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c) The Declaration of the Unity of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 11:25-27)
MATTHEW 11:25-27
25 At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him. (Isaiah 29:14, Luke 10:21-22, John 17:25, 1 Corinthians 1:18-29, Philippians 2:9)
These verses give us insight into Christ’s unique prayer to His heavenly Father and reveal to us the inner depths of Jesus and His relationship to God. Through our meditations we reach the holy place of the Son of Man’s life, where He submits Himself to His Father, and where we can listen to one of His talks within the Unity of the Holy Trinity.
In spite of the sorrow of contempt, and the bitterness of rejection by His own people, Jesus praises His heavenly Father and thanks Him. He does not mourn or wail about bad treatment and rejection, but believes in the total leadership of the Omnipotent One, submitting to His guidance while glorifying His holy name.
The name that Christ attributes to God is, “Father,” because Jesus is born of His Spirit; existed with Him from eternity, harmonized with Him continuously, and is always abiding in His love. Our God exists, as the Father and His spiritual Son, as one God.
Christ called His Father the Lord, as David had prophesied: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool’ ” (Psalm 110:1). Jesus knows that His father is the Almighty. He observes the concealed secret that God had hidden His Fatherhood and Jesus’ Sonship from all the educated in the world. Schools, universities, philosophies, and religions are unable to recognize or to teach the Unity of the Holy Trinity of their own accord, or to accept the salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In spite of that, Christ intended to carry all the people to heaven.
Thanksgiving is a proper response to dark and distressing experience and thoughts, and can be an effectual means to silence them. Songs of praise are sovereign stimulants to downcast souls and will help to cure gloomy thoughts. When there is no other answer for grief and fear, the remedy is: “I thank you, O Father.” Let us bless God because He is in control.
After this self-denial in His prayer, Jesus admits that He is a partner in God’s power. Because the Son had obediently fulfilled His Father’s pleasure, His Father gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth. The secret of this authority is the knowledge of God, the Father. No one knows the Father except he that lives with Him and in Him and follows Him in the plan of His salvation and the principles of His judgment. The heavenly Father is one; yet Christ is the picture of His love and the express image of His person. Christ alone knows God. No prophet could recognize the Creator in His reality but the Son, since He is of His essence, and bears the fullness of His Holy Spirit in Himself. No one could know God as He is except Jesus, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
This twofold mystery, the knowledge of the Father and the Son, cannot be recognized or sensed by man’s mind, unless the Holy Spirit opens one’s understanding. A natural man is unable to believe of his own accord. He needs the grace of inspiration. And you, my dear brother, cannot recognize God through your own efforts and prayers. God, Himself, comes to you, calls for you, supports you, and owns you. Responding to Jesus’ invitation opens your spiritual eyes.
The great secrets of the everlasting gospel have been hidden from many “wise and prudent” who were eminent in learning and worldly policy. Some of the greatest scholars and greatest statesmen have been the greatest strangers to gospel mysteries. “The world through wisdom did not know God” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Nay, there is an opposition to the gospel, by “what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20). Those who are most expert in sensible and secular things are commonly least experienced in spiritual things.
For want of experiencing of the power they bring, men may dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and into the mysteries of state, and yet be ignorant of, and mistaken about, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
This difference between the prudent and the babes is of God’s own making. It is He that has hidden these things from the wise and prudent. He gave to them abilities, and human understanding; but they were proud, and rested in those gifts, and looked no further to the Giver. Therefore God justly denies them the Spirit of repentance and revelation. Although they hear the gospel message, it a strange sound to them. God is not the Author of their ignorance and error, but He leaves them to themselves, and their sin becomes their punishment, and the Lord remains righteous in it. Had they honored God with the wisdom and prudence they had, He would have given them the knowledge of the essence of His gospel. Because they served their lusts, He has hidden their hearts from this understanding.
We read that Christ reveals the secret of God’s fatherhood to whomever He wills. He actually desires all men to be saved, but all men do not desire neither to accept the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, nor to be sanctified by God’s grace. Christ cannot give men what He had prepared for them unless they open their hearts to Him.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we glorify You, because while in Christ on earth, You revealed Yourself to the harmless and babes and not to the mystery-researchers who deem themselves as having no need of repentance. We thank You for You have called us, opened our eyes and hearts, and given us the knowledge of the reality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the one God. Please open the hearts of many in our homes and schools that they may not remain blind and be hardened, falling into evil.
QUESTION:
- How does Christ know God essentially as God alone knows Christ?