Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 10:21–24
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (v. 22).
Christ told the seventy-two to rejoice in their salvation (Luke 10:17–20), but they did not rejoice alone. Jesus Himself also rejoiced in their redemption, as we see in Luke 10:21.
Yet our Savior rejoiced not only in the fact of their salvation but also in the means by which it was given to them. He praised His Father for hiding salvation from those whom the world regards as “wise and understanding” and revealing it “to little children” (Luke 10:21). The first believers in Jesus were not leaders of society and did not have much, if any, formal schooling (see Acts 4:13). The learned, leading figures of the culture are those that we might expect God to reach first with the gospel, but that is not what He did. As Mary foresaw, the Lord exalted the humble (Luke 1:52) by granting them faith in the gospel.
Jesus’ praise of God also points us to God’s gracious election. John Calvin said it well when he observed that Jesus’ expression in Luke 10:21 conveys two important truths. “First, that all do not obey the Gospel arises from no [lack] of power on the part of God, who could easily have brought all the creatures into subjection to [Him].” Second, Calvin says that “some arrive at faith, while others remain hardened and obstinate” because of God’s free election, for the condition of all sinners “by nature is alike.” In other words, because all people (except Jesus) are fallen in Adam, no one believes the gospel unless he is chosen by God and given the gift of faith (see Rom. 8:28–30; Eph. 2:8–10).
Besides giving us profound truths about unconditional election, the words of Jesus in today’s passage also offer deep insight into the nature of God. Luke 10:22 notes that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son reveals the Father. In verse 21, however, Jesus names the Father as the One who revealed Himself to those who trust in Jesus. The fact that both Father and Son reveal the truth of salvation points to Their being equal in knowledge and in the act of revelation and thus equally God. At the same time, Jesus can make a distinction between the Father and the Son. It is not hard to see how texts such as this led the church to confess the doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three distinct persons.
Today’s passage ends with some private comments of Jesus to His disciples that many prophets and kings had longed to see and hear what the disciples saw and heard but had not lived to do so (Luke 10:23–24). Christ our Lord was telling them that He is the Messiah promised to the old covenant saints.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
We cannot know the truth of Christ unless God opens our eyes to it, but if He does open our eyes, we will certainly see it and believe it. Moreover, we stand in a better position historically than the people of the Old Testament did, for we have seen the coming of Christ. Let us be thankful for this privilege and for how the Lord has opened our eyes to His truth.
for further study
- Psalm 98:2
- Isaiah 56:1
- John 1:18
- John 5:30–47
- John 14:1–14
the bible in a year
- 1 Chronicles 8–10
- John 8:39–59