“One-A-Week Challenge” – Week 41

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

–Hebrews 13:8 nasb

John Kehoe writes:

In my courses, I teach the Law of Constant Change as a fundamental law of our life that needs to be both understood and harnessed if we are to have a happy and successful life. The Law states that everything in our life is in constant change, constantly in the process of becoming something else. Nothing stays exactly as it is. Nothing. Movement and change constitute the reality of our being.

Our finances, our friendships, our career possibilities, our life opportunities, our health, our children, our parents, our daily activities, our insights, all are forever changing and becoming something else. To many this is a frightening and daunting phenomenon, as most of us crave stability, but stability is an illusion, and you and your circumstances will change whether you like it or not, whether you want them to or not, because they cannot and will not remain the same. (emphasis mine)

While certainly this is the position of humanity, the word of God declares something completely different. The writer of Hebrews (probably Paul) unashamedly pronounces that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” He is the unchangeable, unchanging, constant living word of God. Earlier in the book of Hebrews, we read,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever … in the beginning You, Lord (Christ) laid the foundation of the of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands will perish but You remain …all of creation will perish and change, but You (Lord) are the same.” (Heb. 1:8, 10-12 paraphrased)

The truth of the matter is that even though all of creation is in a state of constant flux and decline we have the absolute assurance that Jesus never – ever – changes. In theological circles this reality is known as the immutability of God which is His quality of not changing. This is clearly taught throughout Scripture. For example, in Malachi 3:6 God affirms, “I the Lord do not change.” (See also 1 Samuel 15:29; Isaiah 46:9-11; and Ezekiel 24:14.)

The idea that Jesus is constantly in a state of flux blurs the line that I think too many people ignore. Far too often, in our constantly changing world, we have too high a view of man and too low a view of God. Read these words from Numbers 23:19:

God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Yes, Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.