What does it mean that no one knows the Son except the Father (Matthew 11:27)?

Now before we read two verses in the Old Testament, let us consider a very important sentence in Scripture. “All things are delivered to Me of My Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). It is stated that the Son reveals the Father, but it is also stated positively that no one knows the Son but the Father. What does that mean? Does it mean that we do not know Christ as our Saviour and Lord (I am speaking to believers)? Certainly not. But we do well to accept absolutely the limitation that we shall never know the mystery of His person. To neglect this is to court disaster. To remember it will make us most careful not to go a hair’s breadth beyond the statements of Scripture in regard to this profound and holy subject of the person of Christ. Scripture testifies to us that He is God. Scripture testifies to us that He is man. Very God and very man in one Person, but as for understanding the mystery of it, we never shall, and I adore God that there are these mysteries beyond my finite grasp, for it proves that I have to do with the infinite. A quondam infidel, speaking of these things, said, “They are darkness to my intellect; but they are sunshine to my heart.” That is a very great thing.

At that season it was that Jesus answered such unbelieving ingratitude by unfaltering submission to His Father. "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding and didst reveal them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been delivered to Me of My Father: and no one knoweth the Son save the Father; neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son may choose to reveal [Him]." The Lord thus in the hour of Jewish rejection accepts all humbly and implicitly as the good, holy, and wise will of God, and realises the glorious counsels of universal administration as the Son and the Heir of all things, far transcending the Messianic Kingdom. Not to know Him at all (ginoskein) was to be void of eternal life; but to know Him thoroughly (epiginoskein) was only possible to God the Father. Christ's person was the more inscrutable, because the Infinite was there, yet in a finite form. He was the eternal God equally with the Father; none the less was He made man, the Word become flesh. We cannot fathom, but most surely believe. It is our deep joy that the Father only fully knows the Son, though we know Him enough to have eternal life in Him. Yet the Son not only knows the Father thoroughly, but reveals Him to whomsoever He may choose (John 1:18).

THE Lord Jesus said, “No one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal [Him]” (Matt. 11:27). There is a mutual and intimate knowledge between the Father and the Son in the Godhead, which is necessarily infinite in character and measure. In this full and personal acquaintance with Each Other, no creature can possibly share on the ground of either right or capacity. There could be no reciprocity between the Creator and the creature. Hence the eternal relations in the Godhead, by reason of their ineffable nature, must ever be above all human scrutiny and comprehension, apart from the disclosures granted in divine revelation.

There is however, knowledge concerning the Son that cannot be ours, even as the Lord said to His disciples, “No man knows the Son, but the Father” (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22). Who but the Father could know the Son in the inscrutable mystery surrounding His Being and Person, and in the eternal relationships in which He ever was and is with the Father? The Son, though Man on earth, and Man for ever in wondrous grace, is yet God, dwelling in the unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see. This is beyond the apprehension of the creature; yet faith accepts in all simplicity what is divinely revealed concerning these holy mysteries, adoring and worshipping the glorious, Eternal Son, and the Father He has revealed.

Wondrous mystery! Inscrutable enigma! In Matthew 11:27 we get the decisive statement, “No man knows the Son, but the Father.” As to the knowledge of the Father, we find that this is shared by the Son with those to whom He reveals this knowledge. But the Father alone knows the Son. This is the “thus far and no further” for us—the ne plus ultra of our knowledge.

Note, there are two things said about the knowledge of the Father, but only one about the knowledge of the Son.

First, the Son knows the Father, and, second, the Son reveals the Father to whomsoever He will.

But in the case of the knowledge of the Son there is only one step, “No man knows the Son, but the Father,” and there it stops. What can this tremendous statement mean, averring that the Father knows the Son, and that no one else does?

All things were delivered unto Him of His Father. It is the Son who is revealed to our faith, the veil that covered His glory being taken away now that He is rejected as Messiah. No one knows Him but the Father. Who among the proud could fathom what He was? He who from all eternity was one with the Father, become man, surpassed, in the deep mystery of His being, all knowledge save that of the Father Himself. The impossibility of knowing Him who had emptied Himself to become man, maintained the certainty, the reality, of His divinity, which this self-renunciation might have hidden from the eyes of unbelief. The incomprehensibility of a being in a finite form revealed the infinite which was therein. His divinity was guaranteed to faith, against the effect of His humanity on the mind of man. But if no one knew the Son, except the Father only, the Son, who is truly God, was able to reveal the Father. No man has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him. No one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. Wretched ignorance that in its pride rejects Him! It was thus according to the good pleasure of the Son that this revelation was made. Distinctive attribute of divine perfection! He came for this purpose; He did it according to His own wisdom. Such was the truth of man — relations with Him, although He submitted to the painful humiliation of being rejected by His own people, as the final test of their, of man's state.

