FATHERLY!

Unrecognized. Unseen. Undiscovered. Nobody knows. Nobody sees. Nobody cares. As long as there is plenty of food, lots of cheer, a plethora of tinsel, and cornucopia of gifts, everyone’s happy. Jesus? Who’s that?

I wonder sometimes if that’s not true of us who are believers as well. Too caught up in the hustle and bustle, and the baking and decorating, the bargain-hunting, gift-wrapping, and card-writing. Too busy to think of Jesus.

Me, too. There’s one facet of our Lord Jesus that I’ve personally not paid much attention to.

And His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:5

There it is. An element that has puzzled me often. A facet of our Savior that I hadn’t fully recognized or seen or understood.

Eternal Father. That threw me off: Eternal Father? Jesus? Isaiah, to me, was getting a bit discombobulated here. He should’ve taken a few classes at DTS. We’d have set the old geezer straight on the Persons of the Trinity. Eternal Father? Don’t you know better than that, Isaiah?

The answer is actually rather simple. You see, these titles do not focus primarily on the child’s deity, but on His function.

Wonderful Counselor, standing for Jesus’ function as Awesome Planner, indicating His sovereign design and marvelous purposes. He’s the Planning One.

Mighty God, stands for God who fights as a warrior: Jesus fought for our redemption—He’s the Fighting One.

Prince of Peace, Jesus is the One whose reign alone will bring peace—He’s the Ruling One.

See, all are functional titles, primarily. And then there is … Eternal Father. Well, if the others are primarily functional titles, then so’s this one.

Eternal Father—the One who does fatherly things—the Fatherly One.

This Planning One, this Fighting One, this Ruling One, is also the Fatherly One. This Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, is also … fatherly to us. You know what that means?

Who will separate us
from the love of Christ?
Will tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
But in all these things
we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from
[Christ’s love for us].
Romans 8:35, 37–39

That’s His fatherliness: His care, His concern, His love!

That’s His fatherliness; Our Lord Jesus, the Fatherly One who loves us, who died for us.

The Eternal Fatherly One, our Savior who loves us and gave Himself for us. Everyone else’s fatherhood is self-tainted, not His. His fatherhood is sacrificial, not selfish. Every other father is inadequate. Not this One. Everyone else’s fatherhood is temporary, not His. His fatherhood is eternal. Eternal Father. His love for us is eternal. His love for us will never ever end. Never. Ever! This Child is fatherly to us, and fatherly to us forever.

That was something I hadn’t thought about much. Jesus, Eternal Fatherly One.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.
William Featherston, 1864

He came once. He is coming again. The Eternal Fatherly One who loves me!