Jesus is God, but He's Not the Father

One verse that I consistently see in defenders of Oneness theology is John 14:9: "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" They claim that Jesus is here saying that He was the Father. Of course, modalists never go on to quote the next verse: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works." Jesus goes on to explain to Philip, not that He is the Father, but that the Father is in Him. Even Oneness believers understand that He cannot be in Himself.

Another verse that modalists don't quote is John 5:37: "The Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen." So, here Jesus is saying that we do not see the Father by looking at the Son. Is He contradicting Himself in the two verses, saying in one that no one can see the Father, but in the other that we can see the Father in Him?

Not at all!

We have all heard someone say, "Oh, I see now," after having something explained to him that he had not previously understood. Do we think that he means that the meaning has popped up on the wall in front of him? Of course not! We understand that he means that he now understands, that the meaning has been revealed to him in a processable form.

In the same way, when we look at Jesus, we see the Father, not as a visible figure in front of us, but rather as He has now been revealed to us by and in Jesus Christ.