Scripture repeatedly tells us that no one has seen God the Father at any time. The apostle John makes this quite clear in John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

John had just explained in this chapter that he was a personal eyewitness of “the Word” who became flesh as Jesus Christ, so this cannot refer to Him. The “God” whom no one has ever seen at any time thus has to be referring to God the Father.

John repeats this exact same statement in 1 John 4:12: “No one has seen God at any time.”

We also see two such explicit statements from Jesus Christ Himself. Notice John 5:37: “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.”

And just to be clear, Jesus again says that no one has ever seen the Father in John 6:46: “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father” (NIV).

Here Jesus plainly says that no one has seen the Father except the One who is from God—this referring to Himself. Of all people, He alone has seen the Father. No human being has ever seen the Father.

Yet in the books of the Old Testament period we’re told that a number of people didsee God. They include Abraham (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 15:1; Genesis 18:1), Isaac (Genesis 26:2; Genesis 26:24), Jacob (Genesis 28:13; Genesis 32:30; Genesis 35:9-10), Moses (Exodus 3:6; Exodus 33:11; Exodus 33:21-23), Aaron and the 70 elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-11), Joshua (Joshua 6:2) and Gideon (Judges 6:14). So whom did these individuals see when they saw God? The only way we can make sense of this is to understand that no man had seen God the Father at any time.

What they saw as recorded in these many passages, and at other times when God appeared to individuals, was the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), the One who was born in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). With this understanding there is no contradiction. The Bible doesn’t contradict itself, as “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Jesus was the “I AM” who spoke to Moses

The One who appeared and spoke to people as God during Old Testament times was the One who became Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself clearly said this, and the people who heard Him knew that was exactly what He meant. Notice this in John 8:57-58, where Jesus was in a heated debate with some of the Jews who opposed Him, and He said that Abraham rejoiced to see His day.

“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’”

Here Jesus specifically told them of His divine identity—that He existed before Abraham, and then that He was the God who had interacted with people during the Old Testament period. Who did He specifically claim to be?

We find the answer in Exodus 3:13-14, where God appeared to Moses at the burning bush and told Moses that He would deliver the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt.

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’”

And 15 centuries later, what did Jesus say about who He was? Going back to what we just read in John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’”

And notice what happened immediately after Jesus said these words: “Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59).

The Jews who heard Jesus say these words knew exactly what He meant—that He was claiming to be the “I AM” who had interacted with Moses. And how did they react? They immediately took up stones to stone Him to death for claiming to be God!

Jesus, Israel’s Lawgiver, has not changed

In light of these clear passages, who was Israel’s Lawgiver who spoke to Moses, gave him the tablets of the Ten Commandments written with His own finger and ate a covenant meal with the elders of Israel? (See Exodus 24:9-12; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 34:28-35.) It was none other than the One who became Jesus Christ—He was the same God who gave the law at Mt. Sinai! (To learn more, be sure to read our free study guides Who Is God? and Jesus Christ: The Real Story.)

This is why Jesus would say in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” The Greek word translated “fulfill” here is pleroo, meaning “to make full,” “to fill to the full,” “to make complete in every particular,” “to render perfect” or “to carry through to the end” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2005). Jesus didn’t come to end the law, but to show us by His perfect example how to live that law to its full spiritual intent!

He plainly tells us what should guide our lives: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). Of course, those words He spoke of were His own!

And Jesus has not changed. As Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He did not reveal God’s law to Israel only to come in the flesh 15 centuries later to do away with that same law—such reasoning is nonsensical and unscriptural!

John, the last remaining of the 12 apostles, wrote near the end of his life: “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

“And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” (1 John 2:1-6, NLT).

Obviously Jesus did not come to do away with the law that He Himself had given in the first place. He did come to pay the death penalty for all of us breaking the law, taking on Himself the penalty we deserved and giving us the opportunity for eternal life in the family of God. In doing so, He upheld the law He had given as a vital part of God’s wonderful gift of grace!