"'God is spirit'" (Jn 4:24). "No one has seen God at any time . . . [however, Jesus] has explained Him" (1:18). God "possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see" (1Ti 6:16). Isaiah said, "You are a God who hides Himself" (Isa 45:15). He is "invisible" (1Ti 1:17). God says, "'I dwell on a high and holy place'" (Isa 57:15). Zophar asked, "'Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do?'" (Job 11:7). How "unfathomable [are] His ways!" (Ro 11:33).
Therefore God's revelation is essential? It is because of the relationship with God man finds himself in since God had said "'you will surely die'" (Ge 2:17) if Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even though God created man in his image and likeness and said "'You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High'" (Ps 82:6) he also stated "'Nevertheless you will die like men'" (:6). The psalmist asked, "What is man that You take thought of him?" (Ps 8:4). Man is just a created being and "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM'" (Ex 3:14) which shows the difference. "'God is not a man'" (Nu 23:19). Therefore man does not innately know about the divine. Jesus knew what was required when he asked, "'Who do you say that I am?'" (Mt 16:15). Peter replied, "'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'" (:16). Jesus recognized and said "'flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven'" (:17). Therefore the Lord has optimistically offered, "Come now, and let us reason together'" (Isa 1:18). At the anthropological level God reaches out with analogical revelations to achieve a redemptive relationship.