“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
(Hebrews 13:8)
The practical dimensions of Christ’s eternal nature and immutable being stretch throughout the foundations of Christian doctrine for the good of those who trust in Him by faith. To sweeten the application of every promise, Christians exercise their faith on the immutability of the purpose and counsel of Christ to fulfill whatever His promises declare. Because as He is, so are His promises – unchangeable and eternal.
The promises of man, though expressions of intended good, are subject to deficiencies. We may expect to carry out what is promised but simply lack to the power to do so. Sometimes we may mean well but lack the motivation to turn our words into deeds.
But the fact that our will changes is probably the most common reason we fail to carry out what we promise. In other words, we change our mind. Our initial good will, with further thought, may later turn to more selfish desires that alter our previous intentions.
William Spurstowe said, “The tree that in the summer is much esteemed and set by for the grateful shade which it affords, in the old winter is often cut down for fuel; and so the same person which, in the heat of affection, is made the object of many favors, in the keen blasts of jealousy becomes the subject of revenge and ruin. But it is far otherwise with the promises of God, whose power does not let or allow impediment to arise to hinder, or whose will no contingencies or emergencies can fall out to alter.”
All Christ’s promises are not yes and no, but in Him “Yes and Amen,” (2 Cor. 1:20). “He is not a man that He should repent,” (1 Samuel 15:29). He is “the Lord that does not change,” (Mal. 3:6), “The Father of lights with whom there is no variableness or shadow of change,” (James 1:17). And so the heirs of promise might be even further assured that He will perform what He has promised, He has added to His Word His oath, in which He pledges His being, life, righteousness, truth, mercy, and power to perform all that He has spoken – so that “by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,” (Heb. 6:17).
The unchangeable nature of Christ and His work for His church serve to affirm the significant difference between the promises of God and the promises of men – the former being backed by Almighty God and the latter being as uncertain as bubbles, no sooner made than broken.
As an example, we promise to follow Christ but pull away from Him and then complain that He has withdrawn His presence from us. Still, the lack of consistency in our Christian duties and waverings in our faith produce no changes in Him who “is the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” (Hebrews 13:8). “If we,” the apostle says, “do not believe, yet He abides faithful, and cannot deny Himself,” (2 Tim. 2:13).
How hopeless our condition would be if the cornerstone of our salvation were laid on the foundation of our own frail and variable wills! What a tragedy it would be if God revoked His mercy because we provoked His justice… or if He canceled His covenant with us because we broke our vows with Him.
Praise be to our blessed God of mercy that He has not put our salvation in our own keeping, nor laid the foundation of our happiness and comfort on any strength or ability of our own.
Rather, the foundation of our faith is wholly fixed on an irreversible covenant of grace, on promises of mercy ratified and confirmed to us by the broad seal of heaven, the oath of the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is to Him that we may daily fly for refuge, the only sanctuary on which we may lay hold with both hands when buffeted with the fury of Satan’s temptations. Let us therefore adore God and His Christ for His eternally unchangeable nature, Word, and will.
- Lord, in Your blessed nature we find an everlasting righteousness. The righteousness of the first Adam in his state of innocence was spotless and perfect in its kind; but how soon it was corrupted and destroyed by the entrance of sin! But the glory of Your righteousness which I have by covenant is the glory of the Redeemer. Your righteousness is absolutely perfect, and it is everlastingly the same.
- Lord, my righteousness is secure in Your hands, as it is the righteousness of the unchangeable Christ, the only One who is able to save me and cleanse me from sin.
- I am so grateful, Lord, that I can possess this eternal righteousness as Your gift to me. You have provided and appointed it for my justification and imputed it for this purpose. You justify me in and through what Christ accomplished. We read of “the gift of righteousness;” and of “the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ;” and “Christ is made of God unto us righteousness.” And no one is able to take this away from me because You, my everlasting and unchangeable God, secure it!
Further References for Hebrews 13:8
Heb. 1:12; 2 Cor. 1:19; Ps. 102:27; Malachi 3:6; John 8:58; James 1:17
