Hebrews Chapter Thirteen, God Can Not Change

 

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

The equivalent verse to this passage in Hebrews may be found in Malachi, where we read, “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed O sons of Jacob,” Malachi 3:6. Yahweh explained to Israel that He is unchanging. Who He was to Adam, Noah, and Moses, He is today. Furthermore, He adds the people may attribute their physical deliverance from immediate and severe reprimand for disobedience to His unchanging nature; that God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Even earlier in Hebrews there is a similar quote, citing Psalm 102. It reads, “You are the same, and Your years will not fail,” Hebrews 1:12. The writer contrasts material creation to the eternal God, who in Hebrews chapter 1 is demonstrated to be Jesus Christ. Creation will fail and depart; God is forever and unchanging, simply worded with the phrase, “You are the same.” James intimates much the same of God’s person when he declares that with God, “there is no variation or shadow of turning,” James 1:17. The HCSB contributes an interesting rendering to the latter portion of the verse, reading, “there is no variation or shadow cast by turning.” James asserts that God does not turn. The implication of course is that the Lord goes ever forward in His purpose. There is no need to turn, or vary. Variation implies change; change implies imperfection. God does not change because He possesses no imperfection.

 

Before delving further into God’s unchanging nature, one must stop and appreciate human nature, specifically divorced from God’s presence. We read of Kierkegaard, “Since we can never hope to understand why we're here, if there's even anything to understand, the individual should choose a goal and pursue it wholeheartedly, despite the certainty of death and the meaninglessness of action.” Solomon himself could not have phrased it better when the king of Israel considered all things done under the sun. Life apart from God is meaningless, because life apart from God betrays the intimation of intentionality. Liberal minded theologians have done nothing to contribute to this grim outlook, some in their camp ascribing the attribute of change to the Creator. But if God changes, then it is only from the superior to the inferior, and from trustworthy to something that is less. God’s promises hinge upon His personal character, so when the Christian hears the words, “I am the Lord, I do not change,” it is meant to be comforting. Our constant is change. We physically change as we age and grow. We mentally change as we learn and forget. We spiritually change (by God’s grace) as we know our Creator and are taught to walk with Him. The people around us change. The city we live in changes. The culture and world changes, waxing and waning. Eventually change leads to death. David and Joshua both proclaimed that they, “go the way of all the earth,” 1 Kings 2:2, Joshua 23:14.

 

Although waxing poetic, there is very real biblical truth in this simple statement of fact. Both men knew they were old, their health was failing, and death was imminent. They ascribed their personal experience with the creation they briefly lived upon. Like mankind, who inhabits the earth, the creation itself will suffer death, with which Scripture as a whole agrees, Romans 8:21, 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 20:11, 21:1. Joshua’s words are worthy of careful consideration. He says that, while he is dying, and the world in like fashion will pass away, God is faithful. He tells Israel, “Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you.” Why? “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

 

One facet of change implies maturing or improving, transitioning from one state to another. There is degenerative change—that is, from superior to inferior—and there is qualitative change, where quality improves as maturation does its work. But God is as incapable of this type of change as He is from the other. He cannot mature or learn more, since He is perfect in Himself. Even relationally, being the Triune God He does not need human beings to experience love and fellowship. The three persons of the Godhead are harmoniously perfect in the sum of their person. In Job chapter 38, God teaches Job through a battery of questions that He is all-powerful and all knowing; this lesson, while meant to perhaps humble the patriarch, is more so meant to reassure Job that God is perfect and entirely competent. Job’s plight is not something that surprised God. Indeed, the Lord permitted Satan to test the patriarch, and through this blistering trial draw Job closer to God, which it accomplished, contrary to Satan’s purpose, Job 42:2-6.

 

This is the God that does not change. He is an anchor, or strong tower for the hopeless, of whom Kierkegaard was surely one, as are the modern liberal theologians that want God to be as malleable in His person and purpose as we are. But such a God can’t be trusted, because such a God, subject to the whimsy of change, can lie or alter His purpose, which we are assured in Scripture He in fact cannot do, Numbers 23:19. He cannot because He is NOT a man. Granted, Jesus our Lord became a Man, and was in all points tested as we are, but WITHOUT sin, Hebrews 4:15, Romans 8:3. Jesus did not have a sin nature; if He did, he would need a Savior like the rest of us, and would not be qualified to be Israel’s Messiah. But the writer of this epistle, whose Christology remains utterly and amazingly sublime in the clarity of Jesus’ person and purpose, reveals that our Lord is unchanging. One may add that He is entirely incapable of change. In a time and culture when the modern church is spiritually barren, producing carnal fruit that pleases and glorifies man while trampling the Son of God underfoot, we may know which of us has changed.

 

We would be of those who have drawn back to perdition, Hebrews 10:39. “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me,” Hosea 6:7, NASB. “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Amos 3:3. God does not turn or change; if we are no longer walking with Him in the Spirit, it is self-evident who is guilty of dissolving the fellowship. It certainly would behoove us to learn the lesson the Hebrew Christians were learning. Christ is forever, presently unseen but eternal. Our hope is in Him, who defines life’s purpose and keeps mercy for every soul that acknowledges Him. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.