I am both a son, and a father. I am the son of my father, and I am also the father of my son. Today I’m going to talk about the Son, who is also a Father.
When Isaiah says in Isaiah 9:6 that a child who will be born to us will have the name, “Eternal Father,” many Christians become confused. They say, “If the Father-God is the Father, and if Jesus Christ is the Son, then how can Jesus Christ also be “Eternal Father”? Well, this verse is not teaching the Fatherhood of Christ as though Christ is both the Son and the Father (this is, by the way, how some try to explain away the Trinity). Actually, this name “Eternal Father” in Isaiah 9:6 literally says that He is “The Father of Eternity.”
The word “Father” is in what the Hebrew language refers to as the construct state. This simply means that it should be translated “The Father of…” meaning, the “author of; or the Controller of…”, and in this case, “The Father of Eternity.”
So the idea here is this: Jesus Christ has the authority over eternal life. He possesses it. He controls it, and in that sense – He’s the Father of it. During my teen years, if I wanted to borrow the family car, I had to go to my father and ask him, because the car belonged to him. Now that’s the idea here. Eternal life belongs to Jesus. He’s the Father of it. So, I have to come to Him in order to get it. He’s the “Father of Eternity.”
Say – if you’re looking for eternal life, there’s only one place you can get it. You have to come to Jesus and receive Him as your Savior.