Christ Our Model: The Model Counselor

Eternal Counselor

In His eternal counsels, God has a master plan that He is working out and is allowing us some insight into His Servant, the Counselor (Eph 3:11, Isa 9:6). That insight has been plainly given to us through the Word of God where we receive His counsel (Psa 119:24). This life of ours is a journey of faith. We do not know what is ahead of us, and for His own reasons, God does not tell us about the everyday events that we can expect – neither the triumphs we will enjoy, nor the tragedies we will endure – but God has graciously provided us with a Counselor. He is Wonderful and a Wonderful Counselor. He has the unique and incomparable ability to know all the plans and purposes of God for time and for the eternal ages. He administers government by means of justice and righteousness because He is the Eternal Son of the Eternal God, without beginning or end. By His very nature, He lives in an “eternal now,” and He knows the results of all the things unknown to us. There will ultimately be everlasting peace because of the wisdom and authority of the divine Counselor (Heb 1:8).

Immutable Counselor

The counsel of God is unchanging and God’s name is as good as His immutable, divine nature (Heb 6:17). For us to know God is beyond our capability. How then can we come to know an invisible Spirit? God sent His Son, Jesus, so we could know Him Who is the invisible God (John 1:18, 1John 4:14, Col 1:15). Therefore, we can know the Father and the Son, and by the indwelling Spirit we can share the eternal life God gives as a free gift, with divine persons (John 17:3).

His work as the Servant of His Father was to gather those who were alienated from God, to reveal God to them and make them understand the character and love of the Father. The word “Wonderful” that precedes “Counselor” in Isaiah 9:6, means “secret” (Judges 13:18). There are hidden secrets about God revealed by the Counselor. He alone is qualified to do this because He knows the counsels of God from all eternity. He is eternally God, and as “God manifest in the flesh,” He makes them known in His counsel to men, because He was one of our own kind, apart from sin. History unfolds to us the counsel of God. The Counselor Himself submitted to the counsel of God in His sacrificial death (Isa 46:10,11; Acts 2:23). Believers who put their trust in Christ alone for salvation are evidence that the counsels of God which have been tried and proven in the past, and are being experienced in us presently, will be forever established and experienced by our union in Christ (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:9, 10). The day is coming when the Model Counselor will Himself fulfill the objective of His counsel: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). He has unfolded the mystery as to what God is like. No wonder the Father is delighted in Him!

Suitable Counselor

Therefore, Christ, the willing Servant, came to do “My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). The counsels of God are from eternity, and are trustworthy and absolute (Isa 25:1). He completes all the plans He has promised. The life the Lord Jesus Christ lived here on earth was dedicated to that work, and the authority He deliberately placed Himself under was the Father’s will. “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). His will was one with the Father’s. His work was one with the Father’s. His words were one with the Father’s. His meat (life) was to do the Father’s will and finish His work. The focus of the Father’s love was on Him because “I lay down My life” (John 10:17). It was the commandment of the Father that the Lord Jesus Christ make provision for our salvation. In every situation, the counsels of God are suitable to the needs of God’s people because of the infinite wisdom of the Counselor (Isa 28:29). He was, and still is, the Counselor who reveals the Father in ways we, His children, can understand.

Sovereign Counselor

As the Model Counselor, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, reaches across the great barrier that separated us from God, and instructs us as to the character of God. The great counsels of God can be relied on because the Counselor knows the outcome of everything that may cause us doubt (Jer 32:19). As a Wonderful Counselor, He counsels us as to how to live in this world, to be delivered from the condemnation of the law and from the consequences of sin, to resist the devil, and to live our lives to the glory of God. The character of God is compassionate (Psa 103:8; Heb 4:15, 16; 2Cor 1:3, 4). God is faithful (Deut 7:9; Phil 1:6; 1Thes 5:23, 24). The forgiveness, goodness, kindness, graciousness, holiness, love, and other attributes of God have been made known to us through the Person and work of the Counselor. He not only gave us the value of His forethought in words we can understand, but He modeled all that God wanted us to know of Himself in the wonder of His life when He was here on earth. The sovereign counsels of God are far higher than we can conceive, and they have a greater reason than we can describe. To a measure, they can be experienced because of the gracious work of the Model Counselor on our behalf, the One who knows all of God’s eternal purposes, and knows how much is appropriate to be revealed to us (Dan 4:35).