The Coming of God’s Son

Isaiah 9:6, 7; John 1:1-4; 1 John 4:9-11

GOLDEN TEXT: “The Father hath sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”—I John 4:14

APPROPRIATE to this season of the year today’s lesson is a prophetic picture of “Israel’s Hope” and “the desire of all nations,” the picture of Messiah and His Millennial Kingdom. The story of Jesus’ birth and His whole life and death and even His resurrection would be of comparatively slight importance if disconnected from the prophecies of His glorious Kingdom power and reign, under which all the families of the earth shall be blessed. It was in view of this grand consummation to be accomplished by the Kingdom that the angels sang at our Lord’s birth, “Peace on earth, good will toward men,” and proclaimed “Good tidings of great joy which shall he unto all people”—in due time.

The first section of our lesson is a part of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the birth of Jesus and of His glorious Kingdom to be inaugurated at His second advent. The word “for,” with which the sixth verse opens, signifies because; hence we read, “Because unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” The “because” is an explanation of the process by which the foregoing gracious prophecy of blessing and release from the oppressor shall be accomplished.

The Lord would draw the attention of all who have the hearing ear of faith to the fact that no such Kingdom of righteousness, no such enlightenment and blessing of the world could be possible until first Messiah should come. He would show also that Messiah would be born after the manner of mankind, and would nevertheless be the Son of the living God. How beautiful, how simple is the entire statement from the standpoint of faith, yet how possible it is for the wisdom of this world to stumble over even such simple statements as these and to claim, as higher critics do, that this prophecy was wholly to the Jews in Isaiah’s day, and that the one of promise was King Hezekiah.

Blessed are our eyes if they see and our ears if they hear the true meaning of this prophecy, and thus permit us to recognize in it Messiah, the sent of God, Emmanuel, God with us, to be the great Deliverer and to accomplish for us all the wonderful things which God has spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began, confirming the promise made to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Continuing, the prophecy pictures the child grown to manhood and the government placed upon His shoulders—His responsibilities failing upon Him as a royal mantle from the heavenly Emperor, Jehovah. The prophecy stepped over the earthly trials and sufferings of our Redeemer, the Head, and of the church, His body, throughout this Gospel Age. It ignores the names Beelzebub, prince of devils, man of sorrows, etc., and points to us the complete and glorified Messiah at His second Advent, as viewed from the standpoint of Jehovah and from the standpoint from which ultimately the whole world shall recognize Him, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to Him to the glory of the Father. “His name shall he called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God [or Mighty Lord], Everlasting Father [or giver of everlasting life], the Prince of Peace.”

Continuing our lesson in the passages from the Gospel and first Epistle of St. John, we note that the apostles and all believers who had intercourse with our Lord in the days of His flesh, “beheld, His glory.” They beheld the grandeur, the nobility, the perfection of the “Man Christ Jesus”—a perfection and glory seen in no other, because all others were sinners, while He by virtue of special birth, was holy, harmless, separate from sinners.

Our Lord Jesus was crowned with glory and honor in its perfection in the days of His flesh, and His disciples beheld this dignity of human perfection, which marked Him as separate and distinct from all others; and they recognized it as differentiating Him from the world of sinners, marking Him as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace arid truth—abounding in every proper and desirable quality and characteristic.

The final section of our lesson points out that the coming of our Lord to earth and taking the human nature was an evidence of God’s great love for His human creatures, This gift of divine love was another indication of the cost to our Heavenly Father of His great and marvelous plan. Not only did He behold the fall into sin of a large portion of His family, but their recovery cost the sacrifice of the dearest treasure of His heart, and the subjection of this beloved One to the most abject humiliation, ignominy, suffering, and death.

The illustration of a parent’s love assists us in comprehending the cost of this manifestation of Jehovah’s love. With what tender and yearning emotions of love must He have made this sacrifice of His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. In addition to all the graces of His character manifested since His creation, was now added the further grace of full submission to the divine will, even when the pathway pointed out was one of pain and humiliation.

Surely the Father did not let the Son go on that errand of mercy without the sensation of powerful emotions, nor was He without an appreciation of the pangs of a Father’s love when the arrows of death pierced the heart of His beloved Son. But God could and did sacrifice at great cost to His loving fatherly nature, the dearest treasure of His heart, and thus He manifested the great love wherewith He loved His deceived and fallen creatures.

QUESTIONS:

Should Christians continue to have faith in Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Prince of Peace in spite of present world conditions?

How did the apostles behold the glory of Jesus?

What illustration helps us to grasp the depth of God’s love in giving His Son to be our Redeemer?

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