This post is written by Matt Rogers as a companion for Unit 19, Session 1 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 7: From Heaven to Earth (Spring 2023).
“If there is a God, then I want to see Him.”
A sentence like this is often uttered by those living in doubt or disbelief. And often they express this sentiment on the basis of strong counterclaims against God’s existence. If there is a God, they surmise, then surely He is a God of love, mercy, justice, and compassion. Such traits are seemingly what makes God, God. The world most people live in pushes against the thought that such a God exists since the world is dark. It is filled with hatred, strife, injustice, violence, and a host of other anti-God attributes. The thoughtful agnostic sees such realities and wonders how anyone could believe that a good God exists in the face of such overwhelming counterevidence.
The Gospel of John opens with a stirring prologue that introduces the reader to Jesus (John 1:1-18). He is the One who enters a similarly darkened world to bring light and life (John 1:4). He brings God’s glory to this earth and does so embodying the full amount of God’s perfect grace and truth (John 1:14). Those who see Jesus, see God, since He is the full and perfect reflection of God’s glory on this earth (John 1:18; Hebrews 1:3).
Jesus’s ministry puts God on display for the world. If you want to see God, then you need not look anywhere but to Jesus. When we look to Him, we see what God is like. And what happens when Jesus shows up? He brings light and life and starts to put the world back together again. He communicates the truth of God to the world. He models faithful, perfect obedience to God. He makes the world better. He heals the sick, the lame, the blind. He brings heaven to earth and inaugurates the process whereby sin will be eradicated.
And Jesus continues to do this work. When Jesus shows up in our world and in our lives, He brings light and life. This doesn’t mean our lives magically get better or that all of our problems disappear, but it does mean that Jesus brings life to our dead hearts and begins the process of transforming us into His image. He starts to put us back together again. And as He starts to put us together again, He begins to work through us to change the world in which we live. We are changed to bring change.
Want to see God? Look to Jesus. Want to see what happens when Jesus shows up? Look to the people He’s changing.
Matt Rogers is the pastor of Christ Fellowship Cherrydale in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children: Corrie, Avery, Hudson, Willa, and Fuller. Matt is also an assistant professor of church planting at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Director of Church Health with the Pillar Network, and a freelance author.
