A Response#20 - Did Jesus tell his disciples everything?
Response by Wendell Leahy
Jesus told his disciples everything.
John 15:15: "For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
There were some things that Jesus didn't tell them.
John 16:12: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."
John Gill Exposition of the Bible:
Response by Dave Marr
The skeptic's confusion:
Jesus told his disciples everything.
"For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." John 15:15
There were some things that Jesus didn't tell them.
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." John 16:12
Explanation:
The one truth we must realize is that Jesus was fully human when He dwelt among us, in addition to being fully God. He came into this world as a baby, and went through childhood like the rest of us, and passed through the different stages of life as all humans do.
To more thoroughly comprehend this fact, one verse is very important regarding Jesus’ childhood, and therefore his human form: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52
Jesus, while physically on Earth, had the Spirit of God without measure, yet He learned and increased in knowledge and wisdom as a human; that is, it wasn’t all given to Him at His birth. In essence, He was temporarily limited by His human nature-- this was necessary, to a certain extent, in order for Him to fully experience life as one of us.
When Jesus began preaching, God, through the Holy Spirit, would speak in His ear all things about Himself that He wanted mankind to know. So Jesus spoke the truth when He told His disciples that He made all things that He heard from the Father known to them.
Notwithstanding, between John 15 and John 16, it is apparent that God the Father began to tell Jesus many things regarding His death, Resurrection, and future Church. Jesus foretold His death to His disciples at least a few times, but it was a stumblingblock to them. Thus, they would not be able understand what His death would accomplish, and how this would empower the Church, so He knew that his disciples would not be able to handle this new intelligence at this point. They would only understand after Jesus died and rose again, especially when the Holy Ghost was given to them.
Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega” and “the beginning of all creation”, yet He took on our weak physical form in a way that no one could say that he wasn’t truly with us here on Earth. No one but God Himself knows how this “soul amnesia” temporarily operated in Jesus, and we shouldn’t speculate. The point is that Jesus gave us the most excellent model of communicating with God the Father, in a way that we could understand and follow.
Jesus told his disciples everything.
John 15:15: "For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
There were some things that Jesus didn't tell them.
John 16:12: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."
John Gill Exposition of the Bible:
or all things I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you
not all that he knew as the omniscient God, for there was no necessity that all such things should be made known to them; but all things which he had delivered to him as man and Mediator, by his Father, respecting the salvation of men; all things which he himself was to do and suffer, in order to obtain eternal redemption; and the whole of the Gospel, as to the essential and substantial parts of it, they were to preach; for otherwise, there were some things which as yet they were not able to bear, and were reserved to another time, to be made known unto them by his Spirit.
I have yet many things to say unto you
Not with respect to the main doctrines of the Gospel, for everything of this kind he had made known unto them, (John 15:15) ; but what regarded the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, the abrogation of the Mosaic economy, and settling the Gospel church state, which were to come to pass after the death and resurrection of Christ, and the sending of the Spirit:
but ye cannot bear them now
because of their prejudices in favour of their own nation, the law of Moses, and the ceremonies of it, and the setting up of a temporal kingdom.
Response by Dave Marr
The skeptic's confusion:
Jesus told his disciples everything.
"For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." John 15:15
There were some things that Jesus didn't tell them.
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." John 16:12
Explanation:
The one truth we must realize is that Jesus was fully human when He dwelt among us, in addition to being fully God. He came into this world as a baby, and went through childhood like the rest of us, and passed through the different stages of life as all humans do.
To more thoroughly comprehend this fact, one verse is very important regarding Jesus’ childhood, and therefore his human form: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52
Jesus, while physically on Earth, had the Spirit of God without measure, yet He learned and increased in knowledge and wisdom as a human; that is, it wasn’t all given to Him at His birth. In essence, He was temporarily limited by His human nature-- this was necessary, to a certain extent, in order for Him to fully experience life as one of us.
When Jesus began preaching, God, through the Holy Spirit, would speak in His ear all things about Himself that He wanted mankind to know. So Jesus spoke the truth when He told His disciples that He made all things that He heard from the Father known to them.
Notwithstanding, between John 15 and John 16, it is apparent that God the Father began to tell Jesus many things regarding His death, Resurrection, and future Church. Jesus foretold His death to His disciples at least a few times, but it was a stumblingblock to them. Thus, they would not be able understand what His death would accomplish, and how this would empower the Church, so He knew that his disciples would not be able to handle this new intelligence at this point. They would only understand after Jesus died and rose again, especially when the Holy Ghost was given to them.
Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega” and “the beginning of all creation”, yet He took on our weak physical form in a way that no one could say that he wasn’t truly with us here on Earth. No one but God Himself knows how this “soul amnesia” temporarily operated in Jesus, and we shouldn’t speculate. The point is that Jesus gave us the most excellent model of communicating with God the Father, in a way that we could understand and follow.
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