Have you ever been asked by a child, “What does God look like?” Or have you ever wondered about that yourself? Hebrews gives us the answer to this question: “[Jesus is] the exact representation of [God’s] being.”

What does God look like? He looks like Jesus because Jesus looks like God. To some of us this might not sound helpful, because we do not know exactly what Jesus looks like. But this is about more than just a physical appearance. We know that Jesus became a human being, so we can assume things about his physical nature. But this also means much more.

Jesus says in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Likewise, we’re told in Colossians 1:15, “The Son is the image of the invisible God.” In Jesus we can see God—and this has to do with God’s character. Jesus reveals “the exact imprint” of God’s nature, as some Bible translations put it. In Jesus we see that God is loving, merciful, caring, just, righteous, and more. In the actions and words of Jesus, we see God’s character.

Jesus revealed God’s character the most clearly when he showed his love for us by dying on the cross to save us from our sin. In that one act we see God’s love, mercy, care, justice, and righteousness. If you want to know what God looks like, look to Jesus. In him we see what God looks like in all his glory.