For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given
The “child” Hezekiah--yet someone else
I am unable to form any distinct notion of Isaiah as a man and a Hebrew, and as a prophet of Jehovah in contrast with those muttering wizards he denounces, without supposing that, at this period of his life and ministry, he must have connected the thought of “the child” with Hezekiah, on whom the name of the Mighty God had been actually named (“Hezekiah” means “Jehovah strengthens”), and who (being now a boy nine or ten years old) may already have given promise of the piety which afterwards distinguished him: and that he would not, at this time, have considered that his prediction would be quite inadequately realised if the youthful prince should, on his accession to the throne of David and Solomon, renew the glories of their reigns, in which peace and justice were established at home and abroad, through trust in Jehovah and His covenant:--reigns of which the historical facts must be studied in the light which the Book of Psalms and such passages as 2 Chronicles 9:1-8 throw on them.
I say at this time, because we shall have occasion to inquire what was the effect on Isaiah’s mind when he did see a restoration under Hezekiah of such a reign of righteousness and prosperity; and whether his expectation of the Messiah did not eventually assume a very different form from what could have been possible to him at the time we now speak of. There is a method through this whole Book of Isaiah’s prophecies which reflects a corresponding progress in the prophet’s own mind; and this method offers us a clue through difficulties which are otherwise impassable, if we will only hold it fast and follow its guidance fairly. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
A prediction of an ideal king
Such language speaks of an ideal king, even a Divine ruler, and only in a very poor degree found its fulfilment in Hezekiah or any Jewish king. (B. Blake, B. D.)
The way that led to Christ
In the crooked alleys of Venice, there is a thin thread of red stone inlaid in the pavement or wail, which guides through all the devious turnings to the Piazza in the centre, where the great church stands. So in reading the Old Testament we see in the life of many a personage, illustrious or obscure, and in many a far off event, the red line of promise and prophecy which stretches on unbroken until the Son of Man came. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
The Messianic prophesies
Dr. Gordon, of Boston, had a large dissected “puzzle map,” which he gave to his children, saying, “Don’t press the parts into their places; you will soon know when they fit.” Coming again into the room, very soon after, he was surprised to find the map complete. He felt like saying, as Isaac to Jacob, when the latter returned with the venison, “How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?” “Why, father,” was the reply, “there was a man printed on the back; we saw where the feet, the eyes, the arms, and the rest of the body came, and so it was easy to watch it and fit all in.” So, if we know the Bible, we see “the Man on the back”; we put together the prophecies of the Old Testament by “the Man Christ Jesus.” (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)
The prophet’s supernatural prevision
It is not necessary to suppose that the prophet knew the literal meaning of his own words. He is but a poor preacher who knows all that he has said in his sermon. Had the prophet done so, he would be no longer the contemporary of his own epoch. It is the glory of prophecy to feel after. It is the glory of science to say long before the planet is discovered--there is another world there: no telescope has seen it, no message of light has been received from it consciously, but keep your telescope in that direction, there must be a starry pulse just there. The botanist knows that if he finds a certain plant in a given locality there will be another plant of another name not a mile away. He judges from one plant to another; he submits himself to inferential logic: he has not seen that other plant, but he tells you in the morning that because yesternight he found this leaf growing not far from the house in which he resides no will find another leaf of a similar pattern, or a diverse pattern, not far away; and at night he comes home, radiant as the evening star, and says, Behold, I told you this morning what would be the case, and there it is. So with the larger astronomy, and the larger botany: there is another planet somewhere yonder; when it is discovered call it the Morning Star, and inasmuch as there is triacle, treacle, in Gilead--a balm there--there shall be found another plant not far away; whenyou find it call it by some sweet name, such as the Rose of Sharon, or the Lily of the valley. It is the glory of the prophet to see signs which have infinite meanings--to see the harvest in the seed, the noonday in the faintest tint of dawn, the mighty man in the helpless infant, the Socrates in the embryo. This prevision made the prophets seemingly mad. Their knowledge was to them but a prison, so small, so dark, yet now and again almost alive with a glory all but revealed. The horizon was loaded with gloom, yet here and there a rent showed that heaven was immediately behind, and might at any moment make the dark cold earth bright and warm with eternal summer. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The great Deliverer
Look at the Deliverer as seen by the prophet--“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called--.” Now, the English punctuation seems to fritter away the dignity of the appellation The compound name really falls into this classification: first, Wonderful-Counsellor, as one word, as if, indeed, it were but one syllable; second, God-the-Mighty-One, not four words, but hyphened together; third, Father-of-Eternity, also hyphened and consolidated; fourth, Prince-of-Peace, that likewise an instance of the words run into one another, and in this four-fold classification we have the mysterious name of the Deliverer. This is no evidence that Isaiah saw the birth of Christ as we understand that term, but what he did see was that the only deliverer who could accomplish the necessary work must fill out the whole measure of these terms; if he failed to fill out that outline, he was not the predicted Messiah. Let us see.
1. He must fill the imagination--“Wonderful.” Imagination cannot be safely left out of any religion; it is that wondrous faculty that flies to great heights, and is not afraid of infinite breadths; the faculty, so to say, that lies at the back of all other faculties, sums them up, and then adds an element of its own, using the consolidated mind for the highest purposes of vision and understanding. Is this name given for the first time? Where do we find the word “Wonderful” in the Scriptures? We may not, perhaps, find it in the English tongue, but it is really to be found in Judges 13:18 : The angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, “Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing, it is secret?”--the same Hebrew word that is rendered in the text “Wonderful”; so we might read, “The angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after My name, seeing it is Wonderful?”
2. He must satisfy the judgment. His name, therefore, is not only Wonderful, but “Counsellor,” the fountain of wisdom and understanding, the mind that rules over all things with perfectness of mastery, that attests everything by the eternal meridian, and that looks for righteousness.
3. He must also satisfy the religious instinct, so He is called “The Mighty God.” It is not enough to describe God without epithetic terms. Sometimes we say, Why utter such words as, Thou infinite, eternal, ever-blessed God? Because we are so constituted in this infantile state of being that we need a ladder of adjectives to get up to our little conception of that which is inconceivable.
4. Not only so, there must be in this man a sense of brotherhood, so He is called “The-Prince-of-Peace.” He will bring man to man, nation to nation; He will arbitrate amongst the empires of the earth and rule by the Sabbatic spirit. Christianity is peace.
5. He is to be more still. He is to be “The Everlasting Father,” otherwise translated, The Father of Eternity; otherwise, and better translated, The Father of the age to come. Therein we have misinterpreted Christianity. We have been too anxious to understand the past. The pulpit has had a backward aspect--most careful about what happened in the second century, dying to know what Tertullian thought and what Constantine did. Christ is the Father of the age to come. If He lived now He would handle the question of poverty; He would discuss the great uses of Parliament; He would address Himself to every church, chapel, and sanctuary in the kingdom; He would come into our various sanctuaries and turn us out to a man. Christianity is the prophetic religion. It deals with the science that is to be, with the politics yet to be developed, with the commerce that is yet to be the bread-producing action of civilised life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The birth of Christ
I. LET US EXPLAIN THE PREDICTION. The grandeur of the titles sufficiently determines the meaning of the prophet; for to whom, except to the Messiah, can these appellations belong This natural sense of the text is supported by the authority of an inspired writer, and what is, if not of any great weight in point of argument, at least very singular as a historical fact, it is supported by the authority of an angel (Matthew 4:12, etc.; Luke 1:31, etc.). To remove the present fears of the Jews, God reminds them of the wonders of His love, which He had promised to display in favour of His Church in ages to come: and commands His prophet to say to them: Ye trembling leaves of the wood, shaken with every wind, peace be to you! Ye timorous Jews, cease your fears! let not the greatness of this temporal deliverance, which I now promise you, excite your doubts! God hath favours incomparably greater in store for you, they shall be your guarantees for those which ye are afraid to expect. Ye are in covenant with God. Ye have a right to expect those displays of His love in your favour, which are least credible. Remember the blessed seed, which He promised to your ancestors (Genesis 22:18). “Behold! a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The spirit of prophecy that animates me, enables me to penetrate through all the ages that separate the present moment from that in which the promise shall be fulfilled. I dare speak of a miracle, which will be wrought eight hundred years hence, as if it had been wrought today, “Unto us a Child is born,” etc.
II. LET US SHOW ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT. Who is a king? What is a throne? Why have we masters! Why is sovereign power lodged in a few hands? And what determines mankind to lay aside their independence, and to lose their beloved liberty? The whole implies some mortifying truths. We have not knowledge sufficient to guide ourselves, and we need minds wiser than our own to inspect and to direct our conduct. We are indigent, and superior beings must supply our wants. We have enemies, and we must have guardians to protect us. Miserable men! how have you been deceived in your expectations? what disorders could anarchy have produced greater than those which have sometimes proceeded from sovereign authority? You sought guides to direct you: but you have sometimes fallen under the tuition of men who, far from being able to conduct a whole people, knew not how to guide themselves. You sought nursing fathers, to succour you in your indigence: but you have fallen sometimes into the hands of men, who had no other designs than to impoverish their people, to enrich themselves with the substance, and to fatten themselves with the blood of their subjects. You sought guardians to protect you from your enemies: but you have sometimes found executioners, who have used you with greater barbarity than your most bloody enemies would have done. Show me a king who will conduct me to the felicity to which I aspire; such a king! long to obey. Such a king is the King Messiah. You want knowledge: He is the Counsellor. You want reconciliation with God: He is the Prince of Peace. You need support under the calamities of this life: He is the Mighty God. You have need of one to comfort you under the fears of death, by opening the gates of eternal felicity to you: He is the Father of Eternity. (J. Saurin.)
Titles of Christ
I. THE NAMES AND TITLES OF THIS WONDERFUL CHILD.
II. FOR WHOM HE WAS BORN.
III. THE PREROGATIVE, WHICH IS PREDICTED IN OUR TEXT RESPECTING THIS CHILD, namely, that the government shall be upon His shoulder.
1. In the Revelation the Church is figuratively represented under the similitude of a woman, and this woman is represented as bringing forth a man-child, who should rule all nations with a rod of from The same may be said of the Child whose birth is foretold in our text. All power is committed to Him in heaven and on earth; and God’s language respecting Him is, I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. This kingdom, which is usually styled Christ’s mediatorial kingdom, includes all beings in heaven and hell, who will all, either willingly or by constraint, finally submit to Christ; for God has sworn by Himself that to Christ every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess Him Lord. He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Agreeably, our text informs us, that of the increase of His government there will be no end. He will go on conquering and to conquer.
2. But in addition to this mediatorial kingdom of Christ, which is set up in the world, He has another kingdom, the kingdom of His grace, which is set up in the hearts of His people. This kingdom consists in righteousness and peace and holy joy, and of the increase of this kingdom also and of the peace which accompanies it, there shall be no end. This kingdom is compared to leaven hid in meal till the whole be leavened. Even in heaven there shall be no end to the increase of His people’s happiness. Thus of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Christ presented to mankind sinners
It is “to us,” the sons and daughters of Adam; we are His poor relations; and to us as His poor relations on earth, sons of Adam’s family, whereof He is the top branch, this Child is presented born, for our comfort in our low state.
I. WHAT IS PRESUPPOSED IN THIS PRESENTING OF CHRIST AS A BORN CHILD.
1. His birth was expected and looked for.
2. Christ is now born. He was really born; a little Child, though the Mighty God; an Infant, not one day old, though the Everlasting Father.
3. Some have been employed to present this Child to the friends and relations; and they are still about the work.
(1) The Holy Spirit.
(2) Ministers.
4. This Child is actually presented to us on His birth.
II. TO WHOM IS CHRIST PRESENTED?
1. Not to the fallen angels.
2. To mankind sinners, those of the house of His father Adam.
(1) Embrace Him, with old Simeon, in the arms of faith.
(2) Kiss the Son, receiving Him as your Lord and King and God.
III. HOW IS CHRIST PRESENTED?
1. In the preaching of the Gospel.
2. In the administration of the sacraments.
3. In the internal work of saving illumination.
IV. WHAT IS THE IMPORT OF HIS BEING PRESENTED TO US?
1. Our special concern in His birth--as the birth of a Saviour to us.
2. Our relation to Him. Sinners of mankind have a common relation to Christ.
(1) In respect of the nature He assumed. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Ephesians 5:30).
(2) In respect of His office--the Saviour of the world.
3. An owning of our relation to Him. “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11).
4. The comfortableness of His birth to us. Children are presented on their birth to their relations, for their comfort; and so is Christ to sinners of mankind.
V. WHEREFORE IS CHRIST PRESENTED TO US ON HIS BIRTH?
1. That we may see the faithfulness of God in the fulfilling of His promise.
2. That we may rejoice in Him.
3. That we may look on Him, see His glory, and be taken with Him John 1:14).
4. That we may acknowledge Him in the character in which He appears as the Saviour of the world and our Saviour. (T. Boston.)
A prophecy of Christ
I. WE SHALL VIEW THESE PROPHETIC APPELLATIONS, IN THEIR APPLICATION TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AS EXPOUNDING TO US HIS NATURE AND WORK, AND RECEIVING THEIR FULLEST REALISATION IN HIM. They are not mere empty names, assumed for the purposes of pomp and impression, but appropriate descriptions of living realities. When it is said, “His name shall be called,” the meaning is that He shall be such, for in the Hebrew language “to be called” and “to be” frequently mean the same thing. Every name He bears is the Divine exponent of a corresponding attribute, or office, or work, and so it is here.
1. He is the Wonderful. The proper idea conveyed by this appellation is something miraculous, and it means that the great Personage to whom it is here applied, in His nature and works, would be distinguished by supernatural qualities and deeds, would be raised above the ordinary course and laws of nature, and would stand out before angels and men as a unique and splendid miracle. In this sense, it applies with great force and accuracy to the Redeemer, and to Him alone.
2. He is the Counsellor.
(1) This appellation points to Christ, not as a Counsellor among others, but as Counsellor, Counsellor in the abstract, the great Counsellor of the vast universe, one of the glorious persons in the Godhead, who was concerned in all the acts and counsels of past eternity. Hence the Septuagint translates it, “the Angel of the mighty counsel”; and the Chaldee, “the God of the wonderful counsel.”
(2) As “the Counsellor,” He directs and instructs His people in all their temporal, spiritual, and eternal concerns; if He did not do so, they would soon be involved in disorder and ruin.
(3) And He is “the Counsellor,” inasmuch as He is the Advocate of His people, and has carried their cause into the high court of heaven
3. He is “the Mighty God”; an appellation impressively sublime, which no serious mind can approach without feeling the most profound reverence and awe. It naturally and obviously denotes a person possessing a Divine nature.
