These insulting religiousites asked rhetorically and sarcastically, how did Christ come to know so much without a formal education. Well, Jesus supplies the answer coupled with a doctrinal challenge to their faith to accept Him as God's Son. This contention really shook them, just as it does the Nels F. S. Ferre type of higher critics today. Jesus continued His dialogue with these harassing agitators by declaring that they could only know the true source of doctrine experientially by faith. This principle of knowing the teachings of Christ by faith in literal experiences of human beings is the only valid basis of knowing really the truth of God's Word.
Mental reservations regarding the origin of Biblical truths are insufficient.
We must know their source as coming from God and respect them accordingly. The disciples were to learn much about Him in the short time of three years that Christ would be with them. The Meaning of Doctrine Doctrine is not some set of loose, unrelated ideas about spiritual matters couched in abstractness. That in itself implies definite truth, supreme values, divine instruction coming from the absolute God. Thus, we readily note firmness, authority and finality because it is innately associated with God the absolute being.