“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8
“All that God is He has always been, and all that He has been and is He will ever be.”
An Early Church Father
Here is yet another attribute (thing true of) God which only pertains to Him – immutability. To say He is immutable is to say He is unchanging, that is to say He cannot change. Change is defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary as “to differ, alter, substitute for, cause to become different, undergo alteration or replacement, undergo variation, to convert.” 1
Malachi 3:6a says, “I the Lord do not change.” Psalm 102:27 declares, “But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” Hebrews 13:8 states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” This is a difficult thing for us to picture in our mind’s eye. Here, on one the one hand, the practical man knows that all living things change. Is this not part of the definition of what it means to be alive? Growth implies change. Hence no growth equals death. In this world we find this to be true more often than not. On the other hand, we know God is eternally alive yet without change, alteration, growth or variance. Only perfection could accomplish this state of life without change.
A. W. Tozer, in his book The Knowledge of the Holy points out the following:
For a moral being to change it would be necessary that the change be in one of three directions. He must go from better to worse or from worse to better; or, granted that the moral quality remain stable, he must change within himself, as from miniature to mature or from one order of being to another. It should be clear that God can move in none of these directions. His perfections forever rule out any such possibility…We have seen how God differs from His creatures in being self-existent, self-sufficient, and eternal. By virtue of these attributes God is God and not be some other being. One who can suffer any slightest degree of change is neither self-existent, self-sufficient, nor eternal, and so is not God. Only a being composed of parts may change, for change is basically a shift in the relation of the parts of a whole or the admission of some foreign element into the original composition. Since God is self-existent, He is not composed. There are in Him no parts to be altered. And since He is self-sufficient, nothing can enter His being from without. 2
This concept of immutability leads us down other avenues of thought as well. We can infer by this that God has perfect knowledge and power and presence. If He were to learn, this would be a change, hence this would not be God. God does not think they way we do because He already knows everything. He does not reason things out or solve things. There is no mystery unknown to Him. He does not merely know about all things but is actually the cause of all things. C. S. Lewis states that all created things have some attribute of Him in them. If He did not have all power and perfect authority, He could gain or lose some power and thus change. If He was not all present everywhere at once, He could change position. God never grows, changes, gets old or worn out. He is, always has been, and always will be, perfect in Himself. He requires no change. He never becomes weak or tired or irritated.
Tozer points out that God cannot change and man cannot help but change. That is God never changes and man is in a constant state of flux. Tozer writes:
The law of mutation belongs to a fallen world, but God is immutable, and in Him men of faith find at last eternal permanence. In the meanwhile change works for the children of the kingdom, not against them. The changes that occur in them are wrought by the hand of the in-living Spirit… yet much as we may deplore the lack of stability in all earthly things, in a fallen world such as this the very ability to change is a golden treasure, a gift from God of such fabulous worth as to call for constant thanksgiving. For human beings the whole possibility of redemption lies in their ability to change. To move across from one sort of person to another is the essence of repentance. 3
Scripture points out why this attribute of the immutability of God is so important. “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” – Numbers 23:19.
James 1:17 puts it this way, “Every good and perfect light is from above coming down from the Father or the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Here in is the compounded joy that God is immutable: we can depend on His promises and offers of help to be true and carried out. We do not have to wonder if He will still want to help us, to save and redeem and sanctify us, tomorrow or next week or next year. We can depend whole heartedly upon His faithfulness for He will not change. We can trust and rely upon His love, grace and mercy (all His attributes) to be ever extended to us. C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, “God made us, invented us, and He designed us to run on Himself for fuel. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing.” We are a human machine and God is the fuel that makes us run the best. Other things can be used for fuel but “the machine conks. It seems to start up alright and run a few yards but then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice.” 4 He in Himself is the fulfillment of all He has promised.
Oh, Immutable One, how great you are! Your perfection is unmatched! Thank you for showing us Your unchangeable nature. Help us to depend on, rely upon, and trust in You; for You change not. Help us, Lord, to grow in our knowledge of You, in our awareness of Your Presence dwelling in and among us. Help us appropriate Your great and precious promises. Help us allow Your Spirit, living with us, to make us more like You. May our engines run ever longer and cleaner on Your Presence. Help us understand, embrace, and trust in You as, in a very real sense, You are the answer to all our problems. Help us to fellowship with and relate to You, Oh Great Unchanging One! Amen!
Footnotes
1 Neufeldt, Victoria, and David Bernard Guralnik. "Change." Webster's New World Dictionary of American English. Thrird College Edition ed. New York: Webster's New World, 1989. 234. Print.
2 Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. 49-50. Print.
3 Tozer. 52.
4 Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. Audio.
References
All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. Audio.
Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Print.
