Have you ever wondered what God is really like? Many people say they believe in God, but when you ask them to describe Him, the picture gets fuzzy. The good news is that God has not left us guessing. He has revealed Himself fully in His Son, Jesus Christ. And when we look carefully at the Gospel of John, we see both the unique sonship of Jesus and the beautiful reality of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—working together as one God.

John opens his Gospel with a stunning statement: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). That Word is Jesus. He was not created. He has always existed with the Father. Then John tells us why He came: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). Jesus is the only begotten Son—the unique, one-of-a-kind Son of God. The Greek word is monogenes. It means He is the Son by nature, eternally. We become sons by grace; He is the Son forever.

This unique sonship is why the Jews wanted to kill Him. In John 5:18 we read that they sought to kill Him “because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” They understood the claim. Calling God His own Father was not just polite religious language. It was a claim to equality with God. And Jesus did not correct them. Instead, He affirmed it.

He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19). There is perfect unity of action. What the Father does, the Son does. Then He goes further: the Father has committed all judgment to the Son “that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23). Equal honour. You cannot honour the Father while rejecting the Son. They are that closely joined.

Later, in the upper room, Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). That is not poetry, that truly is the claim of the unique Son who is one with the Father. Jesus is not a messenger pointing to God but He is God the Son, come in the flesh to reveal the Father.

Right there in the same chapter we see the Holy Spirit too. Jesus said He would pray to the Father, and the Father would send another Helper, the Spirit of truth, who would dwell with the disciples and be in them (John 14:16-17). Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three Persons, one God—working together for our salvation and our comfort. This is the Trinity. Not three gods, and not one Person wearing three masks, but one God eternally existing in three Persons. The Father sends the Son; the Son reveals the Father; the Spirit applies the work of the Son to our hearts.

There is a wonderful difference between His sonship and ours. Jesus is the only begotten Son. We become children of God when we receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Our sonship is by adoption and new birth. His sonship is by nature and from eternity. Because He is the unique Son, He can make us sons. He became what we are so that we might become what He is—sons of God, sharing His life forever.

This is why it matters so much that we know who Jesus really is. If He is less than God, then He cannot fully reveal the Father, and He cannot fully save us. But because He is the eternal Son, equal with the Father, worthy of the same honor, and the one who gives life to whom He will, we can trust Him completely. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).

So when you look at Jesus, you are looking at God. When you trust Him, you are brought into the family. And when the Spirit comes to dwell in you, the Triune God makes His home with you. That is the heart of the Gospel. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in His unique Son, and you will know the Father.

For a related sermon on the light and the gift of becoming sons of God from John 1, see The Light in the Darkness.