4. He is “the Everlasting Father,” or, “the Father of Eternity.” The emphasis of this appellation is not on the word “father,” but on the word “eternity.” It was customary among those who spoke and wrote the Hebrew language, to call a person who possessed a thing, the “father” of it: hence, a strong man was called “the father of strength”; a wise man, “the father of wisdom’”; a wealthy man, “the father of riches”; and so on. Now, the phrase, “the Father of Eternity,” seems to be here applied to Christ in a similar way--He possessed eternity, and, therefore, He is called the Father of it. It is a Hebraism of great poetic strength and beauty, employed to express duration--the duration of His being--the essential eternity of His existence past and future--and, perhaps, there could not be a more emphatic declaration of His right to this wonderful attribute of the Deity, strict, proper, and independent eternity of being.
5. He is the “Prince of Peace.” This appellation seems intended to teach us, that the Messiah would be invested with the prerogatives and honours of royalty, and that His kingdom, in its essential laws and principles, would differ from all the kingdoms of men, past, ,present, and future. While other kings were despots and warriors, He would be peaceable Prince. While other kingdoms were acquired by physical violence and force, and were cemented with human tears and blood, His would consist in righteousness, peace, and joy, and would win its way among men by the inherent power of its own excellence, would gradually terminate war and conflict, and restore love and order to the whole earth. But His reign was to achieve higher ends still, for it was to establish peace between man and his own conscience, between man and all good beings, between man and all the physical and moral laws of the universe, and between man and his insulted and offended Maker. Hence, prophecy foretold that, in His days there should be abundance of peace; that, in His reign, justice and mercy should meet together, righteousness and peace Should embrace each other; that the chastisement of our peace should be on Him; that He should be the peace; and that, of the increase of His peace there should be no end.
II. PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. Hold fast the divinity of Christ.
2. How great is the sin and how fearful is the condition of those who reject the Saviour. He is “the Wonderful”--the admired of God, of angels, and of saints; and yet He has no attractions for you. He is “the Counsellor”; and yet you never “wait for His counsel,” but follow your own vain imaginations. He is “the Mighty God”; and yet you trample on His authority, defy His power, and risk His awful displeasure. He is “the Father of Eternity”; and yet you seek no place in His heavenly family, and are in imminent danger of being forever banished from His presence, and the glory of His power. He is “the Prince of Peace”; and yet you voluntarily live in a state of hostility to Him and His kingdom, and refuse to be reconciled by the blood of His Cross.
3. How secure and happy is the state of believers. (W. Gregory.)
The nurses and titles of the Messiah
I. The first description that is here given of the Redeemer is in these words--UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN. This may denote either the infancy of His state, when He appeared in our world, or the reality of His human nature.
1. With regard to the infancy of His state, the apostle says, it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.
2. With regard to the reality of His human nature, the Scripture assures us, that it was of the same kind with ours, consisting of a human body and a human soul.
II. The next description of our Redeemer is in these words--UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN. is spoken of His Divine nature. He is often called in Scripture the Son of God, His own Son, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, and as such is said to be given to us. A son always means one, not of an inferior, but of the same nature as his father.
III. It is added, THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER. Taken in its most extensive sense, the government of our Lord extends over all The whole universe is under His dominion. But what we are chiefly to understand here is the kingdom of grace, the administration of mercy, the government of which in a peculiar manner is intrusted to Him. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven were phrases familiar to the Jews, by which they always understood the Messiah’s kingdom. The immediate design of erecting this kingdom on earth is the salvation of believers, of the guilty race of men. All parts of the universe are concerned in this glorious design. The angels of heaven rejoice in it, and are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. The powers of darkness unite their force to disappoint the hopes of the heirs of this kingdom, but in vain; the King of Zion has bound them in chains of darkness, and will turn their malicious designs to their greater condemnation. All men do not indeed submit to the laws of this government, but all are nevertheless the lawful subjects of it. But the Redeemer has also many voluntary subjects. The right of Jesus to His mediatorial kingdom is founded upon promise, conquest, and purchase, even the price of His own precious blood; and we have the utmost assurances in His Word, which cannot fail, that He will one day take to Himself His great power and reign in a more illustrious and extensive manner than He has yet done.
IV. The next thing asserted of the Redeemer is, HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL. And the Redeemer is indeed Wonderful.
1. In the constitution of His person, as Immanuel, God in our nature.
2. The preparations for His birth, and the manner and circumstances of it, were also wonderful.
3. Jesus was also wonderful in His life.
4. And in His death.
5. And in His rising from the grave, and in His ascension to heaven.
V. The next title which the Redeemer has, is that of COUNSELLOR. He is fully instructed in the counsels of God the Father, for He lay in His bosom from eternity; and as the execution of the plans of the Divine administration is committed to Him, He cannot but be well acquainted with them. Besides, our Lord, by His office and appointment, is the great Counsellor or Prophet of the Church.
VI. He is also THE MIGHTY God. The same expression is used in chap.
10:21 concerning Jehovah, the God of Israel. All the perfections of theMighty God are ascribed to the Redeemer in Scripture. And worship, which only belongs to the Mighty God, is given to Christ.
VII. The next thing asserted of our Redeemer is, that He is THE EVERLASTING FATHER. The LXX renders these words, the Father of the world to come, or final dispensation of mercy and grace, as the Gospel is often called. And Christ may be called so--
1. As He has chosen His people, in His eternal purpose, that they might be sharers in His bliss and glory.
2. Christ is the Father of all true believers, in a spiritual sense. They are all His spiritual seed. The great outlines of His features are drawn upon them, and when they arrive at heaven, they shall attain to the likeness of Jesus in an eminent degree.
VIII. The last thing asserted of the Redeemer is, that He is THE PRINCE OF PEACE. Melchisedec was an eminent type of the Son of God, in this respect. He was King of Salem, which is by interpretation, King of Peace. And peace is the disposition for which the Saviour was renowned; the blessing which He died to purchase, and lives to bestow. Conclusion:
1. What an honour did the great and mighty God, our Saviour, put upon our nature by taking it into a personal union with His own Divine nature!
2. We may see from hence, how well the Redeemer was qualified for His office. What arm so powerful to save as that of the Mighty God?
3. What a fund of consolation does this passage of Scripture exhibit!
4. This subject speaks terror to the wicked.
5. We ought to entertain adoring and admiring thoughts of the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. (J. Ross, D. D.)
The Incarnation
I. We are led to inquire, HOW OUR SAVIOUR BECAME INCARNATE AND TOOK OUR MORTAL NATURE UPON HIM. Before Christ could become incarnate, He would have to lay aside His glory--the glory, Christ took a human soul, took our humanity upon Him, together with our form, and was made in the likeness of man. Nevertheless, Christ is not, and was not, two persons, but one.
II. We have now to inquire WHY CHRIST BECAME INCARNATE. To say that Christ died to save sinners is true enough, but it is not the whole truth. The question we have to answer is this: Why Christ became a man? He came to nave, but why not in another form?
1. To take away the consequences of the fall, to raise man to a higher estate even than he originally possessed, to save him from eternal ruin, and vindicate the love and wisdom which made man originally righteous, but not immaculate or impeccable, it was necessary for the Son of God to become the Son of Man, and to acknowledge a human parent; to “bear our griefs and carry our sorrows” (Hebrews 2:9-18). For only as a man could He undo the evil which man had brought upon himself; only as one of those He came to save, could Christ perform what man had left undone.
2. Moreover, Christ came to fulfil God’s law, and that for us, though not to supersede our obedience. That law was designed for man, and alone in the form of man could Christ obey it. And having fulfilled His own broken law on their behalf to whom He had given it, He is enabled to help them to observe and do it. By His perfect obedience He has become our Pattern, and has procured and purchased for us the strength to enable us to walk in the steps of His most holy life.
3. In the next place, by assuming our nature, Christ is enabled to sympathise with us.
4. Again, it was necessary for Christ to become man in order to reveal His Father to us. Men, untaught by the Spirit of God, are apt to think that God is altogether such as themselves. Such we find was the case with the heathen philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome; if they taught otherwise, they taught in vain.
5. Christ also became man to make us love God, for to know Him is to love Him.
6. Christ became man to unite man to God. (G. E. Watkins.)
The Child born: the Son given
I. THE PROMISED SAVIOUR IS DESCRIBED IN HIS HUMAN NATURE. “Unto us a Child is born.” Having respect to the connection of the passage, and to the object for which the announcement is made, we feel that it is impossible to look on at the birth of this Child that was predicted, without seeing that a greater than one born of woman is there.
1. Still the main object of the first clause of the verse is, undoubtedly, to show forth that human nature in which He was to be manifested in order that He might do the work of salvation for His people. To be born is as truly the evidence and characteristic of humanity as to die. Not less in the simple but impressive fact of His birth of a human mother, than in the fact of His dying a human death, do we recognise the proof of our oneness with the Son of God in the same nature.
2. And why was it necessary for the hope and consolation of those whom He came to redeem, that they should be taught by the prophet that the Redeemer must be one with them in their very nature; and that the Eternal Son of God should be born of a woman?
(1) It was necessary that the Son of God should be made man, because otherwise He could not have stood in man’s place and dealt with God on man’s behalf, nor suffered and died, as it was needful to suffer and die, in order to offer a true atonement for human guilt.
(2) It was necessary that the Son of God should become man in order that He might be qualified to enter into our human feelings and fears, and to furnish us with a pledge of His sympathy in all our infirmities and temptations.
II. We find the prophet in the second clause making reference to THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST. “Unto us a Son is given.” And this view of the Person of Christ, as the Son of God as well as the Son of man, is not less necessary than the truth of His proper humanity to furnish a ground of hope and consolation to the Church of God in coming to Hun as a suitable and all-sufficient Redeemer.
III. But passing from the description of Christ’s Person, the prophet next proceeds to give an account of the OFFICE WHICH BELONGS TO HIM, and which He executes as the Saviour. “The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Borrowing its language from ancient customs, it is quite plain that the statement of the prophet contains in substance a declaration that the predicted Deliverer, whose advent was to shed light and blessedness on those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, was to exercise a supreme and unlimited authority, and to employ this authority for accomplishing the great purpose for which He was born as a Child and given as a Son.
1. In the case of believers--i.e., of those who are already subjects of Christ’s kingdom--it is a blessed privilege for them to be assured that He reigns, alone and supreme, in the world and the Church.
2. On the other hand, in the case of mere nominal professors, such a truth, if in any degree realised, is fitted to fill them with anxiety and dispeace. (J. Bannerman, D. D.)
The predicted names of Christ
In interpreting the peculiar language employed, it is impossible to enter into its true significance without remembering that in ancient times, and more especially in the practice of the Jews, names had oftentimes, when applied to individuals, a significance which they have not when given, as among ourselves, upon no principle except family custom or personal preference. Among the Jews especially, they were often selected and given on the ground of some peculiarity in the circumstances or character of the person named; so that they ceased to be empty and arbitrary signs of the parties thus designated, and became truly descriptive of something in their history or condition. It is in this way that the name of God Himself is used as a synonym for the character of God Exodus 23:21; Exodus 34:5-7; Proverbs 18:10). And it is in this way, undoubtedly, that we are to understand the language of the prophet when he tells us, in refer once to the coming Deliverer, that “His name shall be called, Wonderful,” etc. (J. Bannerman, D. D.)
The great Deliverer
I. THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST’S PERSON. He is the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God.
II. THE DEPTH OF HIS LOVE. He is born unto us a Child--given unto us a Son.
III. THE SUCCESS OF HIS UNDERTAKING. He is become the Father of the everlasting age--the Prince of Peace.
IV. HIS TITLE TO OUR OBEDIENCE. The government is on His shoulder. (G. Innes.)
The nativity of Christ
I. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH’S BIRTH by the prophet.
1. The Person announced.
2. The terms of the announcement. Not for angel, nor for archangel, was the mighty scheme devised; it is for the human race--for man though rebel of his God; for man ruined and desolated by sin.
3. The confidence with which this announcement is made, as immediately taking place. “To us a Child is born; to us a Son is given.” Faith pierces the vista of time, and beholds events, anticipated hundreds of years before, the birth of that glorious Redeemer who was slain from the foundation of the world; which had been promised by the word and oath of Jehovah Himself; and who, therefore, in the fulness of time should assuredly be granted.
II. THE OFFICE AND THE TITLES WHICH THE SAVIOUR SHOULD ASSUME. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
The child Jesus
I. HIS INCARNATION.
II. HIS EMPIRE.
III. HIS NAMES. (W. Jay.)
The message of hope
To us, as we begin to wonder whether the entire movement of human life is not by some evil inspiration gone after a false scent, taken some terrible misdirection, shut itself up in a blind path that arrives at no goal and has no out way; to us, so heavily laden and so entangled, so fondly hoping; to us, as we walk on still in darkness and seem entering the very shadow of death; to us this Child is born, to us a Son is given,--a Child who shall be the issue, the justification, the consummation of all the long and weary story; a Son who is Himself the goal of our pilgrimage, the fulfilment of our imperfections, the crown of our endurance, the honour of our service, the glory of our building. There, in this Son of God, is an offer made by God, by which He will justify all suffering, retrieve all failure, redeem all fault; He gives us, in Him, an end for which to live. Here is His mind; here is His plan for us--for us, not only in our simple individual troubles and worries, but for us in the mass, as a race, as a society, as a civilisation. God has a scheme, an issue prepared for which He worketh hitherto, and that issue is His Son. In Him all will be gathered in and fulfilled, and “the government shall be upon His shoulder,” “of His kingdom there shall he no end, His name shall be called Wonderful, the Mighty Counsellor, the Prince of Peace.” And in the power of this message we are told not to faint or fail. (Canon H. Scott-Holland.)
A Christmas question
The principal object is to bring out the force of those two little words, “unto us.”
I. IS IT SO?
1. If this Child is born to you, then you are born again. “But,” saith one, “how am I to know whether I am born again or not?”
(1) Has there been a change effected by Divine grace within you?
(2) Has there been a change in you in the exterior?
(3) The very root and principle of thy life must become totally new.
2. If this Child is born to you, you are a child; and the question arises, are you so? Man grows from childhood up to manhood naturally; in grace men grow from manhood down to childhood, and the nearer we come to true childhood, the nearer we come to the image of Christ.
3. If this Son is given to you, you are a son yourself.
4. If unto us a Son is given, then we are given to the Son. Are you given up to Christ?
II. IF IT IS SO, WHAT THEN? If it is so, why am I doubtful today? Why are we sad! Why are our hearts so cold?
III. IF IT IS NOT SO, WHAT THEN?
1. Confess thy sins.
2. Renounce thyself.
3. Go to the place where Jesus died in agony. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the Revealer of God and the Asserter of man
I. Christ took to Himself human flesh to furnish us with AN EXHIBITION OF THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD.
II. The incarnation of Jesus is also A STUPENDOUS DISCOVERY OF WHAT MAN IS IN HIS HEAVENLY IDEAL AND HIS MORAL DESTINY. (A. Maclennan, M. A.)
