How Can Jesus Be Our Eternal Father?
Is Isaiah 9:6 referring to Jesus? If so, why is He called 'Everlasting Father' in this verse? ~ Ravi.
Thank you for asking this interesting question, Ravi. I remember wrestling with the same question when I preached through Isaiah’s prophetic vision of the Messiah back in Advent 2021.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Of all Isaiah’s names for the Messiah, “Eternal (or Everlasting) Father” is the most confusing. How can Jesus (the second person of the Trinity) be given the name of Father (the first person of the Trinity)?
I’ll venture a couple of explanations:
Isaiah is pointing to Christ’s character - his fatherly disposition towards us.
Isaiah might be describing the kind of person the Messiah will be. He will be father-like in his love and care for his people. The American theologian, Sam Storms, refers to Isaiah’s words here as:
“a descriptive analogy pointing to Christ’s character… he is fatherly, father-like, in his treatment of us.”
Whether or not Isaiah had this in mind is difficult to determine with certainty, but we do know that Jesus had a fatherly way of relating to his followers. Likewise, Jesus treats us in a fatherly way: loving us, protecting us, providing for us, and promising never to leave us. Sadly, these attributes are not true of all fathers, but they are true of our faithful Lord Jesus.
The 19th century preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said:
There is no unfathering Christ, and there is no unchilding us… He is everlastingly a father to those who trust in him.
Isaiah is highlighting the fact that the Messiah will reveal the Father to us.
If you want to know what God the Father is like, look to Jesus. This might be what Isaiah has in mind when he names the Messiah, Eternal Father.
While it’s true that Isaiah would not have had an understanding of the Trinity in the way we do, God the Father may have revealed to the prophet that His Messiah would show the world what He’s like.
Jesus said astonishing things about the extent to which he was revealing the Father. Meditate on these words, which would amount to blasphemy if they were said by any other human:
Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? ~ John 14:9–10
I and the Father are one . . . know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. ~ John 10:30, 38
I’m not sure which of these two ideas is the better explanation for Isaiah’s prophetic naming of the Messiah as Eternal Father. It might be both, or neither. But we do know that both of these things are gloriously true about Jesus. He is both fatherly in his love and care towards us, and he perfectly reveals the nature of God the Father to us.
Love, JS
