Message Five

The Sign of Christ’s Incarnation
and
the Unveiling of Christ as the Wonderful One

Scripture Reading: Isa. 7:11-14; 8:8; 9:6-7; 63:16; 64:8

1. Regarding God’s economy, the intrinsic connection between the books of history in the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament is in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6; these verses indicate that God would put humanity upon Himself, thereby mingling divinity with humanity—John 1:14; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20.
2. In Isaiah 7:14 we have the sign of Christ’s incarnation:
   1. Jehovah wanted Ahaz, king of Judah, to ask for a sign (vv. 10-25); this sign is related to the ushering in of Christ, who was born of a virgin.
   2. Isaiah prophesied that the very God of Israel would become a human child born of a virgin and that His name would be called Immanuel—v. 14:
      1. The sign of a virgin conceiving and bearing a son covers the entire Bible from Genesis 11 through Revelation 22.
      2. The actual fulfillment of this sign was the birth of a son by Isaiah’s wife; the ultimate fulfillment was the incarnation, in which Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary as a child of a dual nature, the divine nature and the human nature, issuing in Immanuel, “God with us”—Isa. 8:3; Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:35.
   3. The land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8) is the land of Judah, the Holy Land, as the territory of Immanuel, God with us; this land, which was invaded by the army of Assyria, is the land that Christ will inherit to build up His millennial kingdom with His two elect peoples, the chosen Jews as His earthly people and the chosen believers as His heavenly people.
   4. We should consider the sign of a virgin conceiving and bearing a son—the sign of Christ’s incarnation—in relation to Satan’s use of Babylon to oppose God and God’s economy—13:1, 19; 14:4, 11-15; 21:9; 47:1; 48:20:
      1. In the Bible the result of Satan’s work is Babylon; his opposition to God began with Babylon and will end with Babylon—Gen. 11:1-9; Rev. 17—18.
      2. Babylon was the worst nation in offending God, and its king was one with Satan (Isa. 14:4, 11-15); therefore, Babylon is God’s number one enemy, being both the beginning and the conclusion of human government, and it will be thoroughly judged, condemned, and punished by God—21:9; Jer. 51:8-9; Rev. 14:8; 18:2.
      3. Even the termination of Babylon is included in the sign of a virgin bearing a son called Immanuel—Isa. 7:14; 8:8.
   5. The prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 concerning Immanuel can be seen in fulfillment in Matthew 1:20-23:
      1. The child born of a human virgin is Emmanuel, God with man:
         1. God was begotten in the virgin Mary of the Holy Spirit—v. 20.
         2. The child born of Mary was a “God-man child”—a divine-human child.
      2. God Himself came to be both God and man, the God-man, to be Jesus—Jehovah the Savior—v. 21.
      3. Jesus was the name given by God, whereas Emmanuel was the name by which man called Him—v. 23:
         1. He was called by those who experienced Him Emmanuel—God with us.
         2. The more we experience the Lord Jesus, the more we will know that He is Emmanuel.
   6. The practical Immanuel, the presence of the Triune God, is the Spirit of reality—John 1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
      1. He is with us in our gatherings and all our days—Matt. 18:20; 28:20.
      2. He is with us in our spirit, which today is the land of Immanuel—2 Tim. 4:22; Isa. 8:6-8.
   7. Immanuel is all-inclusive—Phil. 1:19:
      1. He is first our Savior (Luke 2:11), then our Redeemer (John 1:29; Rom. 3:24), then our Life-giver (1 Cor. 15:45b), and then the all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit (John 14:16-20; Rom. 8:9-11).
      2. Actually, the content of the entire New Testament is an Immanuel (Matt. 1:23; 18:20; 28:20; Rev. 21:3), and all the believers in Christ, as the members of Christ, are a part of this great Immanuel, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11).
      3. The sign of Immanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the aggregate of Immanuel, the totality of God being with us—Rev. 21:2-3, 10.
3. In Isaiah 9:6-7 we have the unveiling of Christ as the wonderful One:
   1. Christ is mentioned as a child born to us and as a Son given to us—v. 6:
      1. The words to us indicate that this is not a doctrine but an experience.
      2. The repetition of to us indicates a strong emphasis, showing that whatever is revealed in this verse is to us in a very personal, subjective, and experiential way.
