John 10:15 Commentary and Bible Study

To illustrate the similarity, not the absolute correspondence, but the similarity of Christ’s knowledge of his people and their knowledge of him to that of his relationship with the Father, he makes this comparison. It is not possible that we could know Christ in the same way as he knows the Father. There is one God, in three distinct persons, in perfect harmony, having one divine essence, and of course the knowledge of each other between the members of the Godhead is wonderful beyond our comprehension. So when Christ describes that knowledge, it is entirely the case – ‘As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father’ – but our knowledge of him is obviously limited. There are however similarities. Each knows the other, and that’s very important. It is easy to see that Christ knows us, but to be a true Christian you have to know him also. We will know him not audibly, not by sight, but by faith and we will have proved him. We see him in the word and we know him in our experiences because he has heard our prayer for salvation, and he has changed our hearts. It is not possible to be a Christian and not, in that sense, know Christ. Each know each other also in an eternal sense. Just as the union between the Son and Father is eternal and undying, so if we are truly saved, our union with Christ will never end; it is an eternal union. Of course the union between Christ and the Father is a union of love, and so is the union between Christ and his sheep, his true believers, his true children. And then, just as there is a great likeness between the Father and the Son, because they are One God and they share the same attributes – they are eternal, they are all-knowing, they are all-loving – so there is a similarity, or a likeness, between Christ and his children. I must not overstate this, because we are sinners and he is pure, but nevertheless there is a likeness because the divine values are printed on our hearts and we know what’s right and we long to grow more like our Saviour; and we share the same tastes and the same concerns. So in various ways there is a strong similarity between our relationship with Christ and the relationship of the Father with the Son.