Eternal Father

"For a child will be born to us ... and His name will be called ... Eternal Father" (Isaiah 9:6).

Of the four names of Jesus included in this verse, this one seems to be the most awkward. After all, Jesus is the Son. How can He be called the Father? We might struggle to understand this name without the book of John, but this name actually corresponds very well to the revelation included in John. Before considering the "Father" part, however, let's examine the "Eternal" part.

"He [Jesus] is before all things" (Colossians 1:17). In fact, "by Him all things were created" (v. 16); Jesus existed before the creation of the world. "He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:2). Revelation 1 and 2 call Jesus "the first and the last" or the Alpha and Omega. He has no beginning or ending. Both Psalms and Hebrews refer to Jesus as "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:17), of whom the noteworthy distinction was that he was "without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life" (Hebrews 7:3). Jesus Himself claimed eternality when he declared, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). Jesus claimed the eternally existing name of God; this hallowed designation permeated the Old Testament, and the listening Jews knew exactly what Jesus was claiming, because they picked up stones to kill Him. Yes, Jesus is eternal.

Jesus can be called the Eternal Father because God is one. The remaining verses, all from the gospel of John, reveal the unity of the Godhead.

The Son and the Father have a unity of essence. What one is, the other is. "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself" (5:26). Their existence is intertwined and interdependent. "I live because of the Father" (6:57). Whom one loves, the other loves. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him" (14:21).

The Son and the Father have a unity of operation. What one does, the other does. "Whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner" (5:19). "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working" (5:17). "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes" (5:21). "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son" (5:22), so that the Son's judgment is the Father's judgment. Their fellowship with the believer can't be either/or; it has to be both together. "We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (14:23). Together they securely hold the believer. "No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father ... is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand" (10:28-29).

The Son and the Father share a unity of mission. Jesus came solely on His Father's authority, so that Jesus' mission was the Father's mission. "I have come in My Father's name" (5:43). "For I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me" (8:42). They are so united, that Jesus could not do anything apart from the Father. "I can do nothing on My own initiative. ... I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (5:30). "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (8:29). "I do exactly as the Father commanded Me" (14:31). Jesus could not even speak except to speak the Father's words. "I speak these things as the Father taught Me" (8:28). "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. ... Therefore the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me" (12:49-50). "The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me" (14:24). There was no possible deviation in the unified mission, even when the result was death. "The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" (18:11).

The Son and the Father share a unity of equality. The Jews recognized that Jesus "was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God" (5:18). When one is hated, they are both hated together. "He who hates Me hates My Father also" (15:23). They own the same things together. "All things that the Father has are Mine" (16:15). They share eternal glory together. "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (17:5).

The Son and the Father share a unity of inseparability. One cannot be honored without the other being honored. "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father" (5:23). One cannot be known without knowing the other. "If you knew Me, you would know My Father also" (8:19). One cannot be seen without seeing the other. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (14:9). They must be approached together. "No one comes to the Father but through Me" (14:6). They cannot be apart from each other. "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me" (16:32). They are in each other. "The Father is in Me, and I in the Father" (10:38). Ultimately, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" (10:30).

Jesus, in flesh, was the revelation of the God who is Spirit. "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (John 1:18). As odd as it may seem, Jesus is the Eternal Father.