“For a child will be born to us, a son will be
given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And
His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace” {Is.
9:6 NASB}.
When Isaiah the prophet spoke these wonderful words thousands of years ago, he could not have fully imaged the scope of what he was conveying to God’s people. He understood the redemptive and Messianic implications, but as with all prophecy, prophets saw only in part.
“‘Everlasting Father’— How
can this be the name of the child?
This child wants nothing for
himself; he is no wunderkind in the human sense,
But an obedient child of his
heavenly Father.
Born in time, he brings
eternity with him to earth.
As the Son of God
He brings us all the love of
the Father in heaven.
Go there, seek and find at
the manger the eternal Father,
Who here has become your dear
Father too.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Mystery of Holy Night
The word in the Hebrew is Strong’s ’Avi‘ad {5703}.
It combines two words; the word for eternal or everlasting ‘ad with that
for Father ’avi. Later in the verse ‘ad is joined with ‘olam to mean
forever. The connotation in the beautiful Hebrew language is that Jesus
is the author of all eternity; the very Creator Himself:
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was
life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” {Jn.
1:1-5 NASB}.
“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom
are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are
all things, and we exist through Him” {1
Cor. 8:6 NASB}.
The Messiah is the Everlasting Father, yet He is not The
Father; He is not the
Father, the Father is not Jesus, neither persons are interchangeable with
the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared that He and the Father are one, yet they remain
separate; they each are a distinct person of the Godhead. The Son and the Spirit
were active in the Creation, but there is only One Father. Knowing this to be
true, how then can the Messiah be the Everlasting Father?
Christ repeatedly referred to God as “Father” and prayed to Him; He was sent by the Father. Some things can be said of Christ that cannot be said of the Father, e.g., the Father did not clothe Himself with human flesh. The Messiah suffered and died for the redemption of humankind—the Father did not. The Father sent Him, anointed Him, gave Him authority, and filled Him with the Holy Spirit:
“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” {Acts 10:38 NASB}.
Christ is a Father in respect to the men and women God gave
Him; His children in the New Covenant whom He adopted and who carry His Name—you
and me. He prayed to the Father on our behalf as those who will belong to Him
through the disciple's faithful testimony about Christ {Jn.
17:20 NASB}. {Please read the entire High Priestly
prayer of Jesus in John 17. It is some of the most beautiful prose every spoken
and penned. Link marked}.
Christ is a Father to us who carry His name. There are many
who are now without their earthly fathers. Some have passed away; others neglected
or abandoned their children. However, Christ promises that He will never die,
and that we shall never be left alone and fatherless. He will supply our every
need and He clothes us with His everlasting raiment of salvation; He has given
us all authority to be seated with Him.
The Everlasting
Father or “Father of eternity”[1]
is the author of eternal life and is the everlasting I AM, who was
before all things, and enjoyed glory with Father before the world began. Lockyer recites
a fascinating background to the idea of Father. When a Roman citizen had
performed a deed of infinite value, soldiers would raise him on their shields and
garlands of flowers were thrown at his feet and was hailed Pater Patriae—
Father of his country.[2]
This evokes Palm Sunday imagery in my mind—as Jesus was hailed and worshiped on
that day and declared to be King.
“Such an honorable title given to men can illustrate the idea associated with the words rendered Everlasting Father. Christ was certainly, the Father of His Country, for while on earth He declared that He came from heaven where he had been through the eternal past. For Him, whose Fatherland was the universe, and whose age is eternity, the glory is that He is the Christ of all ages.”[3]
He will never
leave or forsake us; that is His promise. Isaiah’s words foretell His First Advent,
yet we watchfully anticipate His Second. The Septuagint and Vulgate both
translate Everlasting Father as “Father of the age to come.”[4]
Christ is full of grace and truth {Jn. 1:14} and He is the Father or the author of the dispensation of Grace in which we now live…Glory to God, and He is the Father of the world to come in which we shall rule and reign with Him forever {Rev. 20: 4-6 NASB}.
“For this reason we must pay
much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift
away from it. For if the word spoken through angels
proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received
a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord,
it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with
them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and
by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. For He did not
subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But
one has testified somewhere, saying,
‘What is man, that You remember him? Or the Son
of Man, that you are
concerned about him? You have made him for a
little while lower than
the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and
honor, and
appointed him over the works of Your hands; You
have put all things
under his feet.’
For in subjecting all things to
him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see
all things subjected to him” {Heb.
2: 1-8 NASB}.
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[1]
Herbert Lockyer, All The Names And Divine Titles {Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1975}, 148-149.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid.