Observe also here, that this principle, this truth, with regard to Christ, opens the door to the Gentiles, to all who should be called. He reveals the Father to whomsoever He will. He always seeks the glory of His Father. He alone can reveal Him — He to whom the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, has delivered all things; The Gentiles are included in the rights conferred by this title, even every family in heaven and earth. Christ exercises these rights in grace, calling whom He will to the knowledge of the Father.

The Lord then adds what is usually more characteristic of John's writings. If His unique subjection in Manhood is evident in verse 21, yet He is the Man of God's eternal counsels and therefore more than Man: He is the Son of the Father, to whom all things are delivered by the Father's hand. This is not only things earthly or in connection with Israel, but inclusive of the entire universe. He is the Man to whom all must answer, for He is God. He alone of all men knew the Father: this is a vital, fundamental knowledge in perfection, an eternal knowledge such as no other could possibly have. As to the Son also, none could possibly know Him but the Father, for both are eternal, infinite, supreme. Yet the Son does reveal the Father and those therefore know Him to whom the Son is pleased to reveal Him. His knowledge is of course inherent in His very nature: ours is only by revelation from Him. Babes have been given such a revelation, not to enable them to understand the greatness of the mystery of the Person of Christ, but in faith to know Him and adore Him, apart entirely from the reasoning of intellect. They willingly give Him His place of infinite greatness, immeasurably higher than human understanding, and they gladly keep their own place in lowly subjection to Him.

Hear how He presents Himself even here: "All things have been delivered to me by my Father." It is not now merely the land of Israel or the Jewish people, but "all things"; the Son of man with all things handed up to Him — a higher glory even than dominion over all peoples and tongues (Dan. 7). It is the universe put under Him; and this because He is the Son of God. "All things (John 3:13) have been delivered to me by my Father." It is not merely the Ancient of Days giving the universal kingdom under the heaven to the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven; but the rejected Man on earth revealing Himself as the Son of God, the Son of man, who is in heaven, as is said elsewhere, to whom His Father has delivered all things. We see not yet all things put under Him. But He speaks of a far deeper blessing and glory than even this universal inheritance. "No one knows who the Son is, but the Father." He is a Divine person — the glory of His person is unfathomable; it is for the Father alone to know and delight in, though for us to know it unknown. No man knows; indeed, it is not merely no man, but "no man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is pleased to reveal [him]." It is clear that none but the Son knows of Himself the Father. But it is not merely true that the Son knows the Father, for He reveals Him to others — "he to whomsoever the Son is pleased to reveal [him]." This is Christianity; and to lead on the souls of the disciples from their Jewish expectations to the heavenly and Divine truths of Christianity is the object of the Lord Jesus henceforth, as of the Spirit afterwards. It is remarkable that it is said "no one knows who the Son is, but the Father," but it is not added he to whom He will reveal Him. Thus God envelops the Lord Jesus as it were with a Divine guard against the prying curiosity of the creature; and if the Son humbled Himself in grace to man, God forbids that man should approach that, as it were, holy ground. Not even with unsandaled feet can he tread there. God reserves the knowledge of the Son for Himself; He alone really penetrates the mystery of the Only-begotten. The Son does reveal the Father; but man's mind always breaks itself to pieces when he attempts to unravel the insoluble enigma of Christ's personal glory. All that the saint can do is to believe and worship. No man knows the Son but the Father. On the other hand, it is our deepest comfort that the Son not only knows the Father but reveals Him. The revelation of the Father in and by the Son is the joy and rest of faith. It is true even of the babes. The little children (παιδία), and not merely the young men and the fathers, know the Father (1 John 2:14); and this falls in with these unspeakably blessed words of our Lord in Luke 10:23f. "And having turned to the disciples, privately he said, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I say unto you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye behold, and did not see [them]; and to hear the things which ye behold, and did not hear [them].† Thus the Lord Jesus, while He is preparing them for greater things, fully owns the blessedness of the present.266a *As to the traditional reading in the present tense (γινώσκει not ἔγνω) here, see note 265 in Appendix. †As to the last clause, see note 266 in Appendix.

This answers to the New Testament, when our Lord said, “No man knows the Son but the Father; neither knows any man the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27).

There are two steps in the knowledge of the Father, (1) as revealed by the Son and (2) then by those to whom the Son reveals the Father. But in the case of the Son there is but one step, that is, He is known in the meaning of that verse only by the Father, and that is true for ever.