7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. John 14:7-11
Jesus chides Philip for not recognizing that he was God. Having just said that to know him was to know God the Father, Jesus emphatically tells Philip that to see him was to see God the Father. The words and the works of Jesus correspond to the word and the works of God.
We learn about God from Jesus not just because of Jesus’ teaching about God. We learn about God from Jesus as we observe his character.
Do we want to know what God thinks about sin and salvation? About repentance and forgiveness? Do we want to know about God’s attitude to the proud and the humble? To women? To children? We must look to Jesus.
The same is true when we need to evaluate a philosophical or theological system. We must ask if its understanding of God looks like Jesus as we meet him in the gospels.
– SSxG