I remember hearing a riddle about a father and son who were in a bad car accident. The father was killed. The son was rushed to the hospital. He needs surgery. As soon as the surgeon gets ready to make the first cut, the surgeon says, “I cannot operate – that boy is my son.”

1. How is this scenario possible?

Isaiah 9:6 brings an interesting scenario, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” A child is called the “Everlasting Father.” Normally, a newborn child is not referred to as a father.

2. How is the Messiah the “Everlasting Father” while being a child?
3. Do any of the titles in this verse imply the deity of Jesus?

John Martin gives an interesting summary in the “Bible Knowledge Commentary:”

“This Deliverer will also be called the Everlasting Father. Many people are puzzled by this title because the Messiah, God’s Son, is distinguished in the Trinity from God the Father. How can the Son be the Father? Several things must be noted in this regard. First, the Messiah, being the second Person of the Trinity, is in His essence, God. Therefore He has all the attributes of God including eternality. Since God is One (even though He exists in three Persons), the Messiah is God. Second, the title ‘Everlasting Father’ is an idiom used to describe the Messiah’s relationship to time, not His relationship to the other Members of the Trinity. He is said to be everlasting, just as God (the Father) is called ‘the Ancient of Days’ (Daniel 7:9). The Messiah will be a ‘fatherly’ Ruler. Third, perhaps Isaiah had in mind the promise to David (2 Samuel 7:16) about the ‘foreverness’ of the kingdom which God promised would come through David’s line. The Messiah, a Descendant of David, will fulfill this promise for which the nation had been waiting.”

Isaiah 63:16 adds, “For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.”

4. How does this relate to the “Everlasting Father” title?

Everlasting Father refers to Jesus’ deity.

Jesus is God, and He knows it. In John 10:30, He says, “I and the Father are one.”

5. What did Jesus mean by this verse?

He adds in John 14:9, “Jesus said to him, ‘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?’”

6. What did Jesus mean by this verse?

Everlasting Father refers to Jesus’ love.

Oswald Chambers pointed out, “In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that ‘underneath are the everlasting arms,’ (Deuteronomy 33:27) full of support, provision, comfort and strength.”

As we have seen from John 14:9, Jesus equates Himself with the Father. Psalm 68:5 speaks of the love of the Father, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”

1 Corinthians 8:6 says, “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Ephesians 4:6 adds, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” God is clearly referred to as the Father.

7. What positive connotations come to mind when you think of a father?
8. What should a father look like?
9. How is Jesus a loving Father?

Romans 8:15-16 says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

10. How can we become children of God?

Revelation 1:8 says, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” Jesus is God. He always has been, is, and always will be. He is the Everlasting Father.

In the 1500’s Francis de Sales said, “The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.”

11. How does Jesus’ title of Everlasting Father comfort, encourage, challenge, and motivate you?

Charles Spurgeon spoke these words, “How complex is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ! Almost in the same breath, the prophet calls him a ‘child,’ and a ‘counselor,’ a ‘son,’ and ‘the everlasting Father.’ This is no contradiction, and to us scarcely a paradox, but it is a mighty marvel that he who was an infant should at the same time be infinite, he who was the Man of Sorrows should also be God over all, blessed for ever; and that he who is in the Divine Trinity always called the Son, should nevertheless be correctly called ‘the everlasting Father.’”