What is God like? The answer is Jesus! In The Mediation of Christ, T. F. Torrance says Yes! God is like Jesus. Perhaps some people may moan at this answer but there is a good Barthian reason why "Jesus" is the answer. It is the same reason that the answer to every questions in children's sermon is "Jesus". Jesus is the revelation of God, and apart from Jesus, we know nothing about God at all. T. F. Torrance explains that the Trinity is revealed through Jesus, and we only know god the Father because Jesus is the son of the Father God, and the same is true of the Spirit of Jesus (John 14:15-17).

T. F. Torrance argues that imagining god as a divine being or other philosophical conceptions of God is a vain and useless answer to people who ask "What is God like?" in a moment of crisis. The correct pastoral answer is God is like Jesus, because it is the simplest and best answer. 

In The Mediation of Christ, T. F. Torrance answers the question "Is God like Jesus?" as follows:

Here we have to do with a theological principle which is of immense importance in pastoral care. How often people have said to me: 'Will God really turn out to be what we believe him to be in Jesus Christ?' That is a question I have been asked on the battle field by a young man who had barely half an hour to live: 'Is God really like Jesus?' Questions that which gnaw at the back of people's minds but which they suppress and which come to surface only in moments of sharp crisis and hurt, tell us of the insidious damage done to people's faith by dualist habits of thought which drive a wedge between Jesus and God.

Fearful anxiety arises in the human heart when people cannot connect Jesus up in their faith or understanding with the ultimate Being of God, for then the ultimate Being of God can be to them only a dark, inscrutable, arbitrary Deity whom they inevitably think of with terror for their guilty conscience makes them paint harsh angry streaks upon his face. It is quite different when the face of Jesus is identical with the face of God, when his forgiveness of sin is forgiveness indeed for its promise is made good through the atoning sacrifice of God in Jesus Christ, and when the perfect love of God embodied in him casts out all fear. But all that depends upon the identity between Christ's mediation of divine revelation and reconciliation and his own Personal Being as Mediator. [1]

coram deo

Coram deo is a famous latin theological term that means 'before the face of God' that is also relevant. What is it like to see god face-to-face? Coram deo also refers to standing in the presence of God. The coram deo teaches that when God is fully revealed to humanity, when humanity stands in the presence of God and sees the face of God, then they will see Jesus Christ. In the Bible, theophanies of God are of Jesus, such as the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36; 2 Peter 1:16–18), baptism of Jesus, or the vision of Jesus (Revelation 1:12-20), as well as the resurrection appearances in the synoptics, and Paul's vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-7; 22:6-11).

What is common to all these theophanies is that it is Jesus alone who is primarily revealed, and others disappear into the background (like Moses and Elijah), and only through the revelation of Jesus is the Father and the Holy Spirit made known through Jesus. And as the Father and Holy Spirit are revealed through Jesus, what they ultimately do is point back to Jesus. The Johanine prologue (John 1:1-18) confirms that what is revealed about God is entirely revealed through Jesus alone. There is an excellent summary of this in Luke:

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:22 NRSV)

Conclusion

So in summary, What is God like? God is like Jesus. The coram deo or the presence of God or the face of God is Jesus. There is no other face of god behind the face of Jesus, and there is no way to look around, over, under, or through Jesus in order to see another face of God behind Jesus. Or as Karl Barth would say, there is no god behind god. Torrance was a close friend of Karl Barth, and a Barth scholar too. So it is not surprising that Karl Barth also emphasized the centrality of the revelation of God being in Jesus alone.

Another PostBarthian theologian that I deeply admire is Jürgen Moltmann, and he improved upon Karl Barth and T. F. Torrance's answer. When people ask 'Where is God?' when they are suffering, Moltmann answered that God is there, in Jesus, suffering with you. I will discuss that in a future post.

Sources: 

1. Thomas Forsyth Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, (Helmers & Howard Publishers; Revised edition: 1992), pp. 59-60

2. Header backgound image includes a picture of John the Baptist pointing at the Jesus Christ crucified, that is part of Isenheim Altarpiece that hung in Karl Barth's office. (source: wikipedia)

3. Source of "The Answer is Jesus: What's the Question" is unknown.