“Unto us”
As if Heaven would underline the words to catch the eye, as if it were the keynote of its love, and should be the keynote of our song of praise, the words are twice repeated--“Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” (A. Maclennan, M. A.)
The nativity
I. THE SUBJECT OR MATTER OF THE BLESSING. “A Child,” “a Son.”
II. THE MANNER OF ITS CONVEYANCE. “Born, given.”
III. OUR INTEREST IN IT. “Unto us,” in our behalf all this, and to our benefit and advantage. (A. Littleton, D. D.)
Redemption from within humanity
This promise of a Deliverer has lit up the march of all human generations; it has been the fountain of the fairest gleams which have crossed the darkness of the heathen world. And it is out of the bosom of Humanity that the Redeemer must be born--the Christ must be the human Child. The essential point lies here--redemption is not a process wrought by the right hand of power, so to speak, from without; the act of a Being of almighty power, who, seeing man in desperate extremity through sin and frustrating utterly the purposes and preparations of Heaven, stooped to lay hold on him, to lift him out of the abyss in which he was sinking, sad to place him by a sovereign act on a foundation where he might rest in safety, and work and grow. It is from within the bosom of humanity that the redemption is to be wrought which is to save humanity. It is by the outward sad upward pressure of a life which is truly and fully human, which has buried its Divine force in the very heart’s core of our nature, and is “bone of our bones, and flesh of our flesh,” that man is to be lifted to the levels which are above the sphere of tears and death forever. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Christ’s birthday
Christ’s birthday has been a day through all ages so solemn and sacred, that Justin Martyr, a father and saint of the second century, calls it ἡ βασίλισσα ἡμερα, the Queen day in the calendar. We do not owe this solemnity then to the rubric of the Roman Church. (A. Littleton, D. D.)
The need for the incarnation
Man can suffer, but he cannot satisfy; God can satisfy, but He cannot suffer; but Christ, being both God and man, can both suffer and satisfy too; and so is perfectly fit both to suffer for man and to make satisfaction unto God--to reconcile God to man, and man to God. (Bishop Beveridge.)
Human redemption by the Divine man
The humanisation of God is the divinisation of man. (Novalis.)
The preparation of the world for Christ
A few generations before the Advent the word would have been meaningless. Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, freeman and slave, were terms full of meaning; but “man,” what could that mean? Even Aristotle found it hard to discover a common term which would cover the life of the freeman and the slave. But as the hour of the Advent, “the fulness of the time,” approached, through a very wonderful chain of agencies and influences, in the linking together of which the Hand which guided the culture of the Jewish people to the fulfilment of the primal promise is very palpably manifest, the idea of a common human nature, with common attributes, common sympathies, needs, and interests, and capable of a common life, the life of the universal human society, began to haunt the minds of men. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
The world into which Christ was born
Here are two very distinct features of human development during the ages which preceded the Advent of the Lord. Men were feeling after the ground and the conditions of a universal human society; and they were searching for the bask and the law of personal conduct, as beings endowed with moral and intellectual faculties which might be a rich blessing or a terrible curse to them and to man kind. To this point humanity had progressed, moved from within, led from on High. Was the higher progress possible to heathen society! Was there power in heathenism to lift man into this sphere of universal brotherhood, and, to expound the mystery of his being and destiny! None, absolutely none. Heathen society, with all its brilliant civilisation, was utterly, hopelessly exhausted. The Lord was born into a world of wreck. But for Christ all must have perished. The world which the Lord came to save was groaning beneath the wrecks of most of the most hopeful political, philosophical, and religious efforts and achievements of mankind. And yet there had been splendid progress. Man’s life was enlarged in every direction but the highest. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Christ the Revealer of God
“Seek fellowship with Zeus,” cried Epictetus, in a last, eager, desperate appeal Alas! it was the Zeus that was wanting; and to find Him Epictetus must pass on his disciples to a higher school. There was a yearning for God, for personal fellowship with God, for personal likeness to God, unknown to the older ages; marking a grand advance in the aspiration and effort of the noblest and most far-seeing spirits. “But who is the Zeus, the god of whom you talk, that may believe on Him,” was the cry which grew more hopeless and agonising generation by generation; to which tradition had no answer, to which philosophy had no answer, to which religion had no answer; to which no answer was possible until One stood on the earth and said, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,” Then man began to look up and live. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Christ the new life of humanity
When that Child was born to humanity, when that Son took His place by its hearth fire, a new life entered into the world. That age of the Advent is very manifestly the age in which some transcendently stimulating, quickening influence penetrated the life of men, and began to make all things new; than the old civilisation decayed, the new power reorganised and restored. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Important births
Now and then a birth occurs of such momentous portent to man, that men are constrained by the influences which proceed from it to fix it in memory, and give to its anniversary fitting commemoration. There are births which are like the introduction of new forces and energies into human society, which pour the current of their power down through the ages with ever-widening and deepening volume. When Confucius was born, half of the human race had a father and a teacher given them. When Moses was born, not only a few millions of slaves found a deliverer, but the great underlying, eternal principles of morality and piety found a spokesman. With Socrates, Greece had given to her the opportunity of goodness. With Caesar came into human history the embodiment of ambition. The birth of Wilberforce was the beginning of a philanthropic education to Christendom. Howard demonstrated that the extremest feelings of a kindly humanity were practical and serviceable to society. With Washington came to mankind the ideal of unselfish patriotism; while Lincoln embodied the first century of the American Republic. These were noted men, extraordinary beings; and the names of these are all memorable. Their names have passed into history, and remain as certainly fixed as the stars beaming in the sky; and, like the stars, their glory is abundant to attract unto them the observation of men. When the date of their birth, or the supposed date of their birth, is reached, as with the movement of time we swing round the circuit of the year, men instinctively pause; thought is quickened; the depths of gratitude are stirred with benign remembrance; and thanksgiving naturally ascends unto God, who has given unto men, unto them and theirs, such a beneficent gift. (W. H. Murray.)
Christmas celebrates a personality
Wherever you find love, you find a personal being connected with it as its object, We do not love motherhood, we love mother. We do not love family government, we love the persons who compose the family. We do not love theology, we love God of whom it treats. We commemorate today, therefore--not the birth of a system, but the birth of a man. It is a sweet and innocent babe, and not a collection of doctrines, in praise of whom our songs are sung today, and unto whom our hearts are lifted in holy gladness. (W. H. Murray.)
Jesus had universal connections
We celebrate the birth of a man with universal connections; you and I were born connected with but a few. A little group absorbed us, and a little spot bounded us within its limits. Other men, of larger mould than we, were born with larger connections. The chief is connected with his tribe at his birth; the king with his kingdom; the patriot and leader with his country or party; the priest with his Church. Around all these walls are builded, over which they never pass until death lifts them above the local, and multiplies their associations. But Christ was born with universal connections. His little family did not absorb Him. He was not the son of Mary and Joseph, He was the son of humanity; He was the Son of Man the world over. (W. H. Murray.)
Jesus meets universal wants
The reason that Christ had these universal connections was because He came to assist men in reference to those conditions of want that are universal. In Him the perfect constitution had organisation. In feeling, in thinking, in suffering and gladness, in mourning and joy, in every capacity which men have, in every condition in which men stand, He was akin to them. From every bosom a sympathetic chord ran up into His, and He could, therefore, sense the needs of every bosom. He sympathised with every phase of humanity, because His humanity was perfect enough in its sensitiveness to be intelligent with every phase. (W. H. Murray.)
An infant’s birth a great event
The birth of any infant is a far greater event than the production of the sun. The sun is only a lump of senseless matter: it sees not its own light; it feels not its own heat; and, with all its grandeur, it will cease to be: but that infant beginning only to breathe yesterday, is possessed of reason--claims a principle infinitely superior to all matter--and will live through the ages of eternity! (W. Jay.)
A Christmas day sketch
I. GOD CAME TO US IN THAT CHILD. His parents were instructed to call Him “Immanuel”--“God with us.” Such a fact is big with meaning; pregnant with vital, jubilant truth. Why did God come to us thus in a babe? He must have had some wise and loving purpose that He wished to secure thereby. What For ages men had been taught to fear God, their thoughts of Him filled them with dismay; hence the gods of the heathen nations. The large body of the Jewish nation was not much in advance of the heathen. This dread of God was universal. To correct all such ideas, and remove all such feelings from the minds and hearts of men forever, God came to us as a child. Are you afraid of a babe?
II. GOD CAN COME TO US IN THE SMALLEST THINGS. We generally look for God in the great, vast, mighty, terrible. We expect something to strike the eye, etc. Will you remember that God came to us in that quiet, loving, unpretending babe, that lay in that, manager and nestled in His mother’s bosom? And so God comes to us in the little, simple, humble, noiseless, common things of life, if we only look for Him. Especially He comes to us in our children. They bring love with them, and “love is of God,” etc. We might in a far higher sense than we think for call every child “Immanuel.” In our child God comes to us, God is with us. Do we believe this? If so, should we not oftener look for and educate the God in them? We should do far better with them if from the beginning we sought to bring out, nourish, educate, develop the good, the God that is in them, instead of making it our chief concern to correct the wrong, to restrain the evil.
III. THE WHOLE OF LIFE IS SACRED AND SHOULD BE CONSECRATED TO GOD. God came to us in that Child. The whole of life is sacred, open for the operations, possession, enjoyment of God. God was in that Child notwithstanding all its infantile wants, weaknesses, complaints. And so God was in that boy, notwithstanding all His playfulness and vivacity. Indeed, that was the boyish, outward manifestation of God; the boyish way of declaring God’s glory If God was in that Child, “God manifest in the flesh,” His whole life, from His birth to His death, was God life.
IV. GREAT ENDINGS HAVE LITTLE BEGINNINGS. Who shall measure the magnitude, height, depth, length, breadth of the work which Christ accomplished as Saviour of the world? Yet it has all to be traced back to the birth of that Child. God’s method is evolution from the small to the great. (B. Preece.)
The Child Divine
Pure Christianity owes its power to the fact that it comes to us as a little child, beautiful in innocence and simplicity. The pure spirit of Christianity is the essence of kindness. Christianity owes its power to its spirit of gentleness. Christianity is forgiving like a little child. Christianity, however, like a little child, is often misunderstood. Alas! that Christianity should be hated, by some people. Not only did Herod seek its life eighteen hundred years ago, but there are men today who, Herod-like, seek to strangle the infant Christ. (W. Birch.)
Unto us a Son is given
Christ, the Son of God, gifted to sinners
I. THE GIFT ITSELF. Many precious gifts have come from heaven to earth, yea, all we have is Heaven’s gift (James 1:17). But this is the great gift.
1. What this gift is.
(1) A Person. Persons are more excellent than things. A soul is more precious than a world. So this gift is more precious than the whole world.
(2) A Divine Person.
(3) The Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Wherein this gift appears and comes to us. Those who send precious gifts to others, wrap them up in something that is less precious. And a treasure sent in earthen vessels is the method of conveyance of the best gifts from heaven to earth. The Son of God, being the gift, was sent veiled and wrapped up in our nature. This veil laid over the gift sent to poor sinners was
(1) less precious than the gift itself. The human nature of Christ was a crested thing, His Divine nature uncreated.
(2) However, it was a cleanly thing. The human nature of Christ, though infinitely below the dignity of His Divine nature, yet was a holy thing Luke 1:35). This gift appeared and was sent to us in the veil of the human nature--
(a) that it might be capable of the treatment it behoved to undergo for our relief--to suffer and die;
(b) that it might be suited to the weakness of the capacity of the receivers. The Son of God in His unveiled glory would have no more been an object for our eyes to have looked on, than the shining sun to the eyes of an owl. A few rays of His glory, breaking out from under me veil, made His enemies fall to the ground.
3. What a gift this is. Singular for
(1) the worth of it. If it were laid in the balance with ten thousand worlds, they would be lighter than vanity in comparison of it; nay, balanced with the gift of created graces, and the created heavens, it would down weigh them; as the bridegroom’s person is more worth than his jewels and palace.
(2) The suitableness of it (Acts 4:12; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 5:12).
(3) The seasonableness of it.
(4) The comprehensiveness of it (Romans 8:32; Colossians 2:9-10; 1 John 5:11).
(5) The unrestricted freeness of it. What is freer than a gift? The joint stock of the whole world could not have purchased this gift.
(a) Beware of slighting this gift.
(b) Take heed ye miss not to perceive this gift. Most men see no further into the mystery of Christ than the outward appearance it makes in the world, as administered in the Word, sacraments, etc.; and they despise it.
(c) Admire the wisdom of God, and His infinite condescension, in the manner of the conveyance of this gift.
(d) See here how you may be enriched for time and eternity.
II. THE GIVER.
1. Who is the Giver? God. And to exalt the Giver’s free love and grace herein, observe from the Word three things there marked about it.
(1) It was His own Son that He gave.
(2) It was His beloved Son.
(3) It was His only-begotten Son.
2. What has He given sinners, gifting His Son to them? The tongues of men and angels cannot fully express this.
(1) He has given them Himself.
(2) Eternal life. Here is legal life, moral life, a life of comfort; and all eternal.
(3) All things (Rom 8:32; 1 Corinthians 3:21; Romans 8:17; Revelation 21:7).
III. THE PARTY TO WHOM HE IS GIVEN.
1. To whom He is given. To mankind sinners indefinitely.
2. In what respects Christ is given to them.
(1) In respect of allowance to take Him.
(2) In respect of legal destination (1 John 4:14). If ye had an act of parliament appointing a thing for you, ye would not question its being given you; here ye have more.
(3) In respect of real offer.
(4) In respect of the freeness of the offer.
(5) In respect of exhibition. This gift is held forth as with the hand, God saying, He, sinners, here is My Son, take Him. And God doth not stay the exhibiting of His Son to sinners till they say they will take Him.
3. In what character Christ is given to sinners, A Saviour; a surety; a physician; a light; an atoning sacrifice; a crowned King, mighty to destroy the kingdom of Satan and to rescue mankind sinners, his captives and prisoners.
IV. APPLICATION.
1. Believe that to us poor sinners the Son of God in man’s nature is given.
2. Receive the gift of Christ, at His Father’s hand.
(1) Consider ye have an absolute need of this gift.
(2) Them are some who have as much need as you, to whom yet He is not given, namely, the fallen angels.
(3) Ye must either receive or refuse.
(4) Consider the worth of the gift
(5) Consider the Hand it comes from.
(6) Consider that others before you have received it, and have been made up by it forever.
(7) Consider that this gift will not always be for the taking as it is now.
(8) Your not receiving will be very heinously taken, as a deepest slight put upon both the Giver and the gift
(9) It will set you at greater distance from God than ever. (T. Boston.)
