He is born in a miraculous manner. He was the child given by promises, and came not in the ordinary course of nature. So Christ was long promised and miraculously born.
2. He was the son of the house, while all others were his servants. So the position of Christ in the heavenly household was made by His birth. No circumstances could alter His relationship to that household. He was there by a natural necessity. Others may come and go, but the Son abides.
3. He was the progenitor of a free race. Isaac was the son of the free woman, and the ancestor of a great and free people. Christ makes men free when they are born into the kingdom of God by His spirit, and thus belong to that holy nation whose children walk in perfect liberty.
4. He was the channel of blessing to all nations. Christ was the life and power which gave effect to that blessing. He was that blessing itself.
Isaac, a type of the regenerate man
1. He was born by a distinct act of the will of God. So the regenerate man becomes God’s child, not by the course of nature, but by a special grace. He is eminently born of God.
2. He was free born. So each child of God is made free from all bondage. He needs not the commands of law to compel him to obedience, for he obeys from love of his Father. Thus Isaac was the type of the evangelical dispensation, as Ishmael was that of the legal.
