Everything changes, except God.
The Psalmist meditates lyrically on this idea:
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end. 28 The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee (Ps 102.24-28).
Generations change. Heaven and earth change. But not God.
And because God is changeless, his children will continue, because his promises last forever.
Incidentally, the writer of Hebrews applies this passage to Jesus (He 1.10-12). He’s listing a number of passages from the Hebrew Scripture that demonstrate that the Son is greater than the angels—
- For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? (He 1.5, citing Ps 2.7, 2S 7.14).
- And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him (He 1.6, citing Dt 32.43 in the Septuagint).
- Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom (He 1.8, citing Ps 45.6).
And then he cites this passage from Psalm 102.
And he’s not done. He begins his epistle/sermon with this idea, and he ends it with the same idea:
- Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (He 13.8).
Bookending a document with parallel ideas like that is called an inclusio, and among other things it tells us that this idea is a key part of the writer’s message.
Now, this is surprising, because we all know that at a point in time the Son, who was always God, took on human flesh and became incarnate—permanently. He lived on earth, and died, and rose again, and ascended back to the Father. We could say, to use the terminology of Hebrews 13.8, that “yesterday” he was the Creator and Redeemer, and “today” he is our Mediator and Intercessor, and “forever” he will be our King.
How is that not change?
That’s a good question.
Part of our problem understanding this is that it involves the biblical teaching of the Trinity, the very nature of the Godhead, and our finite minds are just not good at wrapping themselves around it. (If you think you understand it, then there’s something you’re missing.)
The standard view is that Jesus added to his eternal, and unchanging, divine nature a human nature that had not been there before.
How does that work?
Well, some of the smartest people on the planet wrestled with that question for 400 years, and when they were done, they chose to state what happened but to not even try to explain how it happened.
You and I are probably not going to do better than that.
But however it all works, this we know: God is the same. He is faithful. He will never forget. He will never leave. He will never change.
This isn’t just some theological abstract coming down from an ivory tower somewhere. This is highly practical, every day, and truly life changing.
I’d like to consider two questions for the rest of this series:
- Why does God not change?
and
- What difference does his changelessness make—to me?
Next time.
Part 3: No Need to Grow | Part 4: No Need to Aspire | Part 5: No Greater Force | Part 6: No Decay | Part 7: Trustworthiness | Part 8: Mercy | Part 9: Confidence | Part 10: Victory
Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash
Leave a reply. Keep it clean.