He had come to rescue, and now they were treating Him as their enemy.

Yet even as He suffered, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness.

What kind of love can endure such cruelty and still desire the salvation of those responsible? Most of us find it difficult to forgive someone who has wounded our feelings, betrayed our confidence, or treated us unfairly. Jesus was suffering at the hands of people who wanted Him dead, yet His concern for them had not disappeared.

There, at the cross, we see the difference between the character of sin and the character of God. Sin reveals what selfishness becomes when it is allowed to have its way. It deceives, betrays, humiliates, wounds, and ultimately destroys. But when confronted with all that evil, Jesus responded with a love that refused to become selfish in return.

He did not love humanity because we had finally become worthy of His affection. As Romans 5:8 explains, God demonstrated His love for us while we were still sinners. Jesus knew exactly what we were like before He came. He knew how deeply rebellion had damaged the human heart, and He understood the suffering His mission would bring Him. Nevertheless, He chose to enter our world and give His life for us.

“No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.” — John 10:18 (NLT)

Jesus was not an unwilling victim, caught in circumstances beyond His control. He deliberately chose to give Himself for our salvation. He could have abandoned humanity to the consequences of its rebellion, but His love would not allow Him to walk away from those who could still be rescued.

And the Father shared that love. The cross was not Jesus persuading a reluctant Father to spare us. It was the Father giving His beloved Son and the Son willingly giving Himself so that we could be saved. The suffering at Calvary revealed the terrible cost of sin, but it also revealed how precious humanity is to God.

Perhaps you have spent years thinking of the cross primarily as something Jesus had to endure because of your sins. That is true, but it is not the whole story. The cross also reveals how deeply you are loved. The One who knew the worst about humanity still considered us worth rescuing at such tremendous cost.

And that includes you personally.

God Is Not Like Satan Said He Was

To understand why this revelation of God's character was so important, we must return to a garden where humanity first began to question His goodness.

In Eden, the serpent approached Eve with a suggestion that seemed to promise something wonderful. He implied that God was withholding knowledge and happiness from His creatures, that the restrictions He had placed upon them were not expressions of love but attempts to prevent them from becoming something greater.

Behind the serpent's words lay an accusation that has continued to influence humanity ever since: God cannot be trusted to want what is best for you.

It was a terrible deception because it made disobedience appear to be the path toward greater freedom and happiness. Instead of viewing God's instructions as the guidance of a loving Creator, Eve was encouraged to see them as obstacles standing between her and a more desirable life.

That same deception continues today, often in ways we scarcely recognize. We may wonder why God forbids things that seem pleasurable or why He asks us to surrender habits and desires that have become important to us. We may begin to feel that following Him means giving up our freedom, our happiness, or the opportunity to enjoy life fully.

And if we believe those things long enough, we can become strangely uncomfortable in God's presence. We may continue attending church, reading the Bible, and trying to obey His commandments, yet deep inside we remain uncertain whether He truly wants us to be happy.

We serve Him because we believe we should, but we do not particularly enjoy His company. We are careful about breaking His rules, but the thought of spending eternity with Him does not fill us with the joy it should.

What a tragedy it would be to spend our entire lives believing in God without ever discovering how wonderful He really is.

Jesus came to expose the deception that had caused so much misunderstanding. While Satan had portrayed God as selfish, Jesus demonstrated a life of continual giving. While the enemy had suggested that God was cruel and indifferent to suffering, Jesus healed the sick and comforted the brokenhearted. While God had been portrayed as distant and unapproachable, Jesus entered our world and welcomed ordinary people into His presence.

Perhaps no story reveals this more tenderly than the parable Jesus told about a father and his wayward son.

The young man had demanded his inheritance, left home, and wasted everything in a distant country. Eventually, he found himself hungry, humiliated, and desperately alone. The freedom he had once imagined would bring happiness had instead brought him to a place of terrible misery.

At last, he began thinking about home.

He remembered that even his father's servants had enough to eat, while he was starving. Perhaps his father would allow him to return as a hired worker. He knew he had forfeited any claim to the privileges of a son, and he could only hope that his father might show him enough mercy to let him survive.

With that faint hope, he began the long journey home, rehearsing the apology he intended to offer.