The Son given
I. WHO IS THE SON GIVEN AND WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE? It is our Lord Jesus Christ. The verse begins with His humanity; and, mounting upwards, it rises to the height of His Divinity. The prophet conducts us to Bethlehem and its stable, to the desert and its hunger, to the well and its thirst, to the workshop and its daily toil, to the sea and its midnight storm, to Gethsemane and its bloody sweat, to Calvary and its ignominious death, and all along that thorny path that stretched from the manger to the Cross; for in announcing the birth and coming of this Son and Child, he included in that announcement the noble purposes for which He was horn--His work, His sufferings, His life, His death, all the grand ends for which the Son was given and the Child was born.
II. BY WHOM WAS THIS SON GIVEN? By His Father. Man has his remedies, but they are always behindhand. The disease antedates the cure. But before the occasion came God was ready. Redemption was planned in the councils of eternity, and Satan’s defeat secured before his first victory was won. The Son gave Himself, but the Father gave Him; and there is no greater mistake than to regard God as looking on at redemption as a mere spectator, to approve the sacrifice and applaud the actor. God’s love was the root, Christ’s death the fruit.
III. TO WHOM WAS HE GIVEN? He was given “to us.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The advent of Jesus joy producing
A poor little street girl was taken sick one Christmas and carried to a hospital. While there she heard the story of Jesus’ coming into the world to save us. It was all new to her, but very precious. She could appreciate such a wonderful Saviour, and the knowledge made her very happy as she lay upon her little cot. One day the nurse came around at the usual hour, and “Little Broomstick” (that was her street name) held her by the hand, and whispered: “I’m having real good times here--ever such good times! S’pose I shall have to go away from here just as soon as I get well; but I’ll take the good time along--some of it, anyhow. Did you know ‘bout Jesus bein’ born!” “Yes,” replied the nurse, “I know. Sh-sh-sh! Don’t talk any more.” “You did? I thought you looked as if you didn’t and I was goin’ to tell you.” “Why, how did I look?” asked the nurse, forgetting her own orders in curiosity. “Oh, just like most o’ folks--kind o’ glum. I shouldn’t think you’d ever look gloomy if you knowed ‘bout Jesus bein’ born.” (Faithful Witness.)
“The joyful quarter”
Part of the city of Florence was called “The Joyful Quarter.” It was through a picture painted by Cimbrie of Jesus as a baby seated on His mother’s knee. When finished, the grand old painter did not make a charge for people to see it, but had it carried into the poor quarters, and through the streets slowly, in the sight of all the people. Before this, they had thought of Jesus as far too grand for them to love. In this picture He looked so sweet and good that people broke into surprised thankfulness and joy. (Sunday Magazine.)
A son and a brother
A respectable family becomes very reduced in its circumstances; the mother finds it difficult to make the meagre provision suffice for her hungry little ones; their clothes get more ragged; the father’s threadbare coat makes it less and less possible for him to obtain the situation which his qualifications deserve. But a child is born into that home, quite unlike the rest of the children--beautiful in feature, quick in intelligence, winsome, gifted, spirituelle. As he grows up, he manifests unusual powers; rapidly distances his compeers; passes from the elementary school to the college, and thence to the university. Presently tidings begin to come back of his success, his growing fame, his prizes, the assured certainty of his becoming a great man; and as they arrive in letter, and rumour, and newspaper, the mother’s eye gets brighter; the father no longer evades the associates of earlier days; the home becomes better furnished and the table better spread; the other children are better clothed and educated and put forward in life; and the one glad explanation of it all is found in the words, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” And as the years go on, whilst money pours in as a golden tide to the successful student, it will find its way increasingly to the family in the old home; and each member of it will reap the benefit of association with its child and son, all that is needed being to prove a distinct need, and to put in an appropriate claim. What a mine of wealth would be opened up in the counsel, strength, resources, influence, and position, of that beloved and trusted son and brother! This will illustrate the prophet’s thought. As the oppressed Jews, groaning in their brick kilns, were glad for Moses, given to lead them forth from the house of bondage; as England, travailing under the cruel exactions of the Danes, was glad for our great Alfred; as the Netherlands were glad when William the Silent arose to arrest the bloodthirsty rule of Alva; as Italy was glad when her Victor Emmanuel overthrew the dark misrule of the Papacy--so may we be glad because God has given Himself to us in Jesus. Why should living men complain? Granted that Adam was our father, the second Adam is the Son of Man. If tears and toil and pain and death have come by one, glory and honour and immortality are ours by the other. If we are sons, and therefore younger brothers of the Son; if we have the right to call His Father our Father, we gain from our association with Him more than enough to compensate us for our association with the gardener who stole his Master’s fruit in the garden of Paradise. Christian people do not enough appreciate this connection, or avail themselves of its benefits. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
And the government shall be upon His shoulder
Christ the universal Governor
I. JESUS CHRIST HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF HEAVEN. After He had triumphantly risen from the dead, and the time of His glorious ascension to heaven was at hand, He said unto His disciples, “All power is given unto Me in heaven,” meaning, that to Him, as the gracious and glorious Mediator between us sinners and God our heavenly Sovereign, all power in heaven was given. And hence the following great and gracious truths--
1. Jesus Christ is the only person who, principally and above all others, has power with God for us. “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
2. He is the only person by whom we can hope to obtain an entrance into heaven.
3. He has power in heaven to exclude, as well as to admit, whom He will.
4. He has power in heaven to provide mansions for His friends.
5. He has power in heaven over all the angels; He is their Lord, whom they worship and obey; He is exalted above all principalities and powers: the angels are His ministering spirits, whom He sends forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:6-14).
II. JESUS CHRIST HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF EARTH (Matthew 28:18).
1. He has power on earth to form and establish a Church to the glory and praise of God.
2. He has power on earth to keep His Church, through faith, unto final and full salvation.
3. He has power on earth over the wicked.
III. JESUS CHRIST HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF HELL. Satan, therefore, and the whole host of evil spirits, are under His command; and therefore their malice, their subtilty, and power, shall never prevail to the ruin of the weakest of His flock. Conclusion--
1. And first, we infer--What a glorious person is Jesus Christ! In defiance of all His enemies, He it is of whom the Father declares, “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Psalms 2:6).
2. How dignified, and secure, and happy, must they be who have Jesus Christ as their Governor, to whom they willingly yield themselves in all humble and affectionate submission and obedience.
3. The tremendous case of those who are strangers to Jesus Christ, and without God in the world. (E. Phillips.)
The government on Christ’s shoulder
As a people whose affairs are ruined have great need of an active and expert governor; so the government of such a people is a great burden Such a people are lost sinners, and with respect to them these words speak, two things--
1. The burden and weight of taking the management of their affairs.
2. Jesus Christ the person on whom this burden was laid. This is part of the glad tidings of the Gospel. (T. Boston.)
The government on Christ’s shoulder
I. THE OCCASION OF SETTING UP THIS PRINCE AND GOVERNOR. It was sinners’ absolute need.
1. Their first prince was gone, to manage their affairs no more. Adam their natural head mismanaged the government quite.
2. They were left in confusion, in the hand of the enemy Satan.
3. Their affairs were desperate. When the whole earth could not afford one, heaven gave sinners a Prince, of shoulders sufficient for the burden.
II. THE IMPORT OF THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT LAID ON JESUS CHRIST FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND-SINNERS. It speaks--
1. His near relation to them.
2. His eminency among them.
3. His honourable office over them.
4. His sovereign power and authority over them.
5. The burden of the care and duty belonging to the office and station.
III. THE HONOUR, POWER, AND AUTHORITY BELONGING TO THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT OF JESUS CHRIST.
1. The legislative power belongs to Him solely.
2. The supreme executive power is lodged with Him (John 5:22-23).
3. The power of granting remissions, receiving into peace with Heaven, pardoning and indemnifying criminals and rebels (Acts 5:31).
4. A large and vast dominion, reaching to earth, heaven, and hell, and the passage between the two worlds, namely, death (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18). In His hand is--
(1) The kingdom of grace. “And gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church.”
(2) The kingdom of glory (Luke 22:29-30).
(3) The kingdom of providence. “And hath put all things under His feet.”
IV. THE BURDEN OF THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT LAID ON CHRIST JESUS. It is seven fold.
1. The burden of the purchase of it.
2. The burden of a war with the devil for the recovering of it.
3. The burden of subduing sinners.
4. The burden of their reconciliation with Heave.
5. The burden of their defence and protection.
6. The burden of their provision in all things necessary for life and godliness.
7. The burden of the whole management and conduct of them through the wilderness, till they come to the heavenly Canaan.
V. IMPROVE THE DOCTRINE.
1. Information.
(1) Jesus Christ is the alone Head of His Church and supreme
Governor thereof.
(2) The interests of the Church and of every particular believer will certainly be seen to.
(3) Believers have all reason to be quietly resigned to the Divine disposal and to live in confidence of a blessed issue, whatever be the difficulties they have to grapple with, either in respect of the case of the Church or of their own private ease.
2. Exhortation.
(1) Receive Him as your Prince and Governor.
(a) Let His Spirit be your Guide and Leader.
(b) Let His Word be your rule.
(c) Let His will be the determining point to you.
And receive Him as Governor--
(a) Of your hearts and spirits. Let the proud heart be made to stoop to Him, let the covetous heart be purged by Him, and the vain foolish heart be made to find the weight of His awful authority. While Christ has not the government of thy heart, thou hast not given Him the throne.
(b) Of your tongues.
(c) Of your practice.
(2) Receive Him as the Prince and Governor of your lot and condition in the world, resigning the same to His disposal.
(a) Be content with the lot carved out for you.
(b) Never go out of God’s way to mend your condition.
(c) In all changes of your lot, acknowledge Him for direction and guidance. Take Him for your only Governor; your absolute Governor; your perpetual Governor. Take Him without delay; take Him heartily and willingly.
3. Motives.
(1) Consider what an excellent Prince and Governor He is. Perfectly just in His administration; infinitely wise; most vigilant and careful; most tender of His subjects and of all their interests.
(2) While ye are not under His government, ye are under the government of Satan.
(3) Jesus Christ is your rightful Prince and Governor.
(4) If ye submit not to Him, He will treat you as rebels, who have broken your faith and allegiance to Him, and cast off the yoke of His government. (T. Boston.)
The hope of Israel
I. THE HOPE OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE CONCERNING THEMSELVES AND THEIR RACE CENTERED IN A CHILD. As a general fact, how many of the world’s hopes and expectations have in all ages focussed in cradles. The children represent the hope of all generations.
II. Now the paradox of Jewish faith consisted in this--THAT IT FOCUSSED AT ONCE IN A CRADLE AND A THRONE; a Child and a King. Hence the birth in which that ancient hope found fulfilment was the birth of a King. The question of the wise men was grandly expressive. It centred alike in a Child and a King. “Where is He that is born King?”
1. At the very centre of the Jewish religion was the belief in kingship--a Divine kingdom or a theocracy. This great spiritual fact was symbolised by “the outward visible sign” of human kingship. But all human symbols are imperfect. Their kings died like other men. But their true King did not die. They sought to make the outward symbol of government as complete as possible; hence they adopted hereditary kingship. The human, and in this case, the Jewish heart is impatient of an interregnum. There is a feeling in man that the throne should at no period be empty. This feeling ever tends toward hereditary rule. The prophet points to a King to the increase of “whose government and peace there shall be no end.” It is a kingdom which knows of no interregnum. In contrast to all other kings and royal personages, who soon die and pass away, He ever lives.
2. It is such a king that the Jewish people yearned and looked for. Hence, when the wise men came with the question, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” it not only moved Herod, but all Jerusalem with him. The Jews looked eagerly for a king who should bear upon his shoulder the burden of perpetual government. This yearning for a king is one of the deepest in the heart of nations.
3. Alas! that when He came men did not recognise Him in the humble garb He wore. They placed a Cross upon the shoulder that was to bear the ensign of rule, and a crown of thorns upon His royal brow. Yet, all was well, for what could be a better ensign of His kingship than the Cross, since His is “the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,” and He is a “Prince and a Saviour.”
4. His sacred brow, too, bore the only crown which man could place there and He accept--a crown of thorns, symbol alike of our sin and misery and of His royalty who has overcome us by the might of His compassion, and become our King by the shedding of His blood. What becomes the brow of the Man of Sorrows and King of sorrowing humanity like crown of thorns? Our Lord exclaimed some time before His hour had come, “I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again.” He based His Kingly claim upon that two-fold power. It is from His Cross that He sways His sceptre over us.
5. The cradle predicts the Cross. Once God has condescended to touch the manger and the crib, we are prepared to see Him even touch the Cross and bearing it. There is no depth of condescension which He will not fathom, no height of self-sacrifice which He will not reach. The story of Divine love is harmonious throughout. We are not surprised that the great God who submitted himself to the humblest conditions of human birth should also, in the same spirit, endure the Cross, despising the shame.
6. This cradle, too, is prophetic of the Gospel, in which so much that is weak and human is linked to so much that is strong and Divine, namely, man’s voice uttering God’s message, earthly forms and ordinances conveying heavenly energies, human swaddling clothes enveloping a Divine life. (D. Davies.)
The government upon Christ’s shoulder
I. I would offer a few thoughts concerning THE CHURCH OR KINGDOM OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD.
1. By the Church I understand that remnant of Adam’s family who, being determined to break their covenant with hell, and their agreement with death, join themselves to Christ, as their Prophet, Priest, and King, either in reality, or by a visible and credible profession of their faith in Him.
2. The Church or kingdom of Christ, during the Old Testament dispensation, was peculiarly confined to the posterity of Abraham, to the nation of the Jews, excepting a few Gentile proselytes; but now, since the coming of Christ in the flesh and His resurrection from the dead, is extended also to the Gentile nations.
3. All the subjects of Christ’s kingdom and government, are originally brought out of the territories of hell, being “children of wrath, even as others.”
4. The great engine whereby Christ rears up a kingdom to Himself in the world, is the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, accompanied with the power and efficacy of His Spirit.
5. The Church and kingdom of Christ being founded and governed by Him, “in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid,” cannot miss of being one of the best regulated societies in the world as under His management, whatever irregularities may be found in her through the corruptions of men intermingling with the concerns of the kingdom. Everything necessary to render any kingdom or society regular is to be found in the Church or kingdom of Christ.
(1) A kingdom well constituted hath its laws and so hath the Church of Christ. And the laws given by her King are all “holy, just, and good”; and all the true subjects of the kingdom delight in the laws of their King, as being the transcript of infinite wisdom and equity.
(2) A kingdom hath its offices under its king; and so hath the Church of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).
(3) A kingdom hath its courts, where the subjects attend to receive the will of the king, and the benefits of his administration; and so hath the Church.
(4) A kingdom hath its seal. So in the kingdom of Christ, He hath appended two public seals unto the charter of His covenant of grace, namely, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
(5) A. kingdom commonly hath its enemies to grapple with, both foreign and intestine; and so hath the kingdom of Christ.
(6) A kingdom hath its armies and auxiliaries; and so hath the Church of Christ, being in a confederacy with the Lord of hosts. The armies of heaven are ready to fight her quarrel.
