Every year in December as the world celebrates Christmas, they repeat the words of Isaiah 9:6: “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.” While the world appreciates the promise and applies it to Jesus, they grasp neither the depth nor the enormity of what was given or what it will accomplish.
John 3:16 tells us what was given: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just as God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac (Gen. 22:1-18), God gave His only begotten Son Jesus to take Adam’s place under the penalty of death. God did not spare His only son (Rom. 8:32). Instead, He demonstrated what true, unselfish love was as John expressed it in 1 John 4:9 (NASB): “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
Jesus, in his pre-human existence was the only direct creation of God. Called the “Word” in John 1:1-3, he was in the beginning with God as a “master workman” using the Creator’s power and direction to create the heavens and the earth (Prov. 8:22-31 NASB). “All things came into being through Him [Jesus], and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3 NASB). As the apostle Paul explains it, God and His son together created all things, both spiritual and terrestrial. “There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6 NASB).
When sin entered the world and a perfect human being was required to redeem Adam and all his descendants, our Lord volunteered to be made flesh and suffer the penalty of death. “But emptied Himself [Jesus], taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8 NASB). Jesus humbled himself twice, first being made flesh giving up the spiritual for the earthly and then humbled himself again, dying on the cross.
Because of his faithfulness unto death, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11 NASB). God performed this exaltation “when He [God] raised Him [Jesus] from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20 NASB).
Paul also speaks of this exaltation in Hebrews 5:8-10 (Phillips): “Son [Jesus] though
he was, he had to prove the meaning of obedience through all that he suffered. Then, when he had been proved the perfect Son, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who should obey him, being now recognised by God himself as High Priest ‘after the order of Melchizedek.’”
As a high priest (and king) after the order of Melchizedek, the risen Jesus has been given all power in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18) and then fulfills through his earthly kingdom, the four titles prophetically mentioned in Isaiah 9:6. He will be a “wonderful counselor” or teacher, teaching the human family righteousness (Isa. 26:9). He will be “a light to the Gentiles; To open blind eyes and … make darkness light before them [mankind], and crooked things straight” (Isa. 42:6,7,16). He will be a mighty God using his power to bind Satan for 1,000 years so that he can deceive the nations no more (Rev. 20:2-3), dashing the nations into pieces to establish his earthly kingdom (Psa. 2:9) and then permitting nothing to hurt nor destroy in his earthly kingdom (Isa. 11:9). He will be an everlasting Father calling forth all of mankind from the grave (John 5:28-29) and giving everyone an opportunity to walk up the way of holiness to become righteous and receive everlasting life here upon the earth (Isa. 35:8-10; Isa. 62:10). He will heal mankind of all their diseases (Isa. 35:5,6). “No inhabitant will say, ‘I am sick’; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity” (Isa. 30:24). Finally, he will become the Prince of Peace by bringing mankind back into peace with God through the blood of his cross (Eph. 2:13-17). He will speak peace to the nations and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isa. 2:4).
The only begotten Son Jesus was made flesh and then gave up his human life in sacrifice so that he might re-gather the rebellious, human sons of God (Adam and his descendants) back into harmony with God. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure … through Him [Jesus] to reconcile all things to Himself [God], having made peace through the blood of His [Jesus] cross; through Him [Jesus], I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col. 1:19-20 NASB).