Jesus: “The Everlasting Father”
Isaiah 9:6
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
This verse is probably quoted as often as any verse in the Bible during the Christmas Season because it points to the Messiah who would come. It tells us that He would come as a child, that He would be a son, but what a special son! He would be the Son of the living God, existing from everlasting to everlasting. He would also be the son of man, born of a virgin. He would come in appearance as man, the WORD becoming flesh.
Jesus would also be a ruler like no other ruler. He would be the Counselor who would consult, counsel, console, but also command with the Mighty acts of God because He is God. And today we look at His characteristics as Everlasting Father.
There is something very important to understand when considering this “name” of Jesus as Everlasting Father. Jesus doesn’t replace God the Father, but Jesus acts as a perfect father would act. God the Father is still God the Father. Some have taken this one single verse and have invented a false doctrine about Jesus being God the Father, and in doing so they have destroyed the Biblical Triune God.
In the same way that Jesus is MIGHTY GOD, one of the three persons of the Godhead, Jesus still possesses the name of the “Son of God”, and “God the Father” maintains His name, but the Perfect Son will always follow the example of His Perfect Father in everything. He is “Everlasting Father-like” in His role and relationship to us as the Son of God.
The Giver of Life
Every single person on the face of the earth has at least one thing in common: Everyone has a father who was instrumental in creating a new life, and in recent years, “paternity tests” have become popular in order to establish who physically contributed to the birth of a child. Establishing the correct physical father is certainly important, but what most people do not recognize is that Jesus is the giver of life. You do not have ANY life apart from Jesus, although most of the world is resolved, NOT to serve the one who GIVES life, but to serve the one who STEALS life.
In John 8:42, Jesus said: "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here… You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Jesus gives physical life but also NEW life, Spiritual life, which springs up to eternal life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Jesus gives life to us as rebellious children so that we can honor the Father who created us because He IS LIFE. Has He given you life in every way?
The Father is the ORIGINATOR
There are various understandings for the word Father in the Old Testament; it can mean author and maker, the ancestor and founder, in other words, Jesus is the ORIGINATOR. He is the originator of life and TRUE FAITH. The notion of originator is that of “beginnings”. The book of Genesis is the book of “beginnings”: “In the beginning God…” Imagine this: Jesus was there in the beginning as God SPOKE things into being with His eternal and creative WORD. As you read Genesis 1, again and again the words appear: and GOD SAID. John 1:1 says it so beautifully and magnificently: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
We call the authors of the Constitution of the United States our “Founding Fathers”. George Washington is called the “Father of Our Country.” William Tyndale is referred to as the "Father of the English Bible". Galileo was called the "father of modern physics" and the "father of science", and there are many other “fathers.”
But notable men or women of historical importance cannot be compared to Jesus. He, along with the Father and Spirit, is the maker and originator, not only of Heaven and Earth but He is the author and originator of our faith and salvation. It is on His account that we have forgiveness and on His account that we have access to God the Father... and we have LIFE.
You may be old enough to remember the times when telephone calls could not be made without going through an operator or switchboard. (Remember Andy Griffith saying: “Sarah, can you get me Guber over at the filling station!” You would stay “disconnected” until Sarah “plugged you in”.) Jesus is like the perfect operator who makes the connection to God for us. He plugs us into that access line. He’s never too busy to take your call to plug us into relationship and faith in God. He is the originator of ALL THINGS but especially the originator of our faith!
The title of “Father” in Isaiah’s time was used to describe a relative who had gone BEFORE and the father of all who came AFTER him. Jesus became the “first born from the dead”, the originator and founder of the resurrection: He was the FIRST for everyone who believes and follows after Him, who become connected to God eternally. Jesus is our Spiritual Father and we are His “Seed” because He is the one who has goes before us to pave the way to God.
