What is this knowledge of the Father to which the youngest child in Christ has his inalienable title? And if the youngest child in Christ has this title, is it yours and mine to enjoy it in all its inestimable privilege? It is clearly something more than knowing that we are children of God, though our hearts may well be deeply touched as we behold the manner of the love bestowed upon us, that we should be able to take up the children’s place before the Father, as born of Him and possessing the Spirit of His Son (1 John 3:11Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1 John 3:1)).
Relationship and Knowledge
The relationship is one thing; the knowledge of the Father whose child I am is another. If we consider a natural relationship, the difference is obvious. The relationship remains the same whatever the character of the parent, but for the children how much depends on it! The father may be loving and considerate or very distant and cold, and the difference to the child is incalculable. Is it enough, then, for us to know that we are the children of God? Ought we not also to desire to become familiar with the thoughts and feelings of His heart, the love of His nature, and His character (if I may use the word in the deepest reverence), when He makes this knowledge of Himself the privilege of His youngest child? But we may ask, How am I to know Him? It can only be as He reveals Himself. Let us see the way Scripture presents this blessed revelation to us.
Revealed Unto Babes
Matthew 11 gives us the first intimation of such revelation in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. It was a time of deep trial for Him. Hard-hearted unbelief met Him in the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done—works that attested to who He was. But it only brought out in the perfection of the blessed Lord what the knowledge of the Father was to Him. He knew whence to receive all that pressed so heavily upon Him, for we read, “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:2525At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. (Matthew 11:25)).
In His rejection by these cities He acknowledged nothing but His Father’s ways of perfect wisdom and love. If in divine wisdom these things were hid from the wise and prudent, there were babes to whom they were revealed by infinite grace. He knew the love of the Father, and in this He found His perfect resting place, submitting Himself absolutely to His will. This is clearly expressed in the words, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” These two things come before us, then, in the experience of the blessed Lord: the source of His rest in the knowledge of the Father and His perfect submission to the Father’s will. Into both He would introduce us, for this is the connection of the words that follow, too often missed. In verse 27 all the deeper glories of His Person, of the place given to Him and His work, in the deepest character of it, come before Him. Not only the Messianic kingdom, but “all things” in universal supremacy are delivered unto Him by the Father. The unfathomable glory of His Person is made known in the words, “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father,” and then as the most precious reason for the incarnation, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” He had come to reveal the Father; this goes far beyond the glory in which He had been presented to Israel up to this point in this Gospel. But it is when the divine and inscrutable glory of His Person as the Son is brought out that He intimates His purpose to reveal the Father.
Perhaps it now becomes an anxious question, To whom will He reveal the Father, whom only the Son has seen and known? The answer comes at once in the precious words, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). How many have been through the world with all its toil and weariness, and have found nothing to satisfy! The Lord Jesus has been through it too, but He had a secret source of perfect rest. He calls us to Him that He might reveal it to us. This source of rest is the Father, and His heart of infinite love. The Son would give us rest by revealing Him, and then we have only to learn of Him, the meek and lowly One. We have to submit ourselves absolutely to His will to find this perfect rest realized practically under all circumstances. Both the Father and the Son have been seen in practical operation in the blessed place the Lord took, as expressed in “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” When one in faith recognizes that all their burdens are allowed by their Father and submits to them as “good in His sight,” then the yoke of submission is easy and the burden is light.
Needed to Give Rest
How blessed, then, the confirmation that to know the Father is not some advanced experience that belongs only to those who have been long in the Christian way. We find that it is the first thing before the Lord which was needed to give rest and to establish the heart that trusted Him in view of the consequences of His rejection. But for the full development of all that flows from the divine glory of His Person, we must turn to the Gospel of John, where from the outset it shines out everywhere, though veiled in the lowly form of manhood.
The Word—the Lord Jesus, who was in nature God—became flesh and dwelt among us, so that the opened eye of faith beholds His glory, the glory as of an only-begotten with a Father — the one cherished object of the Father’s delight (John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)). It is this that gives His blessed competency to make the Father known, even as we read in verse 18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” He alone, as the Son who dwells in His bosom, was so fitted to make the Father known, for His nearness and intimacy of relationship with the Father ever characterized Him while speaking and acting as Man among men.
The Words and Works
It is in His words and works, as grouped together by the Spirit in the Gospel of John, that we see how the revelation of the Father comes to us through the Son. Here alone, in all Scripture, the Father is fully revealed. All His works were thus the Father’s works, the expression of the Father’s nature and will as flowing from this divine communion. In His works the Father was revealed. Hence His solemn words in John 10:37-3837If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (John 10:37‑38): “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
It was the same with His words, as John 12:49-5049For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. (John 12:49‑50) wonderfully shows: “I have not spoken [from] Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. ... Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.” With what new and precious interest His whole path is invested, when we learn that in words and works alike He is expressing the Father, that we might be brought to know Him as thus perfectly revealed. From this, too, flows the revelation of the Father’s house, never before spoken of in Scripture.
J. A. Trench (adapted)