Matthew 11:27

“All things have been delivered to me of my Father, and no one knows the Son, except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whoever the Son wills to reveal him.”

But how can such men come to know God? It is through the One Who has had all things delivered into His hands; it is through the One Who is so great and powerful and wonderful that only His Father really knows Him; it is through the One Who alone fully knows and fathoms to the very heights and depths His Father; it is through the One Who searches out and fathoms the ways of Him Who is ‘unsearchable and His ways past finding out'; it is through the Son. It is through Jesus. That is why He will later say, ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). Only God could know God like that, but it would take some time for the disciples to fathom it out. To one it came at the moment of enlightenment as he stood in the Upper Room and saw the risen Christ, when all that Jesus had said suddenly came together (John 20:28).

‘No one knows the Son, except the Father.' In these words is an indication that we are to look deeper than ‘titles' (even Messianic titles) if we are to full appreciate Jesus, indeed a warning that we will never really fully appreciate the Son. What He is, is only known to the Father. The Father alone can appreciate His very essence. The Father alone can understand His very being. And that can only be because in His essence and His being He is one with the Father. Thus it is the Father Who gradually reveals what Jesus is to the disciples, something that cannot be learned from flesh and blood (Matthew 16:17)

‘Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son.' The prophets had spoken of the Father. The Scribes and Pharisees thought that they knew the Father. But Jesus is here saying that none of them really understood His being and essence, for that was only known to the Son. They saw but the shadow, He beheld the sun.

‘And he to whoever the Son wills to reveal him.' The Sermon on the Mount was packed full of revelation of the Father (Matthew 5:9; Matthew 5:45; Matthew 5:48; Matthew 6:1; Matthew 6:4; Matthew 6:6; Matthew 6:8; Matthew 6:18; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 6:32; Matthew 7:11; Matthew 7:21 and see Matthew 10:29; Matthew 10:33), but even that was insufficient. There He was the Provider. But it was now Jesus purpose to manifest Him in a fuller form. He will reveal it by His power over creation (Matthew 14:22), and by His glory in the Mountain (Matthew 17:2; Matthew 17:5). He will also reveal it through His life (John 14:9) and make it known in their hearts. It had to be revealed by both Father and Son (Matthew 11:25; Matthew 11:27). That was why no man could come to Him unless it was given them by His Father (John 6:65), and no one could know the Father except through the Son. It was a joint enterprise between two equal partners. For note that while the Father reveals His truth to babes (Matthew 11:25), it is only as a result of the will of the Son (Matthew 11:27). Thus only those who enter into a true relationship with the Son will really come to know the Father

Note On Sonship.

The fact that Jesus is ‘the Son' puzzles many people. To them a son has been produced by his father, and arrives later in time, and is inferior to the father. Although, of course, as the father ages the situation may change, and the father can in many ways become inferior to the son. But none of this can apply to God for God does not change, nor can He be born.

However, the puzzle arises through overlooking the fact that by this terminology the Scriptures are trying to express divine things in human terms. God is not Father and Son in the same way as men are father and son. The terminology, which is only earthly terminology, is being used in a unique way (just as when we say the Son is ‘the heir' we do not mean in God's case that He will inherit on His Father's death. The term is used in order to take advantage of part of its meaning) Before ever there was a creation the terms father and son were meaningless. They are not heavenly terms. There is no bearing of sons in Heaven. The angels neither marry nor are given in marriage (Matthew 22:30), in other words they do not bear children.

But one day it became necessary for God to reveal His inter-personal Being to man, and we must ever remember that had God been a solitary individual then He would have been unable to be love, for until He had created there would have been no one to love. But He is eternally love, and He therefore loved within Himself because He is interpersonal. Yet He is not two beings, He is One.

But how could He reveal to man this unique and indescribable interpersonality, and especially so when part of what He is became man. How could He reveal that He and this Man were of one nature and being, even though the Man is not all that there is of God? There was terminology that could be used that men would understand, as long as it was used carefully, that of father and son. Of course it was not perfect. There were many things about an earthly father and son that would not the true of the Father and the Son. But the essential thing about a son born from his father is that he is unquestionably of the same nature with his father, and comes from his father. They share the same being. And this is what the terminology is expressing, although in a slightly different way, when used of God, that Father and Son are of one nature and share the same Being while having an inter-personal distinctiveness. And this alone, is why their relationship can be described in terms of Father and Son. That is what must be grasped and the rest thrown away. And the further point is that this has been true from all eternity. That is why we speak of the Son as being ‘eternally begotten'. What we are saying by this is that they have shared the same Nature and Being from all eternity. And they work together equally in all things (John 5:19).

And yet when God began to act in Creation it was ‘the Son' Who acted in the forefront as Creator, although the Father was also active in it. But the Father created through the Son (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). And when God in His eternal counsels determined redemption, it was the Son Who would become the Redeemer (Galatians 4:4; 1 John 4:14), although again the Father is active in it. The Father redeems through the Son. For they do all things together. But the One Who walked on earth in a human body, no, as a human, was the Son and not the Father. To this extent He had taken up by choice a subsidiary position to His Father. In His manhood He could say, ‘My Father is greater than I' (John 14:28), because by becoming Man He had had taken up a lower status. Note that He said this prior to going back to His Father to enjoy with Him the glory that had been His before the world was (John 17:5). He as not going back to receive a greater glory. He was going back to what was His by right. He had laid aside His equality in order to become Man, and now He was once again to be declared as ‘LORD', that is, YHWH (Philippians 2:6). That is why He could also say ‘I and My Father are One' (John 10:30), because He and His Father were still One in Being and essence. All this is what Jesus is saying here in Matthew. That is why ‘they' were unique in being able to know each other.

End of note.