Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (9) Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (10) Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (11) Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me, for the very works' sake. (12) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also: and greater works than these shall he do: because I go unto my Father. (13) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. (15) If ye love me, keep my commandments.
The Church hath great reason to bless the Lord for so sweetly answering Philip's question, and thereby removing all doubts on the great subject of Christ's oneness with the Father. Oh! what a flood of light hath the Lord in this one verse, and by this one declaration, thrown upon it, when Jesus said, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. Blessed oneness indeed! Not only one with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, in the essence of the Godhead, but one in the nature, purpose, and design of all the grand causes for which the Son of God took into union with himself the holy portion of manhood, and became God - Man-Mediator. So that in seeing Christ, as Christ, the believer sees God in all his perfections, attributes, graces, love, and the, purposes of his will and pleasure, in everything relating to the Church before the foundation of the world, in the whole time state of existence, and the eternity to follow. Christ is seen, when properly seen by the enlightened eye of the renewed mind, as the wisdom of God, and the power of God, 1 Corinthians 1:24 yea, the manifold wisdom of God. Ephesians 3:9-10; Colossians 2:3 the holiness of God, and the justice of God, Romans 3:25 the love of God, and the faithfulness of God, 1 John 4:9-10; Deuteronomy 7:9; 1 John 1:9. In short, all that is communicable of God and his glory, can only be seen, and is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Reader! do not pass away from this most interesting of all subjects, before that you have first enquired at your own heart, whether you yourself have so seen Christ? Every child of God, truly regenerated, can have no other views of Christ. Paul, for himself, saith, that when it pleased God, who separated him from his mother's womb to call him by his grace, he revealed his Son (said Paul) in me. Galatians 1:15-16. And it must be the same in a greater or less degree in all.