No man hath seen God
at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him. (John 1:18)
Commenting on the phrase, “No man hath seen God at any time,” Leon Morris noted:
The emphatic
declaration, “No man hath seen God at any time” (notice that the word “God” is
in an emphatic position) is in line with Exod. 33:20 where the Lord says, “man
shall not see me and live” (cf. John
5:37; 6:46). Yet there are some passages like Exod. 24:9-11 which explicitly
affirm that some men have seen God. What then does John mean? Surely that in
His essential being God has never yet been seen of men. Men had had their
visions of God, but these were all partial. The theophanies of the Old
Testament did not and could not reveal God’s essential being. But Christ has
now made such a revelation. As Calvin puts it, “When he says that none has seen
God, it is not to be understood of the outward seeing of the physical eye. He
means generally that, since God dwells in inaccessible light, He cannot be
known except in Christ, His lively image.” (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John [New International Commentary on the
New Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1971], 113)
Therefore, this verse, nor 6:46, is problematic to the claim the prophet
Joseph Smith saw God the Father as well as Jesus Christ in the First Vision.
On another passage, 1 Tim 6;16, see James Stutz, Can
a Man See God? 1 Timothy 6:16 in Light of Ancient and Modern Revelation
(cf. Some
comments on Matt Slick's Attempt to Refute James Stutz on 1 Timothy 6:16)
