John 12.45 describes the one who looks at Me is seeing the One who sent Me.

Jesus is unique among all historic figures and religious leaders for He declared Himself to be God. Here Jesus says when we look at Him we see God.

Jesus is God visible. Jesus is God tangible. Jesus is God recognizable. Jesus is God identifiable.

What do we see when we look at Jesus?

First, we see humility. God begins His descent as a baby; the smallest and weakest of all humanity. God begins His revelation by entering our world the same way everyone else enters except He choose a virgin to come through so was not created by man as any other person. God’s entrance into our world could not be more humble which tells us God is approachable.

Second, when we see Jesus on the cross we see Him as the sacrificial love of God incarnate. God died on the cross as the substitute for humanity. God’s justice demands punishment for every law breaker and every law broken. Yet that punishment would mean the banishment for eternity of all humanity.

Not willing that become the destiny of His beloved creation He substituted Himself as the punishment for our disobedience. God in His Sovereignty became both punisher and punishee. This is God sacrificial; giving Himself for all those who will seek His forgiveness through Jesus the Savior.

Finally, when we see Jesus resurrected we see the majesty and power of God. Jesus dying on the cross for sin then rising from the dead means the penalty for sin has been completed. Jesus alone is recorded to have been seen by more than 500 people after rising from the dead: no other person in human history has ever had written about Him, inside or outside the holy book, that He rose from the dead and appeared again to humanity.

Jesus has been thus recorded both in the Bible and in the pagan literature of the time. This is God expectant.

Those who love God in Jesus will also rise again to live together with God forever. This is good news. This is what it means to see God.