Imagine his feelings as the familiar countryside came into view. He must have wondered how his father would receive him. Would there be anger? Would he be turned away? Would he have to stand before the household and explain everything he had done?

But while the young man was still a long way off, his father saw him.

And the father ran to meet him.

Before the son could finish his carefully prepared speech, his father's arms were around him. The young man who had expected rejection found himself embraced by the very person he had wronged.

Can you imagine what that must have felt like? He had left home believing that life would be better without his father's guidance. Now, after discovering how terribly mistaken he had been, he returned expecting little more than a servant's place.

Instead, he found a father who had never stopped loving him.

Jesus told that story because He wanted people to understand what God is like. He wanted sinners to know that the Father was not waiting with cold indifference for them to earn His affection. He was longing for them to return.

This does not mean God is unconcerned about evil or that He will allow sin to continue forever. A loving God cannot be indifferent to the suffering, cruelty, and destruction that sin produces. His justice is part of His love, because He intends to put an end to everything that harms His creation. But His desire is to rescue those who are willing to be saved, to restore the trust that sin has shattered, and to bring His children into a life where fear, selfishness, suffering, and death will never return.

Jesus explained that God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17).

The Father wants His children back, and Jesus came to make that reunion possible.

As we begin to understand this, something changes in our relationship with God. We no longer see His commandments merely as restrictions we must obey to avoid punishment. We begin to recognize the loving wisdom behind them. We understand that He sees dangers we cannot see and possibilities we have not yet imagined.

We begin to trust Him, not simply because He possesses greater knowledge and power, but because we are discovering the goodness of His heart.

And as trust grows, something even more wonderful begins to happen. We find ourselves wanting to know Him better. We become curious about His thoughts, His purposes, and the things that bring Him joy. Reading the Gospels becomes more than a religious obligation because, through those stories, we are becoming acquainted with Someone whose company we genuinely enjoy.

We may even begin looking forward to meeting Him in person.

Imagine what that meeting will be like. One day, if you accept His invitation, you will stand before Jesus without the limitations that now separate us from seeing Him face to face. The One whose words have comforted you, whose promises have sustained you, and whose love has gradually changed your understanding of God will be standing before you.

You will see the face of the One who touched the leper, welcomed the children, forgave the guilty, and gave His life upon the cross. And perhaps, as you look into His eyes, you will recognize the same tenderness and compassion you have been discovering in the pages of Scripture.

How wonderful it will be to realize that the God you may once have feared is the very One who has loved you all along. You will no longer wonder whether He wants you in His presence, because you will be standing there by His invitation, welcomed into the home He has prepared for you.

But we do not have to wait until that day to begin knowing Him.

We can open the Gospels today and become better acquainted with Jesus. We can watch how He treats people, listen to what He says, and begin recognizing the Father's character in everything He does. We can speak to Him honestly about our fears, our doubts, and the things we do not yet understand. We can ask Him to help us see His love where we have previously seen only restrictions and demands.

And perhaps, as our understanding deepens, we will discover that our hearts are changing. The God we once approached cautiously is becoming Someone we eagerly seek. Prayer is becoming a conversation with a Friend. Obedience is becoming a response to love, rather than merely an effort to avoid punishment. And the prospect of spending eternity with Him is becoming more precious than anything this present world could offer.

Perhaps you would like to begin that friendship today. You might simply tell Him, “Jesus, I have heard so many things about God, and some of them have made me afraid. But when I look at You, I see a love I want to understand. Please help me know what the Father is really like. Teach me to recognize His goodness, to trust His heart, and to see beyond the fears and misunderstandings I have carried for so long. I want to discover the wonderful life You have prepared for me, but most of all, I want to know You and Your Father so well that being with You becomes the greatest desire of my heart.”

For that is where a true understanding of God's character ultimately leads us. We discover not merely that God is powerful, wise, just, and merciful, but that all these qualities belong to Someone who genuinely loves us and wants us to love Him in return.

If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Follow Him through the Gospels and allow His life to correct the misunderstandings you may have carried for years. As you come to know Him, you may discover that the God you once feared is becoming the One you love more than anyone else—and that the greatest joy of heaven will be the privilege of being with Him forever.