(7) A kingdom hath its fortifications and strongholds; and so hath the Church of Christ.
II. I would speak a little of THE GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE KINGDOM.
1. Christ Himself is the great and glorious Governor.
2. All things in heaven, earth, and hell are put under the power of Christ, for the more advantageous government of His Church (Ephesians 1:22, Philippians 2:9-11).
3. Christ the King of Zion is wonderfully fitted by, His Father for the government and administration (Isaiah 11:2-4).
4. Christ’s government and administration are very wonderful. The name of the Governor is Wonderful.
5. Christ’s government and administration in and about His Church and people are exceeding wise. So much is imported in His being called the “Counsellor.”
6. Also irresistible. The Governor is “The Mighty God,” who will go through with His designs.
7. He is exceeding tender and compassionate; for His name is “The Everlasting Father” from whom compassions flow.
8. Christ’s government and administration of His Church are very peaceable; for His name is “The Prince of Peace,” and “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.”
9. This government is everlasting.
III. Inquire HOW THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH IS COMMITTED TO CHRIST. The government is laid upon Christ’s shoulder with a three-fold solemnity.
1. The solemnity of an unalterable decree (Psalms 2:6-8).
2. The solemnity of a covenant transacted betwixt Him and His Eternal Father, when the council of peace was between them both.
3. The solemnity of an oath, ratifying the determination of the council of peace in this matter (Psalms 89:3-4; Psalms 89:35).
IV. GIVE THE REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. Why is the government laid upon His shoulder?
1. Because His shoulder alone was able to bear the weight of the administration and government of the Church.
2. That He might be in better capacity for accomplishing the salvation of His people, and bringing many sons and daughters unto glory. Hence we find His kingdom and salvation frequently joined; “Thou art my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth”; and Zechariah 9:9.
3. That He may “still the enemy and the avenger,” that He may resent His Father’s quarrel against Satan, and entirely bruise his head, for his defacing and striking at His and His Father’s image in our first parents, and disturbing His government, which He had established in innocence.
4. Because He hath a just title to it.
(1) By birth.
(2) By purchase.
(3) By His Father’s promise and charter, granted to Him upon the footing of His death and satisfaction (Isaiah 53:12).
(4) By conquest.
V. APPLICATION.
1. Information.
(1) The wonderful love of God which He bears to His Church in providing such a Ruler and Governor for them.
(2) What a happy government and administration believers are under, namely, the government of the Child born, the Son given to us, whose, name is Wonderful, etc.
(3) The misery of a wicked, unbelieving world who will not have Him to rule over them.
(4) The nullity of all acts, laws, and constitutions that do not bear the stamp of Christ, and are not consistent with the laws and orders He has left for the government of His Church.
(5) They run a very serious risk who do injury to His servants
(6) They have a hard task to manage who attempt to jostle Him out of His government and take it upon, their own shoulders.
(7) All odds will be even, and Christ will render tribulation to those that trouble, vex, and harass His poor people in their spiritual rights and privileges.
2. Consolation to the poor people of God; particularly to those who are spoiled of their liberties and privileges as Christians,
(1) Your God does not stand as an unconcerned spectator.
(2) God hath founded Zion.
(3) He who hath the government upon His shoulder rules in the midst of His enemies, and has so much of the act of government that He both can and will bring good out of evil.
(4) The most dark dispensations towards the Church and people of God are in the event found to have been pregnant with love and mercy.
(5) He on whose shoulders the government is laid hath power to provide you with honest ministers. (E. Erskine.)
Christ the “Kinsman” of the race
The King must be the Son of Man. The real root of king and queen is “kin.” The king is not the “able” man but the “kinsman” of the race. All our fundamental, social, and political ideas have their root in the patriarchal home, as the researches of Sir H. Maine and other able scholars have established; and in the king the whole “kindred” is represented “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” The King who rules in righteousness, mighty to save, is the Son of Man, the Divine Kinsman of our race. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Jesus Christ the King of all creation
I. CHRIST THE KING OF ALL THINGS GREAT. There is nothing so great as to be above the government of Jesus. Things great belong to each of the two great provinces into which the universe is divided, namely, the province of matter and the province of mind; yet, Christ is King of all.
1. Greatness in the physical creation. The earth is very great, as we count greatness. The sun is greater than the earth, and many a star which appears only as a glittering point of diamond, is greater than the sun: yet, Jesus makes the earth bring forth, commands the sun to shine, and moves the stars in silent harmony. Jesus can rule the sea. Its billows rise and fall according to His will; and when they leap along, then, amid the roar of tempest and the cries of men for aid, the gentle voice of Jesus speaks “Peace be still, and winds and waves obey Him, for there is a great calm. The government is upon His shoulder.”
2. The greatness of death. Of all the forces of nature, none is feared more than death. Even death is in the hand of Jesus; it never comes without asking His permission, and in every case He could forbid its coming, and no doubt He would forbid it, if that were for the best, for He has the keys of death and of Hades.
3. Greatness in the spirit world. Material forces, however, form but an insignificant part of the forces of creation. There is a world of spirit within, as well as above and beyond the world of matter, and yet, of this nearest world of matter we know but little. The spirit world is under the rule of Jesus; He is its only King; His word its only law; His presence its only bliss. He reveals to the eye of faith the home of heaven. He brings “life and immortality to light.”
4. Greatness in moral government. God has promised for us--and thereby has guaranteed--results which can never be effected by any mere force, though that force should be even infinite. The difficulty in the Saviour’s government of moral beings lies here,--that He has guaranteed and foretold the final issues of that government; that He has foreseen the course of life pursued by every moral agent, though that life is in many points independent of all external forces Neither Scripture nor reason may explain the difficulty, but it is pleasing to think of my text,--“The government shall he upon His shoulder,--for Jesus is “Kings of kings, and Lord of lords.”
II. CHRIST THE KING OF ALL THINGS SMALL. There is nothing so small as to escape the notice of Jesus. When on earth He observed the poor as well as the rich, and commended each according to his fidelity. Think not that you are forgotten by the Saviour, or that your work or suffering is overlooked because you are poor, obscure, and feeble, and therefore, forgotten and overlooked by men. What men despise through ignorance may be most highly prized in another form. Filthy soot and the brilliant diamond are formed of the same material. The Saviour sees, not merely what we are, but what we may become, and as fidelity is the highest element of moral worth, He estimates the value of men, not by what they do, but by their fidelity--by the proportion which exists between their power and their performance. The lisping prayer of a little child may thus be of greater value in God’s estimation, than the highest song which ever rose from an angel’s heart.
III. CHRIST THE KING OF ALL THINGS GOOD. There is nothing so good that it can exist apart from the rule of Jesus. The day is no more dependent on the sun, the rain upon the clouds, the stream upon the fountain, than happiness is dependent upon Christ.
IV. CHRIST THE KING CONTROLLING EVIL. There is nothing so bad but Jesus can make it the means of good. In all we suffer, as well as in all we enjoy; in the dark and dreary night of trouble, as well as in the bright day of prosperous life, it is equally true that Jesus Christ is King of all. (Evan Lewis, B. A.)
Christ our life’s Ruler
Fifteen miles from Sandy Hook the pilot comes on board the English steamer to navigate it into New York harbour. I remember his climbing on board, on the last occasion that I made the passage. The great steamer slowed, and as we looked down from the deck into the dark night we could see a lantern on the surface of the ocean, where his boat was lying. Presently he emerged from the pitchy darkness and reached the deck. From that moment the anxieties of the captain were at an end, and he might refresh himself in deep, long slumbers. So when Christ is on board our life, the government is upon His shoulders, and of the increase of His government and of our peace there is no end. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)
And His name shall be called Wonderful
Messiah’s name
As Jacob conferred the birthright and blessing of his race upon the sons of Joseph by saying, “Let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac” (Genesis 43:16); or as the children of Israel in the wilderness were warned to obey the angel who went before them, because the “name of Jehovah was in him”; so the name of God, wonderful in counsel, mighty in work, the Father of their fathers and of their children for a thousand generations, the Eternal Upholder of their race and their nation and of its prosperity and peace, shall be named upon, shall be in, this anointed Saviour, on whose shoulder the government shall rest. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
The Prince of the four names
Wonderful Counsellor; God-Hero; Father-Everlasting; Prince-of-Peace. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Christ’s name above every name
I. WHO CALLS HIM BY THIS NAME?
1. His Father (Philippians 2:9).
2. All His people, flying to Him, in their first believing, as such an one, and depending on Him all along their course of life as such an one.
II. WHAT DOES HIS BEING CALLED BY THIS NAME IMPORT?
1. That He really is what this name bears.
2. What He is called He is found to be in the experience of saints.
III. APPLICATION. Study the name of Christ, as represented in the Word, so that your souls may be enamoured of Him. (T. Boston.)
God’s namings
God’s namings always mean character. They are always revelations. They tell us what the person is or what he does. (Mrs. H. W. Smith.)
“Ah! that’s the name!”
Some Hindus who had read Christian tracts travelled a long way to hear more about Jesus from a missionary. As soon as he mentioned the name of Jesus, they all exclaimed, “Ah! that’s the name!” (Gates of Imagery.)
Christ’s name Wonderful
Our Lord Christ is beyond the creature’s comprehension. So that this is fitly made the first syllable of His name, that men may know that whatever they know of His excellencies, there is still more behind; and though they may apprehend, they cannot comprehend what He is. I shall inquire--
I. UNDER WHAT NOTION CHRIST IS HELD FORTH AS A MIRACLE, a miraculous person.
1. Not in respect of His being a miracle worker. It is Himself, and not His work, that is here called a miracle.
2. Nor in respect of His Divine nature simply.
3. Nor in respect of His human nature simply.
4. Christ is held forth as a miraculous personage as God-man in one person.
II. WHAT IS THE IMPORT OF CHRIST AS GOD-MAN BEING AND APPEARING TO BE A MIRACULOUS, MOST WONDERFUL ONE?
1. The excellency of His person as God-man.
2. The fulness of excellencies in Him, our incarnate Redeemer. Some excel in one thing, some in another., but none but Christ in all (Colossians 1:19).
3. The uncommonness and singularity of His excellencies. Every excellency in Christ is beyond that excellency in another.
4. The absolute matchlessness of His person, for excellency and glory.
5. The shining forth of His excellencies, fit to draw all eyes upon Him.
(1) His Father’s eyes are fixed on Him, as the object of His good pleasure (Matthew 3:17).
(2) The eyes of the angels are drawn after Him, as a most wonderful sight (1 Peter 1:12).
(3) The eyes of all the saints are drawn after Him, as the object of their admiration and affection.
6. The incomprehensibleness of Him to any creature.
III. IN WHAT RESPECTS IS OUR INCARNATE REDEEMER A MIRACULOUS ONE? He is wonderful--
1. In His person and natures.
2. In His perfections and qualifications.
3. All along His duration. Some are wonderful in one part of their life, some in another; but He is miracle all over His duration.
(1) In His eternal generation of the Father.
(2) In His birth.
(3) In His life; a wonderful infant; a wonderful child; a wonderful youth, etc.
(4) In His death; betrayed by one of His own; forsaken by them all, acquitted by His judge as innocent, yet condemned to a most cruel death. Astonishing wonder! God dying in man’s nature; the beloved Son of God hanging on a cross.
(5) In His burial. The Lord of life lying dead in a grave; the spotless Jesus making His grave with the wicked; the great Deliverer from death carried prisoner to its dark regions--is a wonder that may hold us in admiration forever!
(6) In His resurrection.
(7) In His ascension into heaven.
(8) In His sitting at God’s right hand.
(9) In His coming again to judge the world.
(10) In His continuing forever to be the eternal baud of union and means of communion, between God and the saints (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:23).
4. In His offices.
(1) Prophetical. The Spirit came at times on the prophets, but He rested on Him. They had their foreknowledge of future events at secondhand; but it is His privilege to look with His own eyes into the sealed book.
(2) Priestly. He is Priest, Altar, and Sacrifice all in one. All the sacrifices before His were but as handwritings to own the debt of sin, but could pay none. His sacrifice was truly expiatory.
(3) Kingly. Zion’s King is most wonderful in His victories, rescuing men from the power of the devil, subduing their hearts to Him, and conquering their wills; in His defence of His subjects from the devil, the world, lusts, frowns, and flatteries of the world; in ruining His enemies totally, and completing the happiness of His friends. Christ’s kingdom is the most ancient kingdom; the most extensive kingdom, embracing both heaven and earth. Never a kingdom had so many enemies and so potent; yet has it stood through all ages, and will stand forever and ever, without end.
5. In His relations.
(1) He is nearly related to the house of heaven, and so has the highest possible relation. The angels are the servants of the house of heaven; but Christ is the Son of that house (Hebrews 1:5).
(2) He is nearly related to the house of Adam. He is the top branch of it Luke 3:38). He has a common relation to them all--the Saviour of the world. He has a nearer relation to believers--Brother, Head, etc.
(3) He is the centre of union to the two (John 17:23). The Son of God married our nature to Himself, and so brings together the two houses, making peace through the body of His flesh.
6. In His love (Ephesians 3:19). Consider--
(1) The subject of it--the party loving us. That ever there should have been an eye of love cast from heaven on us, not from among the courtiers, but from the throne, the King Himself, is wonderful.
(2) The objects of it. Sinful men.
(3) The effect, force, and energy of this love. It is absolutely matchless.
(4) The qualities of it. Free; sovereign; preventing; tender; unchangeable; everlasting.
IV. APPLICATION.
1. Information.
(1) The greatness of the Father’s love in giving to us such a wonderful One for our Prince.
(2) The reasonableness of the believer’s superlative love to Christ.
(3) The reasonableness of the Gospel demand of all to receive and submit to Christ as their Prince and Governor. His transcendent excellency entitles Him to the principality and government over the sons of men. His merit requires our absolute resignation to Him. He is the Father’s choice, and in making that choice He has acted like Himself, having chosen for us this most wonderful personage.
(4) The dreadful sin and danger of slighting Christ. The more wonderful and excellent He is, the deeper will be the guilt of refusing Him; the deeper the guilt, the more fearful will be the vengeance for rejecting Him Hebrews 2:3).
2. Exhortation.
(1) Make Him the choice of your soul.
(2) Part with all for Him--your lust and idols; renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, resting on Christ for all, for time and eternity.
(3) Dwell in the contemplation of His matchless excellencies. Let it be the substance of your religion to love Him, to admire Him, to be swallowed up in His love. (T. Boston.)
Who was Jesus Christ?