      3. Christ as the child, the Son, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, and the Prince of Peace is for our experience—v. 6.
   2. The child born to us is both human and divine, and the Son given to us is divine:
      1. The divine Son was given through the birth of the divine-human child—John 3:16:
         1. The word child in Isaiah 9:6 implies God, implies man, implies God becoming a man, and implies God and man mingled together as one.
         2. This child of both the divine and human natures born of a human virgin is also the Son given in the divine nature by the Eternal Father.
         3. The child born in verse 6 is the One born of a virgin and called Immanuel in 7:14.
      2. The Eternal Father gave us a gift, and that gift was His Son, who became the God-man—John 3:16; 4:10; Rom. 6:23; 1 John 5:11-12.
   3. Mighty God is the name of the child, and Eternal Father—the Father in the Godhead—is the name of the Son—Isa. 63:16; 64:8; John 5:43; 10:30; 14:10, 26.
   4. Isaiah 9:6 reveals clearly that the child is the Mighty God and that the Son is the Eternal Father:
      1. The Son in Isaiah 9:6 bears two main denotations:
         1. One denotation is that He is the son of a human virgin who was born of her; the other denotation is that He is also the Son of the Most High—7:14; Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:32.
         2. The Son as the son of Mary with the human nature was born, and the Son as the Son of the Most High with the divine nature was given through the birth of the son of Mary—vv. 31-33.
         3. This wonderful Son was born of the human source and given from the divine source; He is both human and divine—John 3:16; Gal. 4:4.
      2. According to Isaiah 9:6, the Son given to us is called the Eternal Father, the Father of eternity, the One who is self-existing and ever-existing:
         1. The Father in the Godhead is the Father of eternity, and according to verse 6 the Son is also the Father of eternity, the Eternal Father.
         2. There is only one Eternal Father, the Father who is self-existing and ever-existing.
      3. Isaiah 9:6 is confirmed and strengthened by John 14:7-11:
         1. In verse 9 the Lord said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
         2. The Father and the Son are one; thus, if we confess the Son, we have the Father also—10:30; 1 John 2:23.
      4. The prophet Isaiah uses 63:16 and 64:8 as a further development of what he prophesied concerning Christ as the Eternal Father in 9:6:
         1. In 64:8 he says that the Eternal Father is our Creator, and in 63:16, that the Eternal Father is our Redeemer.
         2. The Eternal Father being both our Creator and our Redeemer confirms and strengthens the understanding that the Redeemer, Christ, is the Eternal Father, the holy Father in the Godhead.
         3. From the revelation in the entire book of Isaiah, we can conclude that Eternal Father in 9:6 refers to both Jehovah and Jesus; hence, although He is the Son, His name is called Eternal Father.
   5. For the government to be upon Christ’s shoulder means that the divine administration is upon the shoulder of this child who is born and this Son who is given—v. 6.
   6. Christ is the Wonderful Counselor; our Counselor is the Mighty God, who gives us counsel and is the power and strength to carry out this counsel—v. 6.
   7. The title Prince of Peace is related to government—vv. 6-7:
      1. When we have Christ as the Prince of Peace, we have His ruling, His government, and we enjoy His peace, which comes from His inner ruling—Eph. 2:14-15; 4:3; Col. 3:15.
      2. The government, which is upon His shoulder, will be increased with His peace without end—Isa. 9:7.
      3. He will be upon the throne of David to rule over His kingdom and to establish His kingdom in justice and righteousness, first in the millennial kingdom and then in the new heaven and new earth unto eternity—Luke 1:31-33.
4. In Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7 we have the high peak of the divine revelation:
   1. God became man for the purpose of accomplishing His economy by making man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—John 1:1, 14, 29; 3:14; 7:39; 12:24; 20:17, 22.
   2. God became man to redeem man back to Himself and to make His redeemed people God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead so that He might have for eternity a universal, corporate expression of Himself—Rom. 8:3; 3:24; 1:3-4; 8:9-11, 29; 12:4-5; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:6, 10; 21:2, 10.