24.04.08
Shorter Catechism on God (5) - God is Unchangeable
Read: Psalm 33:1-22
Perhaps the only thing in life that ever stays the same is the certain fact of change. Change is inevitable. The world changes around us – global climate changes alter the seasons; the courses of rivers change; the shape of cities and towns change. Nothing is ever the same as it once was. We change too – we grow older – our minds and bodies develop and age. The world in which we live is like a river which is turbulently rushing down a gorge. How grateful we are then when we come up against a doctrine like the unchangeability of God, because where we are like rivers, He is like the ocean – never immobile, but always the same.
The unchangeability of God forms the fifth of our studies into Q and A 4 of the Shorter Catechism – “What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” And tonight, although we are straining at the far limits of what it is possible to know about God, I want to say two things: first, God never changes, and secondly, God never changes … so what?
[A] God Never Changes
In this point, I want to see that the unchangeability of God is clearly taught in the Bible but it is also demanded by logic. I want to also answer a couple of objections that are sometimes raised against the unchangeability of God:
1. Scripture Says It – whenever we are drawing up the foundations of a doctrine, we must begin with the Bible – not with Philosophy, nor Eastern Pantheism, but what Scripture says. The Bible is littered with references to God being unchangeable. For example, in James 1:17 we are told that God is, “the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Again in Malachi 3:6 where God says, “I am the Lord, I change not”. Again in Psalm 33:11, “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever; the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” The name God gives Himself in the Bible is also a clear indicator of His unchangeability. His name is Yahweh, which means “I am who I am”, not “I was, but now I’m different”, or “I will be, but I’m not yet”, but “I am who I am”.
2. Logic Demands It – God is unchangeable; He is incapable of any change. Just think what would happen if God changed, because change, by its definition involves a change for the better or a change for the worse. Supposing He could change for the better, then that means that before He changed, He was not as good as He could have been, so it couldn’t be said of Him that He was infinitely good, or infinitely wise, or infinitely powerful or so on. Supposing He could change for the worse, then He would not be as good as He once was, or as powerful as He once was. No, logic demands that if God is infinitely good, wise, powerful, holy, just and true, then He cannot ever have changed for the better or for the worse.
3. Objections – there are two objections which people may raise to this doctrine of the unchangeability of God.
a. Scripture Statements which seem to contradict the unchangeability of God – for example, in Genesis 6:7 God says, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created from the face of the earth … for I am grieved (literally repented) that I made them.” Or again in Jeremiah 26:13 where the prophet says to the Jewish institutions, “Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent (literally repent) of the disaster he has pronounced against you.” In both these verses, God is said to repent, or to change His mind. Does that mean then that God really is changeable? Well, if you take the whole of the Bible together, what you realise is that when certain texts talk of God ‘repenting’ they are using a figure of speech called anthropomorphism – God is speaking in a way we will understand. Of course, He’s not changing His mind, but that’s the way it looks to us because God, in His mercy, is helping us understand. God never changes, just like a pillar at the front of this building doesn’t move – but we move, and a pillar will look different whether you are looking at it from the south or the north.
b. The Incarnation – in John 1:14 the Bible says that ‘the Word became flesh’ and dwelt among us. When Jesus was born, God took upon Himself a human nature – He did not assume human nature, the Bible tells us that He became flesh. I think we all have to be honest and say that we don’t really understand the magnificence of what happened when God became man, but I do not think it involved a change in God Himself – rather, in the language of Stephen Charnock, “Christ assumed (don’t like this word) our nature without laying aside His own”.
When it comes to things like the Unchangeability of God, you just have to go with this great quote from Charles Hodge – “It is vain to presume to understand the Almighty to perfection.” We try our best to understand Scripture, and trust God with the rest.
[B] God Never Changes … So What?
As with the other attributes of God, perhaps we find God’s unchangeability difficult to apply in our lives. So what difference can the fact that God is unchangeable make to our lives? I think there are at least 5 immediate applications:
1. We can find rest in Him – one of my favourite books is ‘the Silver Darlings’ by Neil Gunn. It’s a book which focuses on the herring fishing communities of the North East of Scotland. The most harrowing part of ‘the Silver Darlings’ is Gunn’s account of the way in which a storm at sea claims the lives of local fishermen. His description of the wind, the waves and the spray makes you realise just how terrifying a thing it is to be out on the sea during a fierce storm – out on the sea when you should be safely tied up in the harbour. But that’s the way it is for so many people in their lives – they are all at sea spiritually and there is no where for them to drop their anchors. The storms wash over them and they often drown under feelings of lostness, guilt, meaningless and loneliness. Everything is changing around them and there’s nowhere for them to tie up. But the unchangeability of God means that in all the storms and changeability of life, we can find our rest in Him. Even if the world goes mad round about us, He doesn’t change and He invites us to drop our life’s anchor in Him and find rest.
2. We can Continue to Hope in Him – the unchangeability of God in the Bible is always presented in the context of His faithfulness to His promises. Donald MacLeod has written, “In Scripture, immutability is not some kind of static immobility, but faithfulness to the covenant.” God will not change in His commitment to us, His love for us and His faithfulness to us. God could no sooner stop loving us than He could stop being God. We so often feel far from God; perhaps our spiritual life has grown cold and we are wandering far from Him; perhaps we have committed a gross sin and we feel as if there is no way back. Our grip on God is slackening; but He does not change – His grip of us is as strong now as it has ever been or ever will be. Therefore, you can have confidence to come back and to hope in Him again.
3. We can be Confident in Praying to Him – if God was always changing, then why would we bother praying to Him? As Stephen Charnock writes, “what comfort would it be to pray to a God, that like the chameleon, changed colours every day, every moment?” Rather, the God who says to us that if we ask anything according to His will, He will answer us, doesn’t change. We pray therefore to an unchanging God who has made to us unchanging promises being confident in His unchanging strength to grant us unchanging answers.
4. We Can be Sure of His Strength – I don’t know about you, but many Christians worry that they won’t be able to keep going as Christians - they worry that they don’t have the strength to persevere in the faith to the end. But God’s unchangeability means that the same strength that converted us will empower us so that we will continue in the faith. It is as Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” His glory and your good are at stake in your persevering to the end, and therefore, by granting you the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, He will strengthen you so that you will not give up but will keep pressing on.
5. We Need to Be Immovable – because God is unchangeable, it means He is unchangeably wise, powerful, holy, just, good and true. He doesn’t change – one minute being wise and the next being foolish; one minute being good and the next being evil. We need to imitate that unchangeableness as Christians. We need to, in humble dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit strengthening us, be immovable in our wisdom, abilities, holiness, fairness, goodness and truthtelling. People should be able to trust us to always tell the truth, and to always give them good advice and never to do the wrong thing by them. In times of difficulty, they should be able to see us sinking our anchors deep down into God.
The Puritan Stephen Charnock writes, “We burn with a desire to settle ourselves, but mistake the way, and build castles in the air, which vanish like bubbles of soap in water.” We so often think, don’t we, that a change in our circumstances will make us happy – a new job, new friends, a new relationship, a new hobby – but at the end of the day the only thing that will truly make us happy is trusting in and pursuing with all of our hearts the unchangeable God of the Universe through His Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.