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.