From “Discipleship and Discipline” by William H. Hicks, copyright March, 2005:

““Nowadays, there is a lively, but entirely unoriginal debate about the claims Jesus made about Himself.  Was He/Is He really the Son of God, and thereby God Himself, “one with the Father”, as He claimed?  He said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  If these statements are true, that is, are actual facts, then Jesus in His person is the object and substance of worship.  “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”  (John 1:18).  God the Father is the unseen ‘that which lies at the basis of and agrees with that which we are able to see, hear, feel, smell, touch, know- that is, God the Son.  Jesus is the truth manifested- the made to be able to be perceived-, the veritable- the certain, the actual, the genuine, the authentic-, essence of God the Father.

Nicodemus, in John 3: 2, recognizes that Jesus’ works of power (signs) point towards His authority to teach the truth of God when he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.”  Now, we know that Nicodemus had not grown in the faith to the point where he recognized that Jesus was God, one with the Father; however, Nicodemus did conclude from the facts before him that God was in Jesus if only insofar as His teaching was concerned.  Nicodemus was dedicated to the truth to the extent that he was willing to come to Jesus by night to be taught the truth of God; he did not yet recognize that Jesus Himself  was the truth.””