That is a question to which no man dares to be indifferent save at the peril of his soul. The great Unitarian minister, W.E. Channing, said, “Love to Jesus Christ depends very little on our conception of His rank in the scale of being.” I believe that remark to he profoundly wrong. On our views of the Person of Christ depend not only our love to Christ, but also our conception of Christianity. Christ is Christianity, and without clear views of His character and person our religious and moral he must be vague, unstable, like a house that is built upon the sand. Consider--
I. HIS WISDOM AS A TEACHER.
1. His originality. He never went to college. He had no learned tutors to instruct Him. Yet at the early age of thirty He taught the world the sublimest truths that man has ever heard. He belonged to none of the sects of His day. He had no great intellectual friends from whom He might gain flashes of suggestive thought. From the depths of mental and social obscurity, He went forth to proclaim a worldwide kingdom, and today, in the most cultivated nations, Christ ranks first of all the world. He did not teach by human methods. All others have had to prove the words they spoke. Christ simply and directly uttered truths, and His hearers saw that there was no contradicting Him. He did not speculate about God. He simply revealed the Father, and men felt that His words were true. Others had taught virtue before Christ. But how different was their teaching! Note especially Christ’s dealings with the poor. Christ was the first poor man’s philosopher. And now, after eighteen centuries of weary strife and struggle, we are just beginning to see the transcendent wisdom of such a course of action.
2. His boldness in teaching. His mission was worldwide. Having never seen a map of this earth, He comes forth from the carpenter’s shop to inaugurate a kingdom more extensive than the sway of Alexander, more lasting than the firmament itself. And history is showing its success. He was the greatest reformer that ever lived. But He never started wild theories for facts to make sad havoc with. He laid down those principles of love, of doing to others as we would have them do to us, of righteousness, purity, truth, and justice, the same for rich and poor, those principles which alone can heal the wounds of society in the future as alone they have healed them in the past. Observe, too, the calmness of Jesus, under all circumstances. He was always calm, because He knew that in the long run He would succeed.
3. The consistency of His life with His doctrine. To preach a low standard of morality and live up to it is easy. But Christ’s standard is the very highest. Yet He lived up to it. All other teachers confess their shortcomings. Christ never does. Observe, too, the harmony of His character. All virtues unite in Him, and none in excess. Is not His name wonderful?
II. HIS INNOCENCE AND SINFULNESS. Most marvellous is His character in this respect. All our goodness begins with repentance. Not so His. He puts before us the highest form of morality, “Be ye therefore perfect.” But He never hints that He has need of penitence for shortcomings. Further, Jesus claims to be sinless, though He is full of sincerity and meekness. Now, no man could sham perfect holiness. No faulty man could claim to be faultless without soon displaying faults that would cover him with derision. Piety without an ounce of repentance, without any confession of sin, without one tear! Let any man try that sort of piety, and see how soon his assumed righteousness will appear most impudent conceit. When we think of His sinlessness, we must say, “His name is Wonderful.”
III. HIS INFLUENCE OVER OTHER MEN.
1. His influence as a Teacher is wonderful. We see in ethics far more than Socrates did. We see further in theology than Luther. Mathematicians have gone far beyond Euclid. Our children will see further than we do. But eighteen centuries have passed since the sun of humanity rose to its zenith in Jesus Christ; and what man, or what body of men, has mastered His thought and come up to His teachings, far less gone in advance of Him?
2. Observe the total change in the moral life of those who have accepted this Teacher. And His influence came from Himself. He was not supported by the authority of the Rabbis. He was in opposition to all the religious prejudices of His day. From a most sectarian nation, He was most unsectarian, proposing to found a universal kingdom embracing all nations, a religion for all the earth.
3. The influence of His Church. Villainous misdeeds have been done in the name of His Church. But the true Church never did these things, and her influence has been most beautiful. The world has never been the same since the holy steps of Jesus trod the soil of Palestine, and His sacred tears bedewed Mount Olivet. The hospital is an invention of Christian philanthropy. The degradation of woman, of which the pagan world was full, has been exchanged for a position of peculiar honour. The sensualism which paganism mistook for love has been put under the ban of true Christian feeling, and the chivalrous respect which all good men have for pure women, and the poetry of holy love, have come from the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. The old and universal sentiment of bitter hostility between races and nations is denounced in the severest terms, and has been largely toned down by Christianity. Look again at the enthusiasm which this wonderful Teacher instilled into the early Christians. Jesus Christ Himself is a greater miracle than the raising of Lazarus from the dead. We have not yet assumed the truth of His miracles. Yet is it not idle to deny these? How can we separate Christ from His miracles? And this Divine Jesus, whose name is Wonderful, who has been the support of our fathers in the days of old, is with us still. We need this marvellous Being in the strife of Christian duty. (F. W. Aveling, M. A., B. Sc.)
Christ wonderful in His victories
1. Over the forces of nature.
(1) The sea is a crystal sepulchre. It swallowed the Central America, the President, and the Spanish Armada, as easily as any fly that ever floated on it. The inland lakes are fully as terrible in their wrath. Recent travellers tell us that Galilee, when aroused in a storm, is overwhelming. And yet that sea crouched in His presence and licked His feet. He knew all the waves and the wind. When He beckoned, they came. When He frowned, they fled. The heel of His foot made no indentation on the solidified water.
(2) Medical science has wrought great changes in rheumatic limbs and diseased blood; but when the muscles are entirely withered, no human power can restore them; and when a limb is once dead, it is dead. But here is a paralytic--his hand lifeless. Christ says to him, “Stretch forth thy hand”; and he stretches it forth. In the eye infirmary, how many diseases of that delicate organ have been cured! But Jesus says to one born blind, “Be open!” and the light of heaven rushes through gates that have never before been opened,
(3) The frost or an axe may kill a tree: but Jesus smites one dead with a word.
(4) Chemistry can do many wonderful things; but what chemist, at a wedding when the refreshment gave out, could change a pail of water into a cask of wine?
(5) What human voice could command a school of fish? Yet here is a voice that marshals the scaly tribes, until, in the place where they had let down the net and pulled it up with no fish in it, they let it down again, and the disciples lay hold and begin to pull, when, by reason of the multitude of fish, the net brake.
2. Behold His victory over the grave. Here comes the Conqueror of death. He enters that realm, and says, “Daughter of Jairus, sit up!” and she sat up. To Lazarus, “Come forth!” and he came forth. To the widow’s son He said, “Get up from that bier!” and he goes home with his mother. Then Jesus snatched up the keys of death, and hung them to His girdle, and cried, until all the graveyards of the earth heard Him: “O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy destruction!”
3. But Christ’s victories have only just begun. The world is His, and He must have it. (T. De W. Talmage, D. D.)
The wonderful name
I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE MOST WONDERFUL BEING THIS WORLD EVER SAW.
1. Because of the number and character of the prophecies announcing His advent and mission.
2. Because of what He said of Himself. He distinctly declared that He existed before He was born. “Before Abraham was I am.” Now, in the matter of natural birth, man is utterly without choice or control, nor is he consulted as to his coming, whether it shall be now or in the future, this place or that. But Jesus Christ declared that He had perfect control in all these matters,--control in coming, and control in going,--“No man taketh away My life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” He actually said He was God. He invited all to come to Him for pardon and eternal life, and declared that, if they did not so come, they should all die in their sins. He said He had power to call to His aid “twelve legions of angels,” who would gladly tender Him celestial protection, if required.
3. Because of what He did. His life was filled with deeds of sympathy and self-sacrificing benevolence. He assumed and exerted perfect control, both in the physical and moral world.
4. Because of what He was. “Great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh.” Omnipotence clothed in frailty.
II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE MOST WONDERFUL BEING IN HEAVEN. Not that He is an intruder, or a newcomer. He was at home in heaven, and dwelt amid the underived glory of His Godhead before man or angel was created. He is the most “wonderful” Being in heaven because of--
1. His history. He has a history of honour and glory in heaven, and a history of unspeakable sorrow and suffering on earth.
2. His relationship. He appears in heaven in the unique relationship of Brother and Redeemer of our race, and Son of God.
3. His work. Through the glorified human lips of Jesus Christ the Divine mandates for the control of the universe are now uttered. The feet once spiked to the Cross now rest upon the throne. Through the Person and work of this wonderful Being, redeemed humanity is elevated to the very Person and throne of the Deity. (T. Kelly.)
Christ wonderful in the magnetism of His person
After the battle of Antietam, when a general rode along the lines, although the soldiers were lying down exhausted, they rose with great enthusiasm and huzzaed. As Napoleon returned from his captivity, his first step on the wharf shook all the kingdoms, and two hundred and fifty thousand men joined his standard. It took three thousand troops to watch him in his exile. So there have been men of wonderful magnetism of person. But hear me while I tell you of a poor young man who came up from Nazareth to produce a thrill such as has never been excited by any other. (T. De W. Talmage, D. D.)
The birth of the “Wonderful”
Christmas marks the birth time of the matchless Christ. In what respect was He wonderful!
I. WONDERFUL IN CHARACTER.
II. WONDERFUL IN HIS TEACHING.
III. WONDERFUL AS TO HIS MISSION. (B. P. Grenoble.)
No extravagance in Christ
No one can at all appreciate the wonder fulness of Christ who does not consider its freedom from the merely marvellous. Has not the element of wonder in human history always had as its drawback and bane the tendency to extravagance? It cannot keep within bounds. Its disease is unnaturalness, exaggeration, grotesqueness. It piles marvel on marvel, outraging all sense of proportion. It defies every feeling of the ludicrous. It delights in trampling on the understanding, and finds a merit and satisfaction in receiving the monstrous and contradictory. Is not this the characteristic of all mythologies, and not least of the history of Buddha, whom some have ventured to mention along with Christ? The wonderfulness of Christ is not marvellous. It is not something to astonish. It has a meaning and a purpose prior to that and above it. His is not the marvellousness of the aurora borealis, but of the eastern aurora, the dawn It is not the marvellousness of an architectural monument meant to exhibit the resources of art and wealth, but the architecture of a temple for God and man to dwell in. His is not the marvellousness of a gigantic tree, but of the tree of life producing medicine and food; not the splendour of a vast orb of fire, but of the sun that rays out life to the worlds. There is no part of Christ’s wonderfulness which does not serve a great end and occupy a distinct and necessary place. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
His name--Wonderful
I. Christ shall be called Wonderful FOR WHAT HE WAS IN THE PAST.
1. Consider His eternal existence, “begotten of His Father from before all worlds,” being of the same substance with His Father; begotten, not made, co-equal, co-eternal, in every attribute, “very God of very God.”
2. Consider, again, the incarnation of Christ, and you will rightly say that His name deserveth to be called Wonderful.
3. Trace the Saviour’s course, and all the way He is wonderful.
4. Christ is surpassingly wonderful.
5. He is not a nine days’ wonder. He is and ever shall be wonderful. He is altogether wonderful.
6. He is universally wondered at.
II. He is Wonderful FOR WHAT HE IS IN THE PRESENT.
III. His name shall be called Wonderful IN THE FUTURE. As the Judge. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Counsellor
Christ the Counsellor
This syllable of His name refers to His singular capacity for management of matters. Other princes must have their counsellors, by whose advice they may act: but He Himself is, and shows Himself to be, Counsellor, an oracle of government, a Prince in whose own breast is the oracle for right management of all things relating to His dominion.
I. IN WHAT RESPECTS IS CHRIST THE COUNSELLOR?
1. He is of the secret council of heaven (Zechariah 6:13). He is a member of the cabinet council of heaven, to which the most favourite angel is not admitted. There is nothing transacted there, nor has been from eternity, but what He is acquainted with (John 5:20). With His Father and the Spirit He is of the council.
2. He is the oracle of counsel for the earth (John 1:18; Matthew 11:27).
(1) He is the Counsellor of the world of men.
(a) In respect of office.
(b) Of capacity (Colossians 2:3).
(2) He is the Counsellor of the visible Church.
(a) He consults her interest, for her protection and preservation in the world.
(b) He is still actively counselling her by His Word.
(3) He is the Counsellor of the invisible Church, and of every particular believer in it.
II. WHAT IS THE IMPORT OF THIS PART OF CHRIST’S NAME?
1. He is of singular wisdom for the conduct and management of affairs Isaiah 11:2-3). The fulness of the Spirit of wisdom is lodged in Him. He is wisdom itself, the eternal wisdom of the Father (Proverbs 8:1-36). And His children are wisdom’s children (Matthew 11:19).
2. He is a Prince of great and noble designs and projects, requiring counsel and wisdom (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Psalms 49:7-8; 1 Peter 1:18-19; John 17:24).
3. He can manage all by Himself and needs no counsel of men. The name of the wisest on earth may be Consulter (Proverbs 11:14). But He is so far a Counsellor that He is a consulter of none (Romans 11:34).
(1) His understanding is infinite.
(2) His counsels were all concerted before we had a being.
(3) The execution of them was begun entirely without us.
(4) How often have we seen that our counsels, had they been mixed with those of the great Counsellor, would have marred all?
4. His manner of conduct and method of management are deep and uncommon (Matthew 14:25, etc.).
5. He does nothing without a becoming reason
6. He manages all with a depth of wisdom.
7. He is the best Counsellor--there is none like Him.
III. IMPROVEMENT.
1. Take Him for your Counsellor, renouncing all other.
(1) Renounce your own wisdom.
(2) Renounce the counsel of the world.
(3) Take Christ for your Counsellor, instead of all other (Isaiah 55:4).
2. Follow the counsel that He is giving you. He is counselling you in the Gospel--
(1) To believe in Himself.
(2) To be holy.
3. Make use of Christ as a Counsellor, by consulting Him daily. (T. Boston.)
Christ the best Counsellor
I. CONFIRM THE TRUTH OF THIS ASSERTION.
1. He is of the Father’s choice and nomination for a Counsellor to us--“made of God unto us wisdom.”
2. He is the saints’ choice in all ages for a Counsellor.
3. He never misses the point in His counselling.
II. WHEREIN DOTH CHRIST COUNSEL SINNERS!
1. In their greatest concerns, their concerns for eternity.
2. In their lesser concerns, the things of time.
III. HOW DOTH CHRIST GIVE HIS COUNSEL?
1. He proposes His counsel in and by His Word.
2. He clears and opens and confirms it by His providence.
3. He makes it effectual by His Holy Spirit. (T. Boston.)
Christ the Counsellor
Christ is our Counsellor upon a threefold account--
1. As He hath rectified our notions of the Deity and turned us from the worship of dumb idols, to serve the living and true God.
2. As He hath taught us the truths of the moral law, and the real difference between good and evil.
3. As He hath instructed us in the means whereby we may obtain everlasting salvation. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Messiah the Counsellor
The word is employed in the Bible frequently of those who assisted in the councils of kings. Jonathan, the uncle of David, was called “a wise counsellor” to his prince; Ahithophel, the wisest man of his day, was termed “the king’s counsellor,” the king’s adviser. And thus it is constantly employed of a person giving sound and wise advice. The name, then, evidently implies these three things respecting Him--
I. THAT HE SHOULD POSSESS ADEQUATE WISDOM.
1. When He came into the world He descended from the bosom of God.
2. As He was acquainted with God, He was acquainted with man. He “searches the reins and the hearts.” He therefore has wisdom enough to guide His people through time to eternity, and to be their most effectual and safest Counsellor.
