Why is Christ called the Everlasting Father?
- 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.
TLDR
Christ is the father, not to Himself, or to His Father, rather He is the father to us, for He said: “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me” Isaiah 8:18; Hebrews 2:13
Here Christ is said to be called “The everlasting Father.” This confuses some people and has led others to wrong conclusions. This quote can be better and more easily understood through Abraham, as Abraham is a type of Christ. No prophet or other biblical figure is a perfect representative of Christ, but they are types of Christ in some details, some more and some less. Let’s examine how Abraham is a type of Christ and how God, speaking to Abraham, is actually speaking to and about Christ, revealing to us the Covenant that exists between Him and His Son.
Abraham was told:
- Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
- And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
- And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Here God also described Christ: Christ is the one who left His Father’s house to go to another land which God promised would be an eternal inheritance for Him and His offspring. Through Christ, all nations on earth are blessed, and through Christ, through His saving sacrifice and ministry, a great nation of saved people has emerged who will share His eternal inheritance with Christ; the New Earth.
Further it was said to Abraham, but actually it was said to Christ and about Christ, and about the Covenant between the Father and Son:
- And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
- And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
- And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
- As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
- Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
- And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
- And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
- And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Abraham is a type of Christ, and this text reveals to us in more detail the Covenant between the Father and Son. Here it is said of Christ: “walk before me, and be thou perfect.” Only Christ was perfect in His walk with God. Here the promises of God the Father to His Son are revealed, and elsewhere the Son’s promises to His Father are revealed within the Plan of Salvation (see The Covenant between the Father and the Son). God made a Covenant with His Son and promised Him the Earth, and to His offspring, that is, His children, namely the faithful. Together with Christ, God promised eternal life on the New Earth to the faithful because through Christ, God also made a Covenant with all who were reconciled to Him through His Son. But most importantly here is that God said of Christ “and thou shalt be a father of many nations” and also said “for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Here it is clear that the Heavenly Father made Christ, His Son, the Father of many nations, that is, the Father of the children whom God gave Him, which are all who turned to Him with their whole heart for salvation. Christ is not the Father to His Father, nor is He Father to Himself, but He is Father to His children whom God gave Him. And therefore Christ says in Isaiah 8:18:
- Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
Paul quotes this in Hebrews and confirms that Christ said this:
- For both he that sanctifieth [Christ] and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
- Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
- And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
- Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
The Father promised to give Christ all who would be loyal and faithful. And thus God made Christ the Everlasting Father to those children whom He gave to Him for an eternal inheritance. Christ confirms this:
- As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
- My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
- All things are delivered unto me of my Father…
John the Baptist confirms:
- The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Ellen White confirms in The Desire of Ages:
However much a shepherd may love his sheep, he loves his sons and daughters more. Jesus is not only our shepherd; He is our “everlasting Father.” And He says, “I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father.” John 10:14, 15, R. V. What a statement is this!—the only-begotten Son, He who is in the bosom of the Father, He whom God has declared to be “the Man that is My fellow” (Zechariah 13:7),—the communion between Him and the eternal God is taken to represent the communion between Christ and His children on the earth! {EGW; DA 483.2; 1898}
Because we are the gift of His Father, and the reward of His work, Jesus loves us. He loves us as His children. Reader, He loves you. Heaven itself can bestow nothing greater, nothing better. Therefore trust. {EGW; DA 483.3; 1898}
God the Father, Christ’s Father, has given the souls of the faithful into Christ’s hands as His eternal inheritance, as His children whom He has redeemed with His precious blood, and thus God in Heaven made Christ the Everlasting Father to those people who will be eternally saved.
“His name shall be… The everlasting Father.”