Jesus is Master-Teacher
The word for “Father” can also mean that Jesus is master or teacher. In ancient Arabic, MASTER or TEACHER was a form of address that was given to prophets, priests and kings, even today. “Father” was the name given to the father of a king or it was a name given to the King’s supreme counselor because he was the closest adviser to the King. There was nobody that the king could trust more than his counselor.
As “Father”, Jesus is Counselor and Master-Teacher. He teaches us the wisdom of God the Father, He teaches us the commands that will provide us with walking in the way that will eternally please God, and there is no authority higher than His, nor is there anyone whom God would trust more implicitly than Jesus.
Remember the name Jesus’ followers often called Him? They called Him “Master” or “Teacher” “He taught them as one who had authority.” When Jesus teaches us today through His Word, we should recognize His power and His position, too. We have to realize the places in our lives where we are NOT allowing Him to teach us and master us and give those things up to His authority and rule. Is Jesus Master in your life?
Jesus is nourisher.
Jesus loves us as a perfect Father should. He is a nourisher or a “bringer upper”. Fathers have to be tough on the outside but tender on the inside. They have to have love that perseveres, that is self-less, So many fathers today take very little part in a child’s upbringing. The result of their negligence is that many children do not even KNOW the love of a father. To them, the image of what it means to be “father-like” is totally distorted.
In Job 29:14-16 we get a picture of Jesus as “a father to the needy”, a father to those who are fatherless or have a distorted image of a loving father: “I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.16 I was a father to the needy.”
Psalm 68: 5 describes the role of Everlasting Father this way: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”
Did you HAVE a perfect dad? Have you BEEN a perfect dad? Have you ever KNOW one? Jesus has always been and will always serve those who come to Him with the love of a perfect dad, and there are no age limitations because we all have the insatiable need to be loved, accepted, nurtured, and find value in ourselves. The Good News of Jesus Christ is that Jesus is ALWAYS available to bring us up and provide for us as no earthly dad can. He never denies His own and His love and forgiveness are never ending.
An Everlasting Representation
Jesus also provides everlasting representation as “Father”. In the book of Genesis, Adam represented the entire human race; you might think of Adam as the Father of All Humanity. He stood in the garden as our representative. How did Adam do as the “Father of Humanity”? Romans 5:12 tell us: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Our first father on earth died because of his sin!
In our first birth through Adam, we became corrupt and weak; because Adam sinned and died, we sin and we die. As an “Everlasting and Eternal Father”, Jesus came to be the first and only representative of an everlasting love and of everlasting life. Jesus came to represent not an earthly kingdom that would pass away, but an eternal and heavenly one, a kingdom of grace, forgiveness, innocence, a kingdom of life.
As a good father should, Jesus never “stood down”. He never dropped His guard or surrendered to the enemy, but instead, He fought for His children to the bitter end and still does. Jesus acts as a “father” for all the Children of God. He represents us in the Kingdom of Heaven where GRACE REIGNS through His own armor of righteousness.
There is a real fatherly moment from Jesus’ life in Luke 13:34: “Jesus cried: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city (of the teaching of peace) that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!”
Jesus WANTED to gather Israel into His Family. He BEGGED them to come to Him for life, nourishment, and faith, but they “would not have it.” John 1:12 explains the other side of the spiritual coin: “BUT as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but (born) of God.”
You all were born into an earthly family and acquired the sin seed of Adam. The question you have to answer is this: Have you ALSO been born into the family of God through the spiritual seed of Jesus? If you HAVE received His new life, you will also receive His leadership, His nourishment and His teaching and you will also HAVE a great love and obedience for Him. If you have become a child of God, you will follow Jesus as closely as a child follows his loving Dad.
Jesus is Everlasting Father:
Jesus doesn’t replace God the Father, but Jesus acts as a perfect father would act.
1. Jesus is the giver of life.
2. Jesus is the originator.
3. Jesus is master.
4. Jesus is nourisher.
5. Jesus provides everlasting representation.