II. THAT HE SHOULD COMMUNICATE THIS WISDOM BY POSITIVE INSTRUCTION. And this includes the fulfilment of an earlier promise, made by Moses to the Church of God, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, like unto me.” Jesus came, then, to be this Prophet, to speak with authority from God, and thus to communicate that instruction to mankind, and especially to believers, which was needful for their welfare, He came, according to the Divine appointment, to reveal the character of God, which He knew; to communicate to mankind that amount of knowledge respecting God which they were capable of receiving. He could therefore say repeatedly, when He was upon earth, that He had manifested the name of God (that is, His character) to His disciples, who received His instruction.
III. THAT HE SHOULD URGE AND PERSUADE MEN TO RECEIVE THAT INSTRUCTION. The Lord Jesus Christ still communicates His Spirit to men, in order to open their understandings and their hearts; just as He did when at the outpouring of His Spirit on the day of Pentecost three thousand were subdued at once by the Gospel, and disregarding all the differences in their circumstances, and putting away from them all considerations of worldly ease or comfort altogether, at once embraced the Gospel of Christ,--just as much does Jesus Christ now communicate His Spirit, to subdue men to Himself, and is thus their effectual Counsellor. He has given instruction by His Word, but He makes that instruction effectual by His Spirit. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
His name--the Counsellor
It was by a counsellor that this world was ruined. Did not Satan mask himself in the serpent, and counsel the woman, with exceeding craftiness, that she should take unto herself of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the hope that thereby she should be as God? It was meet that the world should have a Counsellor to restore it, if it had a counsellor to destroy it. But mark the difficulties that surrounded such a Counsellor. ‘Tis easy to counsel mischief; but how hard to counsel wisely!
I. Christ may well be called Counsellor, for He is a COUNSELLOR WITH GOD. It hath been revealed to us that before the world was, when as yet God had not made the stars, the Almighty did hold a solemn conclave with Himself; Father, Son, and Spirit held a mystic council with each other, as to what they were about to do.
II. Christ is a Counsellor in the sense which the LXX translation appends to this term. He is said to be THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL. Do you and I want to know what was said and done in the great council of eternity? There is only one glass through which we can look back to the dim darkness of the shrouded past and read the counsels of God, and that glass is the Person of Jesus Christ. You may find out whether you are among His chosen ones. Christ is the Angel of the covenant, and you can find it out by looking to Him.
III. CHRIST IS A COUNSELLOR TO US. A man without a counsellor, I think, must of necessity go wrong. Woe unto the man that hath got a bad counsellor.
1. Christ is a necessary Counsellor.
2. Christ’s counsel is faithful counsel. How often do our friends counsel us craftily!
3. Christ’s counsel is hearty counsel.
4. Christ has special counsels for each of us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The mighty God
Christ the mighty God
I. CHRIST IS THE TRUE GOD.
1. The Scripture expressly calls Him so (John 1:1; Ac Romans 9:5; 1 John 5:20).
2. The attributes of God, distinguishing Him from all created beings, are ascribed to Him.
3. The works peculiar to God alone are done by Him and ascribed to Him.
4. Divine worship, which must be given to God alone, is due to Him.
5. He is equal with the Father.
II. THE MAN CHRIST IS THE MIGHTY ONE.
1. He does and has done works that no other could do.
2. He has all at His command in heaven and earth, whether created persons or things.
3. Being God as wall as man His power is infinite.
III. APPLICATION.
1. This serves to refute the heresy of those who impugn the supreme Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. It speaks terror to all the enemies of Christ.
3. It speaks comfort to the Church and every believer in their low estate.
4. It serves to exhort all to take Him for their Prince. (T. Boston.)
His name--the almighty God
Other translations of this Divine title have been proposed by several very eminent and able scholars. Not that they have any of them been prepared to deny that this translation is after all most accurate; but rather that whilst there are various words in the original, which we render by the common appellation of “God,” it might be possible so to interpret this as to show more exactly its definite meaning. One writer, for example, thinks the term might be translated “The Irradiator,”--He who gives light to men. Some think it bears the meaning of TheIllustrious,--the bright and the shining One. Still there are very few, if any, who are prepared to dispute the fact that our translation is the most faithful that could possibly be given. “the mighty God.”
I. THE FOLLY OF THOSE WHO PROFESS TO BE THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, YET DO NOT, AND WILL NOT, CALL HIM GOD. It is His being verily God, that frees Him from the charge of blasphemy. It is the fact that He is God, and that His Godhead is not to be denied, that makes His death an unrighteous decide at the hand of apostate man, and renders it, as before God, an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the people.
II. HOW DO WE CALL CHRIST, “THE MIGHTY GOD”? It is Our delight and our privilege to attribute to Him the attributes of Deity.
1. In hours of devout contemplation how often do we look up to Him as being the eternal Son. In doing so we have virtually called Him the mighty God; because none but God could have been from everlasting to everlasting. How frequently do we repeat over to ourselves that precious verse, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Do you not see that you have in fact called Him God, because none but God is immutable!
3. Is it not also our joy to believe that wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there is He in the midst of them? Have we not ascribed to Christ omnipresence, and who can be omnipresent but God! How is it possible for us to dream of Him as being “in the bosom of His
Father, with the angels, and in the hearts of the contrite all at the same time, if He be not God?
4. We call Him “the mighty God” in many of His offices.
(1) Mediator between God and man. There is no mediatorship unless the hand in put on both, and who could put his hand on God but God!
(2) Saviour. I could not put my trust in any being that was merely created.
III. HOW CHRIST HAS PROVED HIMSELF TO US TO BE “THE MIGHTY GOD.” This Child born, this Son given, came into the world to enter the lists against sin. For thirty years and upwards He had to struggle against temptations more numerous and terrible than man had ever known before. And yet, without sin or taint of sin, more than conqueror He stood. We know also that Christ proved Himself to be “the mighty God” from the fact that at last all the sins of all His people were gathered upon His shoulders, and “He bare them in His own body on the tree.” But He did more than this--when He led captivity captive, add crushed death and ground his iron limbs to powder, He proved Himself then the mighty God. Oh, my soul, thou canst say that He has proved Himself in thy heart to be a mighty God. I beg and beseech of you all, come add put your trust in Jesus Christ; He is the mighty God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus the mighty God
I. HE OF WHOM THE PROPHET SPEAKS IS THE MIGHTY GOD.
II. IN WHAT SENSE THE CHILD BORN MAY BE CALLED “THE MIGHTY GOD.” Not that the humanity is deified, or the Deity humanised. Humanity is still humanity, Deity is still Deity. But so united in one person that that which is peculiar to one nature is often ascribed to the other (Acts 20:28; John 3:13).
III. THE GREATNESS OF HIS ACTS IN REGARD TO THAT CHURCH TO WHOM HE IS GIVEN.
1. He bare her sins. And had He not been the mighty God, as well as man, He never could.
2. Besides this, He wrought out a perfect righteousness for His Church. He conquered all her enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, those three strong ones.
3. He converts the hardest heart, working mightily by His own gracious Almighty Spirit.
4. He supports the feeblest grace, carries on the work which He has begun. What mighty effects He accomplishes by the simplest means! He bears up the most timid and desponding spirit, binds up with His own hand, by His own Spirit, with His own blood.
5. And what shall we say of that mighty God, in all His mighty doings, when He shall raise the dead, judge the world, destroy sin, and in the new heavens and the new earth give His saints the eternal possession of Himself, and of God in Himself? (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Jesus the mighty God
The surrounding nations, Egypt and Assyria, gave great names to their gods. Look upon the inscriptions on the pillars in the time of Sargon. One Assyrian king was called “The great king, the king unrivalled; the protector of the just; the noble warrior.” If Isaiah wrote in a time of great names he, by this conception of an appellation, threw all other cognomens into contempt. “The mighty God.” The word is not Elohim, a word under which a species of subdivinity could be classified: “Said I not unto you, Ye are gods?” That word is El, a word which is never applied but to Jehovah, and which is never used but as connoting the innermost essence of ineffable Deity. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The everlasting Father
The everlasting Father
The tender, faithful, and wise trainer, guardian, and provider of His own in eternity (Isaiah 22:21). (F. Delitzsch.)
The everlasting Father
Abiding in protection, as the Father of His people. (B. Blake, B. D.)
Christ the everlasting Father
I. IN WHAT RESPECTS CHRIST IS THE EVERLASTING FATHER.
II. WHAT A FATHER HE IS.
III. IMPROVE THE SUBJECT. (T. Boston.)
Christians bear Christ’s image
1. Conformity to Christ in His holiness.
2. Conformity to Christ in His sufferings. (T. Boston.)
Jesus the everlasting Father
I. CHRIST IS CALLED FATHER.
1. Not in respect to the eternal Three. He is the Son in this point of view.
2. But as one with Him, and the Eternal Spirit, in the unity of the same Godhead.
3. He is the Father of His people. “He shall see His seed” (Isaiah 53:10).
4. He is their spiritual life (Galatians 2:20).
II. HE IS CALLED THE EVERLASTING FATHER. He ever lives. He is Life. He ever loves. His blessings are everlasting. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The everlasting Father
To be the “Father of eternity” is to have eternity, and to rule in eternity--to be the Lord of eternity. That is the meaning of it; and so Christ Jesus, who hath the government upon His shoulders, hath it on His shoulders forever and forever. But the eternity spoken of here is not the eternity that is bygone; it is the ongoing and unending duration that lies before us, and Christ Jesus is Lord and Ruler of all. No doubt He who can hold the future eternity in His hand, and who can rule all its affairs, must have been Himself the Unbeginning and Eternal One; and the Scriptures leave no doubt about that being the attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that august tribute of being “from everlasting to everlasting” is not what is strictly before: us here. It is the duration from the time that Christ became human onwards.
I. Jesus Christ is the Father of the eternity that lies before and goes on, because He Himself lives forever. He is POSSESSOR; He has it (Psalms 102:25-27, and Hebrews 1:10-12). The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ in humanity is to live forever is a stupendous expectation and belief. Sometimes it has seemed to me as if it were more wonderful than the mere incarnation. That this is an important thought appears from two considerations.
1. It is a part of the Divine promise of the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ Isaiah 53:10).
2. It is a thing for which Christ Himself prayed as part of His Father’s promise (Psalms 21:4). And so the Lord Jesus Christ thus in human nature lives forever and ever. But that implies that His work was finished to the Father’s satisfaction; to live forever was a proof that God the Father regarded Christ’s work as finished--this same title, “Father of eternity,” hath in germ within it the great facts of Christ’s resurrection and ascension and session in glory. And so when John, in Apocalyptic vision, beheld Him as the Son of man, he heard Him thus speak: “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of Hades and of death.” Application--
1. To God’s people. What a Saviour they have! They need never fear that they will be without His care. They could not find a world in all the universe where He is not with them, and they cannot live on to any age when He shall cease to be their light and King.
2. The same thing brings comfort to every sinner; for is it not written, “He is” able to save to the uttermost, them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for the”? Mark, it does not say “seeing He died”--if that is all that could have been said, it would not have ever availed for the comfort and salvation of sinners--but seeing that, having died, “He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
II. The Lord Jesus Christ is ORIGINATOR of this age that is spoken of. He made this “forever,” and gave it its grand characteristic; and all Gospel privilege that belongs to time, and all celestial enjoyment that belongs to eternity, we owe to Him.
III. Jesus Christ is CONTROLLER in this eternal age; the administration of its whole affairs is in His hands. The Author of our faith is the Ruler of its progress, and that not on earth alone, but in heaven. Can you doubt it, that when the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, went back to the glory that He had with the Father before the world began, went back in human nature, and appeared among the saints in heaven--can you doubt that from that hour heaven was another thing even to the glorified, because the Lord that brought them there by His blood was amongst them? And so, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read that we are come to the “spirits of just men made perfect,” which means to the Old Testament Church, perfected now in privilege; for at the 13 th verse of the eleventh chapter it is expressly said, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.” God willed that He should “provide some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect,”--that heaven itself should not, in privilege and glory, even to the saints that had gone home, be perfect until Christ Himself had introduced a new age, and gone Himself to heaven. (J. Edmond, D. D.)
His name--the everlasting Father
How complex is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! Almost in the same breath the prophet calls Him a “Child,” and a “Counsellor,” a “Son,” and the “everlasting Father.” This is no contradiction, and to us scarcely a paradox, but it is a mighty marvel. How forcibly this should remind us of the necessity of carefully studying and rightly understanding the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! We must not suppose that we shall understand Him at a glance. A look will save the soul, but patient meditation alone can fill the mind with the knowledge of the Saviour. The light of the text divides itself into three rays--Jesus is “everlasting”; He is a “Father”; He is the “everlasting Father.”
I. Jesus Christ is EVERLASTING. Of Him we may sing, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” A theme for great rejoicing on our part.
1. Jesus always was.
2. So also He is for evermore the same. Jesus is not dead; He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
3. Jesus, our Lord, ever shall be. The connection of the word “Father” with the word “everlasting” allows us very fairly to remark that our Lord is as everlasting as the Father, since He Himself is called “the everlasting Father”; for whatever antiquity paternity may imply is here ascribed to Christ. It is the manner of the Easterns to call a man the father of a quality for which he is remarkable. To this day, among the Arabs, a wise man is called “the father of wisdom”; a very foolish man “the father of folly.” The predominant quality in the man is ascribed to him as though it were his child, and he the father of it. Now, the Messiah is here called in the Hebrew “the Father of eternity,” by which is meant that He is preeminently the possessor of eternity as an attribute.
II. We come to the difficult part of the subject, namely, Christ being called FATHER. In what sense is Jesus a Father? Answer
1. He is federally a Father, representing those who are in Him, as the head of a tribe represents his descendants. The grand question for us is this, Are we still under the old covenant of works? If so, we have Adam to our father, and under that Adam we died. But are we under the covenant of grace? If so, we have Christ to our Father, and in Christ shall we be made alive. In this sense, then, Christ is called Father; and inasmuch as the covenant of grace is older than the covenant of works, Christ is, while Adam is not, “the everlasting Father”; and inasmuch as the covenant of works as far as we are concerned passes away, being fulfilled in Him, and the covenant of grace never passes but abideth forever, Christ, as the Head of the new covenant, the federal representative of the great economy of grace, is “the everlasting Father.”
2. Christ is a Father in the sense of a Founder. The Hebrews are in the habit of calling a man a father of a thing which he invents. For instance, in the fourth chapter of Genesis Jubal is called the father of such as handle the harp and organ; Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle; not that these were literally the fathers of such persons, but the inventors of their occupations. The Lord Jesus Christ is, in this sense, the Father of a wonderful system--a great doctrinal system; a great practical system; a system of salvation.
