Isaiah 9:6,7
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 Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): All these, and many more, are names given to Christ in Scripture. Each is a fountain of instruction and comfort for everyone who is willing to drink of it. Each supplies matter for useful meditation.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The fourth name is “Everlasting Father,” or “Father of Eternity.”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Septuagint renders the clause “the Father of the age,” or “the world to come;” and hence mention is made in the Jewish writings of “the world to come of the Messiah.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): In my opinion, the translation is correct, for it denotes eternity, unless it be thought better to view it as denoting “perpetual duration,” or “an endless succession of ages,” lest any one should improperly limit it to the heavenly life, which is still hidden from us, Colossians 3:3. True, the Prophet includes it, and even declares that Christ will come, in order to bestow immortality on His people; but as believers, even in this world, “pass from death to life,” this world is embraced by the eternal condition, John 5:24; 1 John 3:14.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The “everlasting Father.” This name has puzzled many.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): This title respects not Christ’s relation to the Deity, for with respect to that, He is the Son and not the Father.
JOHN GILL: The “everlasting Father” does not design any relation of Christ in the Godhead. There is but one Father in the Godhead, and that is the first Person; indeed Christ and the Father are one, and the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father, and He that has seen the one has seen the other, and yet they are distinct.―Christ is a Father with respect to chosen men who were given Him as His children and offspring in covenant; who are adopted into that family that is named of Him, and who are regenerated by His Spirit and grace. And to these He is an “everlasting Father.”
A. W. PINK: Christ is the “everlasting Father” because from everlasting He has had “children!”―“Behold I and the children which God hath given Me,” Hebrews 2:13. Those whom God hath given to Christ were referred to by Him, again and again, during His public ministry. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me,” John 6:37. “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me…I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me,” John 17:6-9. They were given to Christ before the foundation of the world. These “children” are God’s elect, sovereignly singled out by Him, and from the beginning chosen unto salvation, 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): And of all these it must be said, that every individual of Christ’s seed was in Christ from all eternity, for they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And all the purposes and grace designed for the Church in time, with the sure hope of eternal life in the world to come, were all given to every individual of the Church, before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2. Of Christ’s whole seed, it may be truly said, as was said by the Holy Ghost of Levi being in the loins of his father Abraham, when Melchizedeck met him; so all of Christ’s seed were in Him, and He their everlasting Father from all eternity, Hebrews 7:10.
THOMAS COKE: As Adam was the first man that God created, so he was the first father and progenitor of all other men, who are every one born in his image as they come into the world of nature, and breathe the vital air. Just so, from Jesus Christ, the everlasting Father, all who come into the world of grace derive their spiritual being; His image they bear, I Corinthians 15:49, and from Him “the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” Ephesians 3:15. So, all the saints are descendants from Jesus Christ, their everlasting Father.
JOHN GILL: These bear His name, and are called “Christians” from Him.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): He is ‘the everlasting Father;’ a father to beget His likeness in us, and everlasting to maintain it ever, when it is begun once.
JOHN GILL: And Christ is a Father to these unto everlasting; He will never die, and they shall never be left fatherless; He and they will ever continue in this relation; He, as such, supplies them with everlasting provisions, He clothes them with everlasting raiment, He gives them an everlasting portion, promotes them to everlasting honour, saves them with an everlasting salvation, bearing an everlasting love to them.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He is the Author of everlasting life and happiness to them, and so is the Father of a blessed eternity to them. It was “from everlasting” in the counsels of it, and will be “to everlasting” in the consequences of it.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): This “everlasting Father” shall have an endless government.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,” Psalm 103:17. As God’s mercy was from eternity exercised in gracious purposes, so it will be continued unto eternity in that future and endless life.
CHARLES SIMEON: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. How far back does this “yesterday” go?
ROBERT HAWKER: What “yesterday?” In all the eternity past. Set up from everlasting in His Mediator character, Proverbs 8:23. “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Revelation 13:8.
JOHN GILL: He existed not only as the eternal Word, the everlasting “I AM,” but as the Saviour and Redeemer of His people—and He is “today” under the Gospel dispensation, in His person as the God-man, and in His offices as Prophet, Priest, and King: and will be so “forever:” He will never die more; His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His priesthood an unchangeable one.
ROBERT HAWKER: The oneness between Jesus and His people, gives a right of interest in all that belongs to Him, as the Head and Mediator of His redeemed. He hath said Himself, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” John 14:19.
JOHN GILL: “His seed also will I make to endure forever,” Psalm 89:29. His seed and offspring, shall endure forever―the “enduring” of these “forever” may denote the final perseverance of particular believers; which may be concluded from the relation of Christ, as an everlasting Father to them, who therefore must continue as His children.
