No one has ever seen God

I John 4
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

No one has ever seen God? Hmmmm. Didn't God appear to Moses, Job, Abraham? Didn't He?  So, why now, in the New Testament, does it say no one has ever seen God?

This is a situation when everything comes to a screeching halt for me. I have to understand what these scriptures are saying. I can't move past it until I do. How can people have seen God in the Old Testament and now the New Testament says no one has seen Him? That doesn't make sense. I know the scriptures are Good inspired, therefore, they have to make sense. So, I looked it up.

Here is what the NIV Study Bible said:
First it said to go back to I John 1:12
God the One and Only. An explicit declaration of Christ's deity (see vv. 1, 14 and notes; 3:16; see also note on Ro 9:5). has made him known.Sometimes in the OT people are said to have seen God (see, e.g., Ex 24:10 andnote). But we are also told that no one can see God and live (Ex 33:20). Therefore, since no human being can see God as he really is, those who saw God saw him in a form he took on himself temporarily for the occasion. Now, however, Christ “has made him known” (see 2Co 4:4; Col 1:15,19; 2:9and notes).

Then it explained further:
No one has ever seen God. See note on Jn 1:18. Since our love has its source in God's love, his love reaches full expression (is made complete) when we love fellow Christians. Thus the God whom “no one has ever seen” is seen in those who love, because God lives in them.

So, basically, those who have seen God, have seen a form of Him that He allowed them to see, because if they saw God in His fullness, they would die. Others see God through Christians as God lives in us! 

What an honor...God lives in us! Not an honor we deserve, but an honor we are given because we believe in the Son!

Father, thank you for loving us enough to send your Son to make us good enough. In Jesus name I pray. Amen