Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thouthen,Shew us the Father?
Jesus was comforting the apostles by telling them of the mansions He was preparing for them in heaven. He spoke of the need to leave them in order to come again for them. The apostles were befuddled and Thomas asked how it was possible for them to know where He was going and how to get there. Jesus informed them that He was the way, truth and life. He went on to tell them that He was also the Father. What happened next was extremely important to understanding the gospel. Philip wanted Jesus to show them the Father and then it would be easy to believe. He wanted revelation. Jesus did not give him revelation but challenged him to accept what his eyes had already seen.
We are so much like Philip. We want to be shown something supernatural or revealing, but God does not give us some new thing to excite us but rather asks us to accept the reality we already see. This is essential to understanding the gospel message. If there is any revelation in the gospel it is our eyes being opened to the fact that mankind is lost in sin. We must accept that the penalty for sin is death and that is why the world cannot be saved by its own devices. We must also accept Jesus as the Messiah that fulfilled the prophesies and gave himself a sacrifice for the salvation of our souls.
It is not what we discover as some new truth that will save us, but the realities we are willing to accept. the work has been finished, there is no new revelation. The story has been written, the end has been prophesied. We must accept this as truth in order to be saved from our sins.