Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 9:1-7
We arrive today at the famous prophecy. We recite it every year at Christmas-time and most people don’t even realize that it was written over 700 years before Jesus was born. It’s a beautifully written passage showing off the artistic ability of Isaiah. Within this verse there are at least seven prophecies – seven descriptions of Jesus. I’ve decided to dissect this verse looking at one prophecy each day. Let’s get into the first one.
“For to us a child is born.”
A human child would be the future king who would reign for eternity on David’s throne. This speaks to Jesus’ humanity. Jesus was fully God but also fully human. I often find this hard to comprehend. As a human, Jesus experienced all the things humans experience yet he created them all to begin with. He grew from a baby to a toddler to a teenager to a man. He experienced hunger and thirst, happiness and joy, love and hatred, and happiness and sorrow.
The humanity of Jesus is critical to our faith and to the reality that we are saved of our sins through him. Jesus had to be born as a human for several reasons and they all go back to the laws that God put in place for sinners to be redeemed.
The first reason was that only a human being “born under the law” could redeem other human beings who were also “born under the law.” Paul explains this in his letter to the Galatians: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal 4:4-5). Jesus was sent to be born under the law but keep the law and perfectly fulfill the law. Thus he was qualified to redeem all humanity who were also born under the law but are all found guilty of breaking it. Then on the cross, Jesus would exchange our sin for his righteousness and we would be redeemed. Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
The second reason Jesus had to be fully human was that God demanded blood for the forgiveness of sin. “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22). Before Jesus, God demanded the blood of animals be sacrificed to forgive the sin of His people. But the blood of animals was not sufficient to permanently remove the sin. “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:3). Our permanent forgiveness would require the blood of a perfect human being. “For by one sacrifice he [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:14).
Lastly, Jesus had to be human to be the perfect example to us as redeemed people of how to live. He faced every temptation, every pain and every emotion and yet was without sin to show us how to do life God’s way. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15). Peter says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:21). Jesus went through the human experience so that he could show us how it’s done and then be there for us on our journey.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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