Without Jesus Christ, no one can truly know God
IT IS WRITTEN:
No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27c)
Today let us study the fact that it is up to the Son (Jesus Christ) in order for us to truly know the Father (God the Creator).
John 17:3 says that ‘eternal life’ is knowing the only true God, and His Son, whom He has sent.
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Let’s read
Matthew 11:25-30
25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 ‘All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
See v27a
All things have been committed to me by my Father.
The Son (Jesus Christ) has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Now it is AD (Anno Domini: "In the year of (our) Lord") and the Lord (Jesus Christ) has all authority!
‘All’, of course, include everything necessary to the full execution of that trust—that is, unlimited power [3].
See v27b and v27c.
“No one knows the Son except the Father” (27b)
“and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (27c)
Knows (v27): in biblical thought, the idea of knowing supersedes mere knowledge, for it includes thorough, intimate knowledge that puts people in a special relationship to each other. In Amos 3:2, for example, the verb “know” is used of God’s election of Israel as his people: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” Jesus is here affirming that he and the Father stand in a unique and intimate relationship with one another: only the Father knows who Jesus really is, and only Jesus (the Son) and whomever the Son chooses to reveal God to possesses true understanding of the Father. [2]
Only the Son can choose to reveal the Father (27c).
“the Father and the Son are mutually and exclusively known to each other!” We would find no higher claim to equality with the Father. The proper divinity of Christ is beyond dispute. “But, alas for me!” may some burdened soul, sighing for relief, here exclaim. If it be thus with us, what can any poor creature do but lie down in passive despair, unless he could dare to hope that he may be one of the favored class “to whom the Son is willing to reveal the Father.” But rather, this testimony to the sovereignty of that gracious “will,” on which alone men’s salvation depends, is designed but to reveal the source and enhance the glory of it when once imparted—not to paralyze or shut the soul up in despair. Hear, accordingly, what follows: [3]
See v28.
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’
“All who are weary” are all those who are trying to work out their own salvation, and the more serious they are, the more they will toil [5].
“All who are burdened” are all those who have let others burden them down with what the others think will secure salvation. [5]
As no one can really know God without the help of Jesus, all efforts they are making are useless. Religious, philosophical, moral, financial, physical, scientific, even any toilsome or torturing efforts, all these efforts cannot let us really know God without Jesus. If so, we are weary (by oneself) and burdened (by others) in blindness, and hopelessness. But Jesus invites us and promises us to give us rest. Jesus Christ alone holds the sovereign key to the revelation, and the salvation.
See v29a.
29 ‘Take my yoke upon you’
It is the yoke of subjection to Jesus [3].
The invitation to come to Christ remains for all today, but it requires the recognition that persons cannot come by exalting themselves (Matthew 11:23), but only by completely depending on and trusting in Christ. [4]
See v29b.
‘and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’
As Christ’s willingness to empty Himself to the uttermost of His Father’s requirements was the spring of inexpressible tranquillity to His own Spirit, so in the same track does He invite all to follow Him, with the assurance of the same experience. [3]
See v30.
30 ‘For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
But how about the yoke? Is not the Christian profession a hard life, much harder than the other type of life? Here is the answer: “For my yoke is pleasant (χρηστός), and my load is light (ἐλαφρόν).” “What can be lighter than a burden which unburdens us and a yoke which bears its bearer?” (Bernhard Rothmann). “Christ’s burden does not oppress but makes light and itself bears rather than is borne.” (Martin Luther). The burden and the yoke are one, the former defining the latter. We take on a new Master, and he lays on us a new load—but what a difference! Since, however, we are bound to think of the cross, affliction, persecution, and hard trials entailed in coming to Christ, let us say that all these are more than counterbalanced by the power, help, strength, and consolation supplied by him. On the other hand, those who spurn Christ’s yoke have only dismay and despair when the judgments of God begin to strike them.[5]
Finally, let us read v25.
25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
“Little children” refers to those who respond to God by acknowledging their dependence on him. The “wise and learned,” as the opposite category of persons, must therefore represent those who feel they have no need for God. Verse 25 thus cannot be used as a proof text for anti-intellectualism. Jesus does not contrast “wise” versus “stupid,” but he does declaim a godless intellectualism. [4]
See v26.
26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
A possible translation for v26 is “Yes, Father, because that was what you chose to do.” [4]
References
[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Anglicised Edition, 2011). (2011). (Revised and updated edition). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
[2] Newman, B. M., & Stine, P. C. (1992). A handbook on the Gospel of Matthew (p. 343). New York: United Bible Societies.
[3] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 39). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[4] Blomberg, C. (1992). Matthew (Vol. 22, p. 193-5). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (p. 456-9). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.
[6] Newman, B. M., & Stine, P. C. (1992). A handbook on the Gospel of Matthew (p. 342). New York: United Bible Societies.
