His Personal Invitation
How often have you heard these words of Jesus in Bible classes and sermons? “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). They touch our hearts, but they may become even more powerful when we look at the words preceding His invitation.
Before giving His invitation, He spoke to the Father. “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent.” The things He mentioned were the eternal truths He came to reveal. They were hidden from those described as wise and prudent. The wise and the prudent would be the ones you might expect to be given such vital truths, yet Jesus thanked God that it had not been given to those respected by society as being above all others. It may at first seem strange, but if Jesus was thankful for this, shouldn’t we also be thankful?
Jesus continued His thought when He said the Father had “…revealed them to babes.” Obviously, the babes are not infants, but those individuals to whom it was revealed were so different from the wise and prudent. Paul describes this truth in this way. “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:26). There was no way to comprehend those prophecies about how God would come in the flesh and the Creator of the universe would suffer crucifixion. When He actually came there was no human wisdom, even among the wise and prudent, that could comprehend it.
Jesus said even more about this before giving His great invitation. “No one knows the Father…except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). To whom does Jesus reveal the Father? He has been revealed Him to “babes” who by human standards are so far removed from being wise and prudent. Jeremiah described those who would be the recipients of the New Covenant. “For they shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest” (Jer. 31:34).
We must never forget that as we respond to His great invitation we come to know God. It is that revelation from God that enables us to so easily understand the crucified Creator! That which the world by its wisdom will never comprehend is the very basis of how we come to the Savior and know Him!
Christendom often asks, “Do you know the Lord as your personal Savior.” Is there any way we can know that we really know God? Here is God’s answer to that question. “By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:4). Coming to Him involves knowing His will and doing what He says. “Babes” fully understand this.