Matthew 11:27 Commentary and Bible Study

The doctrine of the Trinity is revealed here not by proposition, but in the form of praise to the Father in the mouth of the Son. The truths and doctrines of Scripture are intended to excite us to worship. This peon of praise teaches us where the strength of Christ lay when he was on earth. How did he face so much opposition from Satan and from men? How did he bear with the slow understand and smallness of faith of the disciples? How did he endure Calvary and the wrath of the Father poured out undiluted upon him? By faith (Hebrews 2:13). He had the utmost confidence in the plan and providence of the Father, in his wisdom in achieving the greatest goal by the greatest means.Here Christ tells us also about himself. As the Son of God, he has always possessed all power and glory. Nothing could be added to him for all things already belong to him. But he says, ‘All things are delivered unto me of my Father.’ He speaks of ‘my Father’ because of his unique relationship with the Father as the one ‘whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world’ (John 10:36). He speaks of himself as the Mediator, the God Man, to whom, as something that has never happened before, all things have been given. As the Son of God, all things are already his, but as the incarnate Son he has received what is given to no other man. He has been given ‘a name which is above every name’, a name of honour and majesty which the Father will ensure is recognised. This honour belongs to him not only on earth but in heaven also – ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth’ (Philippians 2:9-10). That means that he is recognised by all creation, and is to be worshipped by men and angels. He is called Lord for this very reason. Elsewhere he tells us that he has been given ‘authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man’ (John 5:27). The Father’s will is that the Son should be honoured and therefore he has placed such authority in the Son of man so that all moral agents are subject to his judgment, the one in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, so that all flesh should come to this man as their Lord and judge. ‘No man knoweth the Son, but the Father’ – his heavenly glory, his mission to earth. The Father alone knows the Son fully; all others know him only superficially. Only the infinite mind of the Father is capable of grasping the infinite being of the Son. To know in the sense that Christ speaks of the Father knowing is to know comprehensively. All the members of the Godhead know each other in this way, so that there is nothing hidden from them and they delight in each other’s every thought and purpose. Neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and this knowledge too is exhaustive. The Son has also come into the world in order to make the Father known to individual men and women. These are the babes, spiritually speaking, who are so different from those who are wise and prudent in their own eyes. These of course do know not know exhaustively as the Son knows, but they know truly; they have true knowledge of the Father. They understand and love his attributes: his wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, and they desire to be like him. It is the Spirit who gives this knowledge, but it is through the work of the Son, through his incarnation and his death and resurrection that enables a new nature to be given to them. Who receives this gift of knowledge? Those to whom the Son in his sovereign will chooses to reveal the Father. This describes what in the epistles is more fully explained.