3. Now there is a third meaning. The prophet may not so have understood it, but we so receive it, that Jesus is a Father in the great sense of a Lifegiver. That is the main sense of “father” to the common mind. Everything in us calls Christ “Father.” He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. If we love Him, it is because He first loved us. If we patiently endure, it is by considering “Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.” He it is who waters and sustains all our graces. We may say of Him, “All my fresh springs are in Thee.” The Spirit brings us the water from this well of Bethlehem, but Jesus is the well itself.
4. The term implies that Jesus Christ is to be in the future, the patriarch of an age. So Pope in his famous poem of the Messiah understands it, and calls Him, “the promised. Father of the future age”
5. Christ may be called a Father in the loving and tender sense of a father’s office. God is called the Father of the fatherless, and Job says of himself, that he became a father to the poor. Now, albeit that the Spirit of adoption teaches us to call God our Father, yet it is not straining truth to say that our Lord Jesus Christ exercises to all His people a Father’s part. According to the old Jewish custom the elder brother was the father of the family in the absence of the father; the firstborn took precedence of all, and took upon him the father’s position; so the Lord Jesus, the firstborn among many brethren, exercises to us a father’s office. Is it not so? Has He not succoured us in all time of our need as a father succours his child? Has He not supplied us with more than heavenly bread as a father gives bread unto his children? Does He not daily protect us, nay, did He not yield up His life that we His little ones might be preserved? Is He not the head in the household to us on earth, abiding with us, and has He not said, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come unto you”? As if His coming was the coming of a Father. If He be a Father, will we not give Him honour? If He be the head of the household, will we not give Him obedience?
III. We weigh the words, “EVERLASTING FATHER.” Christ is called “the everlasting Father” because He does not Himself, as a Father, die or vacate His once. He is still the federal Head and Father of His people; still the Founder of Gospel truth and of the Christian system; not allowing popes to be His vicars and to take His place. He is still the true Life giver, from whose wounds and by whose death we are quickened; He reigns even now as the patriarchal King; He is still the loving family Head; and so, in every sense, He lives as a Father. But here is a sweet thought. He neither Himself dies, nor becomes childless. He does not lose His children. He is the Author of an eternal system. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Prince of Peace
The Prince of Peace
How peaceful was the scene when the first Sabbath shone upon this world! How reversed was the scene of man’s Sabbatism when sin entered to revolutionise it! It is a work of magnitude to which the Redeemer stands appointed when He is presented in the character of a pacificator to bring this strife to a happy conclusion for man.
I. WHAT ARE THE QUALIFICATIONS OF CHRIST FOR ACTING AS THE PRINCE OF PEACE?
1. His original personal excellence as the Only-begotten of the Father.
2. His Father’s ordination of Him to the office.
3. The meritoriousness of His work when substituted in the room of sinners.
4. The station to which He has been exalted and the executive power which has been lodged in His hand.
5. The fervency with which His heart is dedicated to the attainment of His object. Assemble, then, together these various items of qualification, and howsoever dreadful be the war in which man is naturally so unequally engaged, here we have a Prince all-sufficient to reduce it to peace in behalf of those who may accept His aid. That aid He offers to all.
II. THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF THAT PEACE OF WHICH CHRIST IS, OR SHALL YET BE, THE MINISTERING PRINCE TO ALL THAT BELIEVE ON HIM.
1. The fundamental article of this great pacification is that He hath reconciled God to them. The principal idea conveyed in the text we maintain to be that God has in Christ devised a scheme whereby He may consistently leave off His anger, and not impute to mankind their trespasses.
2. In Christ we cease to war against ourselves. The sinner’s follies, his passions, his evil conscience, destroy him. By the gifts of the Spirit which He has secured for His people, He restrains, subdues, and controls their passions and appetites, through the lawlessness of which men so frequently bring ruin on their persons, their characters, and their fortunes; and altogether, so does He incline them to their duty that their conscience ceases to torment them with its upbraidings and shall even invigorate and gladden them with the smiles of its complacency.
3. Our Prince hath reconciled to us the angels. When the human race rebelled, zealous as they are for God, they participated in the wrath of their King, disowned man as their brother, and became the willing executors of His wrath. But when God becomes the Friend of the believer, the angels hasten to salute him as a recovered fellow subject and brother, and resume their emulousness of the honour to be made the ministering spirits of his salvation.
4. By the Prince of Peace reconciliation is effected between Jew and Gentile.
5. The fifth article of pacification is the general reconcilement of man to man, the destruction of selfishness, and the diffusion of benevolence. (W. Anderson, LL. D.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
I. PEACEFUL OF DISPOSITION.
1. He bears long with His enemies.
2. He bears much at the hands of His friends.
3. He is easy of access for poor sinners.
4. He is ready to forgive.
5. He is very familiar with His true subjects.
6. The afflicting of His people is, as it were, against the grain with Lam 3:33; 1 Peter 1:6; Hebrews 12:10; Isaiah 63:9).
7. He bore His own sufferings with the utmost peaceableness, meekness, and patience.
II. PEACEFUL IN ACTION. Consider--
1. What peace is effected by this Prince of Peace?
(1) Peace with God.
(2) Peace among men.
(3) Peace within men, peace of conscience.
2. What is His work about that threefold peace?
(1) He purchased it by His precious blood.
(2) He makes the peace of His own efficacy. The covenant of grace is the covenant of peace, and He is the Mediator of it. He does, by His Spirit, bring the sinner into the covenant of peace, and by His intercession obtains peace with God for him. He, by the same Spirit, unites men to Himself by faith, and to one another in love.
(3) He maintains the peace made.
(4) He restores the peace when at any time it is disturbed Isaiah 57:18).
(5) He perfects the peace.
III. PEACEFUL IN RESPECT OF THE STATE OF HIS KINGDOM. He is the true Solomon (Peaceful); and no king of Israel had such a peaceable and prosperous reign as Solomon.
1. Every one of His subjects is, by His wise management, put in a state of John 16:33).
2. The peace of His kingdom is the fruit of war and victory in that war. What made Solomon’s reign so peaceable was David’s wars and victories. Our Lord Christ was a man of war; He fought and overcame sin, death, and the devil; and the peace of His kingdom now is the fruit of that.
3. Hence in His kingdom is the greatest wealth and abundance.
4. The good of His kingdom is advanced from all quarters, and there is nothing but is turned to the profit thereof, by the infinite wisdom of the Prince (Romans 8:28).
5. In the end the peace of His kingdom will be absolute. Solomon’s reign was more peaceable in the beginning than toward the end. But Christ’s kingdom is contrariwise; though, indeed, it will never end. But, at last, all occasion of disturbance, from without or from within, will be utterly cut off. (T. Boston.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
1. We learn from the Roman historians, that at the time of our Lord’s nativity, the temple of Janus at Rome was shut up, in token of a profound peace all over the world; for the Romans, being then lords of the world, had power to make peace or war as they pleased. But there was a special providence of God in it, that His blessed Son, “the Prince of Peace,” should be brought into the world in such a season of tranquillity. Accordingly we hear the angels proclaiming at His nativity. “Peace on earth, and goodwill towards men.”
2. When He came to preach the Gospel, He began His sermon, with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers; bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” He calls upon His disciples to learn of Him to be meek and lowly in heart, that they might find rest for their souls. When He was apprehended and brought to His trial, He practised His own doctrine of meekness and patience. And when St. Peter drew his sword in His defence, He commanded him to put it up again, “for,” says He, all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword.
3. When He took His leave of His disciples, He bequeathed peace to them, as the best legacy which He could leave them. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” At His various appearances among them after His resurrection, He commonly saluted them with the blessing of peace.
4. One great end of our Lord’s coming into the world was, to break down the partition walls between all nations, and take away all party distinctions from among men.
5. The most signal act which entitles our Lord to the character of the Prince of Peace, is this, that He has reconciled us to God, and made an atonement for the sins of the whole world. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
I. HE IS THE PEACE BRINGER, as He is the revealer of His Father’s peaceful designs towards His sinful creatures.
1. Point out the situation in which man stood in relation to God.
2. The office of Christ as the bringer of peace reminds us how God might have acted in relation to man.
3. But His love prompted Him to a design of rich and sovereign mercy.
4. He has developed this design through the medium of His Son, who, therefore, takes His title from His work--the Prince of Peace.
II. HE IS THE PEACEMAKER; the efficient means of procuring, and establishing peace between God and man.
1. His atonement made reconciliation for the sin of man.
2. By His mediatorial office He secures peace for us individually.
III. HE IS A PRINCELY GIVER OF PEACE.
I. It is a knowledge of His sacrifice which gives peace to the troubled conscience.
2. By Him we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit which gives peace from the power of sin.
3. He brings us into a state of communion with God, so that we enjoy peace.
4. The peace which Jesus gives endures through all troubles and in spite of all enemies.
5. He gives eternal peace and rest in heaven.
IV. THE FOUNDATION AND SUPPORT OF HIS KINGDOM ON EARTH IS PEACE.
1. It Was founded without the intervention of violence or carnal weapons.
2. Its very essence consists in the influence of peaceful doctrines.
3. In the promotion of His kingdom He employs none but peaceable means. (The Evangelist.)
The Prince of Peace
I. HE POSSESSES PEACE. He possesses it as none other does, in greater measure, the abundance of it. It is all at His command. He is the Prince or Monarch of it.
1. He is in a world where the noise of our strife and tumult never reaches. Discord is never known there, change is never experienced.
2. And then we must try to get into His mysterious soul, and see the eternal calm which reigns there day after day, year after year, age after age, unbroken. All is as quiet within as around Him. And it is not the quiet of inaction or indifference, of a clod of earth or a stone; His mind is ever working and ever feeling, and with an energy which to us is inconceivable; but yet His mind is never ruffled.
II. HE EXERCISES PEACE.
1. Look at Him as He trod our earth. The meek and quiet lamb was an image of Him.
2. He bears long with His enemies.
3. He bears much, too, with His friends.
4. There must, then, be a mighty inclination to peace where things are thus.
III. HE BESTOWS OR DISPENSES PEACE. God is often called in Scripture the God of that which He communicates. In this way may our Lord be called the Prince of Peace.
1. Our peace with God flows from Him.
2. And peace, too, among men.
3. Peace of conscience and peace of mind are His gifts.
IV. HE DELIGHTS IN PEACE. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Messiah, the Prince of Peace
Christ, our blessed Lord, does evidently by establishing peace in each bosom of His people, peace in each family of His disciples, peace in each congregation of His saints, and peace in all His Churches, lead directly to the establishment of international peace throughout the world. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
Apparent contradictions
When we receive this prediction of our Lord, and reflect upon it, we are met with some contradictions to it, which are both apparent and most effectual. Our Lord, when He was upon earth, declared on the contrary--“I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword.” Accordingly, He further told His disciples that they must expect to be “hated of all men,” and to be “hated of all nations.” He warned them, that the feuds that should arise through His doctrine, would poison the peace of families; “the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child.” He warned them, that there should be public persecution as well as private, and that they should be dragged before governors and kings for His sake, and scourged in public. Universal war, then, rather than peace, seemed to be predicted as the result of the doctrine of Christ. And have not facts, up to this day, answered to these predictions? Ten imperial persecutions, extended over the most civilised parts of the world, threatened through three centuries the extermination of the Church of Christ: in which every atrocity was committed, and the barbarous ingenuity of man taxed to the utmost extent to devise new torments to make the servants of Jesus Christ suffer, And when heathenism was subdued by the power of the Gospel, and ceased to reign, it was only that this other prediction might be accomplished fearfully in the earth; so that the saints of Jesus Christ became His martyrs throughout Europe. Papal Rome succeeded to the enmity of pagan Rome: in the valleys of Piedmont, and along the plains of France, and throughout the Low Countries, and in England also, as well as, in the time of the Reformation, throughout Italy and Spain, everywhere accomplishing what Christ by His apostle had predicted, and bringing myriads of the saints of Jesus to public martyrdom; massacring without mercy the feeblest and the strongest, young and old, and threatening the extermination of the Church of Christ. And this led to still more extensive offerings to the sanguinary dispositions of man; great and long protracted wars following these massacres. Witness the wars of the Hussites in Bohemia, the wars of the Huguenots in France, to mention no other civil commotions, to which the doctrine of Christ has seemed to lead. And then, when the sword was sheathed, and nation was not imbruing its hands in the blood of other nations for the sake of theology, even then the different Churches of Christ raged in enmity one towards the other: factions that have not ceased to this day, so that the governments of the world find questions of theology and ecclesiastical rivalry still mingling with the counsels of senates, and embarrassing all their decisions. Is this the peace which Christ came to produce? In what sense is He “the Prince of Peace”? (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
The Prince of Peace not responsible for strife and violence
These evils that have arisen from the doctrine of Christ, and which, perhaps, have made that doctrine occasion more bloodshed than any single cause that has afflicted mankind, do not in the least degree detract from the glory of this great Monarch, this adorable Saviour, who after all establishes beyond all question at once, to the minds of all who believe on Him, His claim to be “the Prince of Peace,” throughout the universe. If the servants of Jesus Christ were sent forth by Him as sheep among wolves, and the wolves have torn the sheep in every land, it is not the fault of the sheep that these raging persecutions have taken place. If He has sent forth His disciples to love one another, and to love all mankind, it is not the fault of Him, nor His doctrine, nor His people, if apostates from His faith have chosen to carry His abused name upon their foreheads, and under that name to persecute with a violence which would have stamped infamy even upon heathenism, those who loved Him and served Him the best in the earth. And, if those who have even followed Him with honesty of purpose, have yet been so ill instructed in His declared will, or have sinfully given way to the weakness of their tempers, so that those have quarrelled for ages, who by His express authority ought to have been one in Him, it is not to be ascribed to His doctrine, but to their faults. And all this evil, great as it unquestionably is, and though it has fed the mirth of the infidel age after age, is transitory still, preparatory still; and still does the strong and stead fast faith of His people carry forward their thought to that day when transient evil will only end in lasting good, and when, after all impediments have been swept, away: He will still reign everywhere and always as “the Prince of Peace.” (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
All creation at war with the sinner
When God wars against the sinner, all creation must war. The earth wars against him in its barrenness, its poisons, its inundations, its earthquakes and volcanoes. The atmosphere wars against him in its storms and thunders, and winds breathing pestilence. The beasts war against him, thirsting for his blood, and pursuing him as their prey. His neighbour wars against him, slandering him, robbing him, oppressing him, and murdering him. The angels war against him, executing the judgments of their insulted King. He wars against himself, his own passions enslaving and destroying him, and his conscience stinging him with deadly remorse. The grave and hell have marked him for their victim. Oh, how beautiful, then, upon the mountains are the feet of Him that publisheth peace. (W. Anderson, LL. D.)
The good time coming
What a day that will be when museums shall be erected to preserve as curiosities the implements and accoutrements of war, that the children of the new age may study the old barbaric times which shall have passed away as a bad dream! (P. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The Prince of Peace
It would be ridiculous to depict the Lord Jesus with a rifle over His shoulder. (Josiah Mee.)