He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: He shall be great - Behold the greatness of the man Christ Jesus:
1st. Because that human nature that should be born of the virgin was to be united with the Divine nature.
2dly. In consequence of this, that human nature should be called in a peculiar sense the Son of the most high God; because God would produce it in her womb without the intervention of man.
3rdly. He shall be the everlasting Head and Sovereign of his Church.
4thly. His government and kingdom shall be eternal.
Revolutions may destroy the kingdoms of the earth, but the powers and gates of hell and death shall never be able to destroy or injure the kingdom of Christ. His is the only dominion that shall never have an end. The angel seems here to refer to Isaiah 9:7; Isaiah 16:5; Jeremiah 23:5; Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:14. All which prophecies speak of the glory, extent, and perpetuity of the evangelical kingdom. The kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory form the endless government of Christ.