The same Jesus does not change — but how much of Him we are shown does. Across His appearings He unveils Himself by degrees: first emptied and veiled in the saving mission, then risen, then glorified to Saul and driving the gospel outward, and at last fully unveiled in the Revelation as reigning King and Judge. The veil lifts stage by stage, and with it even the exercise of His knowledge. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8) — and shown us more and more.
1. Emptied and veiled — the Savior, and the work finished
He came not in blazing glory but “made himself of no reputation” — He emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7; see What God Cannot Do). He came as Savior and Mediator, not yet as Judge: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47); “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And He finished the work completely: “It is finished” (John 19:30); “after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, [he] sat down” (Hebrews 10:12).
Living as a true man, He even took on genuine human limits — “of that day and that hour knoweth no man… neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). This was the chosen veil of the mediating humility, not ignorance in the deity, “for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The One in whom are hid “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3) chose, for a season, to know and act as a man. (There is a tender reading of that same verse too: as the Bridegroom, deferring the wedding day to the Father who alone sets it — see The Bride of Christ.)
2. Risen — still bearing the marks
He rose, but not yet in overwhelming glory. He walked, ate, and showed the prints of the nails — “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself” (Luke 24:39). For forty days He appeared and vanished, gentle and near, the Savior confirming the victory before ascending (see The Marks of Love and the catching away).
3. Glorified to Saul — Savior still, driving toward fulfillment
Then, on the Damascus road, the veil lifts further. It is unmistakably the same saving Jesus — He reaches down and saves His own worst enemy, “the chief” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). But He no longer appears as the tired man at the well; He comes in “a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun” (Acts 26:13). And the word is no longer only “be saved” but “go”:
“To make thee a minister and a witness… unto the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light… that they may receive forgiveness of sins.” — Acts 26:16-18
He hands Paul “the mystery” of the church (Ephesians 3:3) and thrusts the gospel outward toward “the fulness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25). Still Savior — but now the glorified Lord, with the whole plan driving forward behind the call.
4. Unveiled in the Revelation — King, Judge, and Opener of the sealed book
At last the veil comes fully off, and the role turns. John sees Him and cannot stand:
“His head and his hairs were white like wool… and his eyes were as a flame of fire… and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead… I am he that liveth, and was dead… and have the keys of hell and of death.” — Revelation 1:14-18
He is “the Lion of the tribe of Juda” who alone “hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals” (Revelation 5:5) — the very scroll of the end that Daniel was told to “seal… even to the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4). And He rides forth: “in righteousness he doth judge and make war… KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16). The Judge the Savior would not yet be has now come into force.
And look closely at that description — it is not new. “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14) is the very portrait of the Ancient of days: “the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame… the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:9-10). In Daniel’s vision “one like the Son of man” comes to the Ancient of days (Daniel 7:13); in John’s vision the Son of man wears the Ancient of days’ own glory — the white hair, the throne of fire, and the opened books of judgment. The two figures of Daniel 7 are revealed as one Person: Jesus does not stand beside the Ancient of Days — He is the Ancient of Days, the eternal God, unveiled. (Trinitarian readers take Daniel’s two figures as two persons of one Godhead; either way, the glory John falls before is wholly divine — no mere exalted man wears the Ancient of days’ hair of wool and throne of fire.) (See Daniel 7 — the Son of Man and Who Is Jesus?.)
And notice the knowledge: the Son who, veiled, deferred “the times and the seasons” to the Father (Acts 1:7) now discloses them — the book itself is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass” (Revelation 1:1). What was laid down in the exercise during the saving mission is now fully His in glory, and unsealed.
Save — send — reign
See the whole arc at once, one continuous exaltation answering one great humiliation:
- Emptied and veiled — the manger, the basin, the cross; knowing and acting as a man; the Savior.
- Risen — bearing the marks, gentle and near.
- Glorified to Saul — light above the sun; still saving, now sending; the plan driving toward its fullness.
- Unveiled in Revelation — King, Judge, and Opener of the sealed book; all knowledge His and disclosed.
“He humbled himself… wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:8-9). The lowest step and the highest throne, the same feet.
And see what the glorified Christ does to the men He meets along the way: to Saul He redirected a purpose — a persecutor turned apostle, his whole will aimed outward at the nations (Acts 26:16-18); to John He directed an understanding — “What thou seest, write in a book” (Revelation 1:11), the mind opened to the end of all things. He reorders the will, and He opens the eyes — the same Lord doing in a man what each stage of the plan requires.
The honest part
This is the Apostolic (Oneness) reading: the Father is the one God’s deity, and the Son is that one God manifest in flesh — so “the Father that dwelleth in me” (John 14:10) is the indwelling deity working through the true humanity, not one divine person reporting on another. Trinitarian Christians frame the Father and Son as distinct persons of one essence; weigh the texts for yourself (“prove all things,” 1 Thessalonians 5:21). And one qualification: Scripture clearly teaches the two roles (Savior, then Judge) and the genuine human limitation, but it does not explicitly say the reason the Son did not know the hour was “because He was acting as Savior and not Judge” — that is a reasonable inference, best held humbly. What is unmistakable is the self-emptying: He chose to be made low, and was then highly exalted.
What it means for you
The Jesus who was once emptied low enough to be held and killed is the same Jesus now exalted high enough to open the future and judge the world. Meet Him now as Savior, while that door stands open — before He is unveiled as Judge:
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” — Acts 2:38
And one day our knowing will be complete too: “now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
He chose every step of it, and not one for Himself: He veiled His glory to come down and save us first, and He will unveil it fully at the last — crowned before every eye, King of kings and Lord of lords. The hands they pierced now hold the keys; the One who knelt now reigns; and all of it, from the manger to the throne, was love.