What God looks like.

What does God look like?

“That’s a bit of a silly question,” you may say.  “Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘No one has seen God at any time?’ Didn’t even Moses need God to protect him because he couldn’t see God and live?”  After a brief pause, you might then think, “Oh, it’s a trick question.  Jesus said, ‘If you have seen me you have seen the Father.’  So, while we haven’t seen Jesus, many did and therefore knew what God looked like.”

It is hard to find fault with that logic - especially on a Monday morning.  This has not stopped people from creating representations of what they think Jesus looked like.  The oldest depiction of Christ is believed to have appeared in the 3rd century painting of Jesus as the Good Shepherd of John 10.  This art was discovered in an ancient tomb in the catacombs of St. Callisto in Rome.  

The most common, contemporary depiction of Christ was painted in the early 1940s by Chicago artist, Warner Sallman.  It is highly unlikely that Jesus looked anything like this.
The preoccupation with Jesus’ physical attributes - and the corresponding controversies (e.g., the Old Testament prohibition against graven images) - distracts us from a bigger issue:  “What DOES God look like?”  This is not a question of describing His physical appearance;  it is a question of observing His effect.  Just as scientists cannot “see” a black hole, they know of its existence by observable effects.  So also, while we can’t “see” God, hopefully our relationship with Him produces observable effects.

Given the plethora of religious and spirituality options available, including the almost innumerable variations that express themselves as “Christian,” how do we help others “see” God as He has revealed Himself to be?

God is seen, sometimes, in the “wow” stories of the Gospel.  Even Jesus had His “wow” moments.  The majority of those who followed Him for the “wow” also abandoned Him (John 6:26, 66).  Jesus places the emphasis not on the “wow” of faith but on the perseverance of being faithful.  Many of His followers became disgruntled with Jesus because He didn’t focus on providing a solution to their problems.  Jesus was more concerned with the renovation of their minds and hearts.

People’s perceptions of God - how they “see” God - will be influenced significantly by those who claim to worship Him.  The Apostle Peter provides a great case study.  Before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, he thought he had a pretty good grasp on the purpose of Jesus’ mission.  He was even so bold as to give Jesus advice from time to time.  That didn’t end well.  

Peter’s faith experience could have ended as a train wreck of shame.  It didn’t.  The quiet, subtle, and gentle work of the Holy Spirit restored his relationship with the One whom he betrayed.  Even when Peter again stumbled over the issue of salvation by grace alone, he was able to learn, recover, and move on to encourage others to grow in the “grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).  

Reflecting on his own growth experience, Peter encourages the early followers of Jesus to nurture their faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.  Why?  Because if these are the predominate qualities of our faith, people will “see God.”  Or, to put it into Peter’s words, we will not be ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-8).  

In his letters, Peter never draws on the “wow” moments of, “Do you remember when I walked on water, or got the drop on the guy with my sword and cut off his ear?”  Instead, he writes, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sin” (1 Pet. 4:8).  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you” (1 Pet. 5:6).  Peter is speaking from experience.

The “before the resurrection” Peter and the “after the resurrection Peter” help us see God.  We see the effect of grace, love, forgiveness, restoration . . . and not just once, but a few times as Peter’s heart and mind were transformed by the Spirit of God.

This is what God looks like.  This is what our friends, neighbours, coworkers and others need to see when they consider that we, like Peter, are people of faith.  This is not the creative rendering of an artist.  This is the concrete reality of a life transformed by the unseen hand of the Spirit of God.