Jesus our Father?

This post was first published on ROOTSS on Monday, 8th December 2008

When I was much much younger, I was under the impression that since God was one God, the names Jehovah, Jesus, El Shaddai, Holy Spirit, etc all referred to Him.

Sometime in the mid-eighties, I remember my then Senior Pastor, Rev Dr Kang Ho Soon preaching about the Trinity, and that kind of confused me at first because God is one, yet God is also three persons. Gradually, I began to understand the mystery about the Triune God, ie God the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

They are distinct Persons with distinct ministries. God the Father is the One who is mentioned throughout the Old Testament, and the One whom we now address as Daddy God because of what the cross has accomplished. God the Son is the One who made that all possible by becoming a man to redeem mankind. God the Holy Spirit is the One who now dwells inside of us and guides us into all truth in our everyday life.

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I came across the following song in 1988 when I was in the church choir and had to sing it during Christmas...

For unto us a child is born
Unto us a Son is given
And the government will be upon His shoulders
And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God
the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace is He.


This song is based on Isa 9:6 and it was a prophesy about the Incarnation. Knowing that it referred to Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Godhead, now another thing began to confuse me as it seemed to be inconsistent with the Trinity.

I mean, why was Jesus being referred to as the Everlasting Father? I thought He was supposed to be the Son? I struggled with this for some time but decided to dismiss it off as "one of those things in the Bible that doesn't make sense, but just accept it by faith, lor".

Well, the long-awaited answer to the above question arrived yesterday, some 20 years later :-D

Ps Reuben preached on that very verse in Isaiah!!! (which is part of a current sermon series leading up to Christmas about the prophecies regarding the Messiah).
Ps Reuben explained that Jesus was called "Father" not in the context of His relationship with the other 2 in the Godhead. Rather, he is "father" in the sense that He (as the second and last Adam), is considered the ancestor to all of us in the New Covenant, just like how the first Adam is the father of all humankind! What a revelation!

But what brought tears to my eyes and a stirring within my spirit man was when Ps Reuben said that because Jesus is the "Everlasting" Father, what this implies to us in the New Covenant is that He cannot be "un-fathered" nor can we be "un-childed". I know it is bad English, but it drives home the point about the blessed assurance that we have about our salvation and position in Christ. Hallelujah!

Speaking of which, you can listen to that sermon entitled "And His Name shall be called..." at the following link:

http://www.box.net/shared/f8tkax65so

His other anointed sermons can be downloaded at the following link:

Anointed Sermons