John Calvin Commentary Matthew 11:27

"All things have been delivered unto 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 willeth to reveal [him.]" — Matthew 11:27 (ASV)

All things have been delivered to me. The connection of this sentence with the preceding one is not correctly understood by those commentators who think that Christ intends nothing more than to strengthen the confidence of his disciples for preaching the Gospel. My opinion is that Christ spoke these words for another reason and with another object in view.

Having previously asserted that the Church proceeds from the secret source of God’s free election, he now shows how the grace of salvation comes to people.

Many people, as soon as they learn that no one is an heir of eternal life except those whom God chose before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), begin to inquire anxiously how they may be assured of God’s secret purpose, and thus plunge into a labyrinth from which they will find no escape.

Christ instructs them to come directly to himself to obtain certainty of salvation. The meaning, therefore, is that life is exhibited to us in Christ himself, and that no one will share in it who does not enter by the gate of faith.

We now see that he connects faith with the eternal predestination of God—two things which people foolishly and wickedly consider inconsistent with each other. Though our salvation was always hidden with God, Christ is the channel through which it flows to us, and we receive it by faith, that it may be secure and ratified in our hearts. We are not at liberty then to turn away from Christ, unless we choose to reject the salvation which he offers to us.

None knows the Son. He says this so that we may not be guided by human judgment and thus form an erroneous estimate of his majesty.

The meaning, therefore, is that if we wish to know what the character of Christ is, we must abide by the testimony of the Father, who alone can truly and certainly inform us what authority he has bestowed upon him.

And indeed, by imagining him to be what our mind, according to its capacity, conceives of him, we deprive him of a great part of his excellence, so that we cannot know him rightly except from the voice of the Father.

That voice alone would undoubtedly be insufficient without the guidance of the Spirit, for the power of Christ is too deep and hidden to be attained by people until they have been enlightened by the Father. We must understand him to mean, not that the Father knows for himself, but that He knows for us, to reveal him to us.

But the sentence appears to be incomplete, for the two clauses do not correspond to each other. Of the Son it is said that none knows the Father except himself, and he to whom he shall be pleased to reveal him. Of the Father, nothing more is said than this: that He alone knows the Son. Nothing is said about revelation.

I reply that it was unnecessary to repeat what he had already said, for what else is contained in the previous thanksgiving than that the Father has revealed the Son to those who approve of him?

When it is now added that He alone knows the Son, it appears to be the assigning of a reason. For this thought might have occurred: Why was it necessary that the Son, who had openly exhibited himself to the view of people, should be revealed by the Father?

We now perceive the reason why it was said that none knows the Son but the Father only. It now remains that we attend to the latter clause:

None knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son shall be pleased to reveal him. This is a different kind of knowledge from the former. For the Son is said to know the Father, not because he reveals Him by his Spirit, but because, being the lively image of Him, he represents Him visibly in his own person.

At the same time, I do not exclude the Spirit, but explain the revelation here mentioned as referring to the manner of communicating information. This agrees most completely with the context, for Christ confirms what he had previously said, that all things had been delivered to him by his Father, by informing us that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him (Colossians 2:9).

The passage may be thus summed up:⁶⁹

1. First, it is the gift of the Father that the Son is known, because by his Spirit he opens the eyes of our mind to discern the glory of Christ, which otherwise would have been hidden from us.
2. Secondly, the Father, who dwells in inaccessible light and is in himself incomprehensible, is revealed to us by the Son, because he is the lively image of Him, so that it is in vain to seek for Him elsewhere.⁷⁰

⁶⁹ “Tout ce passage revient a ces deux points;” — “the whole of this passage amounts to these two points.”;” — “the whole of this passage amounts to these two points.”

⁷⁰ “En sorte que c’est temps perdu de le chercher ailleurs;” — “so that it is lost time to seek him elsewhere.”;” — “so that it is lost time to seek him elsewhere.”