"The Word became flesh to reveal the glory of God, the grace and truth of God, and to provide for sinners to be saved from the wrath of God. See the birth of Jesus for what it is: the eternal God, coming in the flesh to be in the presence of man to reveal His glory."

The confidence you have in a promise is dependent on the one who guarantees the promise. The assurance of the gospel is singularly founded on the personhood of Jesus. Being the incarnate eternal God through whom all things were created and in whom the eternal redemptive plan of God is fulfilled. Jesus is not limited by the fragility of man—He has always been, He is, and He will always be. The hope of the gospel rests on God alone. And this is the hopeful word of verse 5: even though the world opposes the light, it will not overcome the light. Like the sunrise that dispels the grip that darkness has on the world and demands that it surrender in defeat, so is the glory of the light of the gospel. Darkness is presently warring against the light, but it will not overcome it.

Isaiah 9:6 is a familiar passage often read during Advent. This Advent season, I will be preaching each sermon from Isaiah 9:6 with attention to the names given to the Messiah.

Today, we consider the first two phrases of the passage: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” In these two phrases, we have a foundational truth of the hope of the gospel declaring the nature of Jesus. Jesus is both and, at the same time, all God and all man. These two natures are united in the person of Jesus. He is all God and all man.

Isaiah prophesied this glorious mystery in Isaiah 9:6 when he declared that unto us would be born a child (man) and a son would be given (God). The gospel of Matthew tells us that God sent an angel to Joseph to declare to him that the baby that Mary conceived was of the Holy Spirit and was the one for whom the prophet Isaiah foretold and would be called Immanuel (which means God with us) (Matthew 1:18-25).

The glorious hope of Christmas is that God came, in the flesh, to redeem us from our sins. The prophet Isaiah declared this future hope, and the New Testament celebrates the fulfillment of this hope. Philippians 2:5-11

teaches this fundamental truth and testifies that Jesus coming in the flesh was an act of grace, a gift of love, and there is hope in the name of Jesus.