Hebrews Chapter One, Unfailing

 

The 2^nd law of thermodynamics, the law of increasing entropy, relates that energy goes on from a highly useful to an increasingly useless state in a closed system. The universe is running down. The very idea that this law exists is a testimony that there was a beginning in which all matter or energy functioned at full capacity, so to speak. Then degradation began. The law of increasing entropy is a corollary to the law of sin and death. Eventually this sin-cursed earth will be done away with, Revelation 20:11. “They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment.” This is the crux of verse 11: “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:18. Joshua and David understood this principle, as should we as Christians. Our kingdom is not of this place; we are sojourners or pilgrims, pitching tents in a land we’re passing through. Like Israel wandering the wilderness while God provides for them, we wait to be housed in our eternal dwelling, made by God.

They (heaven and earth) will perish, but God remains. Christ was self-existent, self-referential before the time/space/matter universe came into being. He remains so. Again, heaven and earth will wax old like clothing that has been worn out. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner,” Isaiah 51:6. Joining the testimony of Joshua and David is Isaiah the prophet. In like manner to human death, existence likewise suffers the same fate. But the prophet does not leave us without a hopeful witness, “But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished.” Though heaven and earth will pass away, God’s salvation endures. His righteousness cannot be shaken like His creation will be when the time has come for the consummation, Haggai 2:6, 7.

 

The Psalmist assures us in verse 12 (quoted from Psalm 102) that the current creation will be tidily done away with. In a certain order of events the 7 years of Daniel’s vision continue after the church has been raptured so as not to endure God’s judgment upon a Christ rejecting world. The Antichrist will rise to power and make a covenant with the Jews; one that he breaks because he is the “christ” of the devil and serves his father’s will. Violent persecution will be the hallmark of his career in the final 42 months, evoking enough bloodshed to make the popes of yesteryear blush. Then comes the battle of Megiddo, the end of the Tribulation period as Christ’s Second Coming in power and glory to reign from Jerusalem commences. The Thousand Years will have our Lord rule with a rod of iron, bringing in perfect justice until the end when Satan compels the nations to rebel one final time. Fire from Heaven destroys the rebels and Lucifer joins the Antichrist and False Prophet in the Lake of Fire. The Great White Throne of Judgment marks the passing of the present heaven and earth. The dead are judged from the books recording their deeds. Then a sentence that takes into account the guilty party’s knowledge and actions are passed before they are all cast into the Lake of Fire. When the dead are thus imprisoned, then Christ will re-create heaven and earth for the righteous to dwell upon in His eternal presence.

 

And of this Christ, the Son, we learn, “But You are the same, and Your years will not fail.” In strikingly similar fashion, Micah also writes of the Coming One, “Yet out of [Bethlehem] shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting,” Micah 5:2. Malachi simply wrote, “I am the Lord, I do not change,” Malachi 3:6. Later, the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. This doctrine, of God’s unchanging nature, is described as His immutability. Oxford simply defines the term as, “unchanging, or unchangeable.” God is incapable of certain things by very virtue of His person. God cannot lie, or go back on His word. God is always fair, just and impartial. God does not deceive. God cannot sin. His unchanging nature determines the perfect steadfastness of His character. Since we know from Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus exactly possesses the attributes of God the Father, being one with Him, our Lord Jesus is likewise unchanging or immutable. His years will not fail.

 

God exists. He has always existed before time began; remember: He began it. He wound up the clock. He is not subject to the laws of the universe He designed, dwells apart from it and governs it, seeing the end from the beginning. God’s foreknowledge and omniscience are staggering topics that have left many a theologian speechless after considering them. The Psalmist is content to leave this lofty, impossibly perceived knowledge, in a few simple but graceful words. The Son is the same, as He always is while the parade of years go by and believers live and die on the world stage. And He may say to each of us that He is really and truly with us, will never leave us nor forsake us. By His hand we came into being, by His death we have been declared not guilty. By His resurrection we have been given assurance of life. By His imminent return we have a hope to sanctify ourselves with. The Uncreated One, the Unchanging One, is Jesus Christ our Lord. His years do not fail. Fail is the verb form of the noun failure. Failure’s broadened definition is: “omission of occurrence or performance. Specifically: a failing to perform a duty or expected action.” The verb fail is coupled with the adverb “not,” of course meant to modify function, and their subject in particular concerns God’s years. In layman’s terms, there will never be a failure to perform a duty or expected action; there will be no omission of occurance or performance. So we may add one more item to the list of things of which God is incapable of. He is incapable of failure. His love for mankind endures forever, seen through the lens of His only Begotten.