Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever
Our God is immutable (Mal 3:6). This means He is unchanging. It has been rightly stated, if our God could change, He would be utterly terrifying. Instead, the attributes of God are fixed in the position of perfection. God is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, perfectly just, perfectly good, perfectly sovereign, etc.
For Christians, the immutability of God is a profound comfort, with all the chaos in the universe and upon the earth. We rejoice that God is God. There are no other gods and none beside Him (1 Sam 2:2; Is 45:6) — Him who is omniscient (Jn 16:30; 18:4; 21:17), omnipotent (Job 42:2), and omnipresent by His Spirit.
For many people, Jesus Christ is just a man who lived two thousand years ago. They are oblivious to His claims about Himself and the claims of the Bible about Him. As the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus Christ to the elect of God (Jn 1:12–13; 1 Pet 2:9), from the Word of God (Eph 1:17), we can only marvel at His identity, as the Son of God (1 Jn 5:20), who took on flesh (Jn 1:14). We can also gape at His sinless perfection because of the colossal sin production in our daily lives (Rom 3:23; 5:12; Heb 4:15).
Without Christ Jesus’ impeccability, His sacrifice of Himself on the cross (1 Cor 5:7), for His people (Jn 10:11, 15; Rom 5:8) would have been ineffectual. Instead, as the unblemished Lamb of God (Jn 1:29; Heb 4:15), He presented Himself to God for perfect atonement, as a substitute.
In His seat of judgment (Ps 9:7), He will not dismiss even one sin (Ps 7:11; 9:8; 50:6; 72:2; Eccl 3:17). The Law was established and its demand upon men does not change. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:11) because God is perfectly omniscient, our every transgression is known, as are the idle words we speak (Mt 12:36).
Because God’s purpose in Christ Jesus is eternal (Eph 3:11; Heb 6:17), it too, does not change (Heb 6:17). God’s election of His chosen people is fixed (Rom 8:30; Eph 1:4–5). He knows them by name before creation, having written their names in the Lamb’s book of life from eternity (Rev 13:8). When God set His love upon these chosen vessels of mercy (2 Thess 2:13; Rom 9:23), it was called “everlasting love” (Ps 136:2; Jer 31:3).
God is love (1 Jn 4:8), and that will not change (Mic 7:18). His love endures, forever, and that means it is unwavering. The Bible calls it steadfast. It was most vividly displayed at the cross, where Jesus died for His beloved bride, His church (Is 49:3, 6; Eph 5:25).
At the cross, the resolute love of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13), was on display for His people and the world to see (Eph 5:2). Sure, our Lord could have saved Himself (Mt 27:42), but the nature of true love is to give itself away in sacrifice (1 Jn 3:16). The cross was not the first sacrifice of Christ on behalf of His people (Phil 2:5–11). Who would leave glory, to enter into squalor, but the One who loves His beloved?
God’s chosen people, in every generation, have been met by this news of sacrifice. The story of Christ’s love for His church (Eph 5:25), where it is preached, truthfully, has not changed. The reason, for this changeless Gospel abiding, is that God’s Word is eternal. Whether we refer to the incarnate Word or the written Word (Bible), we are speaking the glories of an eternal Gospel (Rev 14:6).
In like manner, the Holy Spirit who is the third Person of the Trinity does not change (Heb 9:14). Though His work manifests in different people’s lives, it is always the same Spirit (1 Cor 12:4, 8, 9, 11), employing the same Word, to baptize the elect into the same faith (1 Cor 12:13; 2 Cor 4:13), handed down to the saints (Jude 1:3). This is the old, old story that continues to transform sinners into saints, everywhere and in all generations.
The inviolable elements of the Christian faith would lead us to believe in the sacrosanct church. An honest reflection of the Christian’s experience in the church speaks otherwise (1 Cor 1). The church militant, operating in a fallen world, is often racked with schism. Still, the immutable Spirit and Word are active in the change process of the soul. The flesh is dead to God (Rom 6:8; Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 5:14), at war with the Spirit (Gal 5:17), and dying biologically (2 Cor 5:1–11).
The heart and the mind of the Spirit-filled believer are being renewed daily (Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 4:16). They are being changed into conformity to Christ (Rom 8:29). As the Word becomes increasingly embedded, the Christian appears more rigid to others. The staid mind is appended to the truth (Jn 8:32; 1 Cor 2:16). The capricious heart is refined to prudence, yet the war goes on (Rom 7).
Our spiritual vicinity to Christ is manifest by the chaos. The Christian becomes unswerving with eyes focused on Jesus Christ (Heb 12:2). The way becomes a narrow tangent (Mt 7:13–14), deviating less to the right and to the left. The Spirit’s war against the flesh will end at death (2 Tim 4:6–8), when liberation from this body of death will mean eternal life, without debilitating variation.
Christian, take heart amidst a zigzag tack, against the winds of opposition from this world. Your destination is sure (1 Jn 5:13), as you move from trouble to trouble (Jn 16:30). The captain of your soul is the Spirit of Christ, who guides you into all truth (Jn 16:13). He is leading you to the place of unwavering faith (2 Tim 1:12), and ultimately to safe harbor in eternity, realized with the final change, the discarding of your body in a world of tribulation (1 Thess 4:16), before the resurrection of life (Jn 5:29; Rom 8:11).
Christian, your God does not change. His Word does not change. His course for you is planned. He is bringing you home, by His unchanging grace, into His everlasting love.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 15, 2022
