The Immutable Intermediator

Antoine Jacobs

Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Would like to focus on the confidence that God will remain Who He said that He is always.

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Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

As we journey in this thing called life we have to deal with the inevitable thing called change. There was an Ancient Greek, pre-Socratic, Ionian philosopher and a native of the city of Ephesus, named Heraclitus. Heraclitus was known for his appreciation for wordplay and oracular expressions, as well as paradoxical elements in his philosophy. He wrote a single work, On Nature, only fragments of which have survived, increasing the obscurity associated with his life and philosophy. Heraclitus's cryptic utterances have been the subject of numerous interpretations. He has been seen as a "material monist or a process philosopher; a scientific cosmologist, a metaphysician and a religious thinker. Although he is credited with the notion or philosophy, everything is constantly changing and (2) opposite things are identical, so that (3) everything is and is not at the same time; Heraclitus of Ephesus is best known for the thought that the only thing that is constant is change. Most of us hate the constant of change because it places us in a situation of discomfort. Most of us dislike change because it places in a situation of discontent. And most of us cringe at change because it puts us in a situation of dissatisfaction. Yet it is change that positions you and I too levelup. We are quick to ponder the disadvantages of change that we miss the benefits. There is no way to receive salvation without change. Romans 12:2: and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, there must be a change. There is no way to succeed without out change, Rev 2:10: Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. There is no way to become stronger without change. While many of us are praying for strength please know that strength comes through a workout process called lifting, lift the Word of God, 2 Tim. 2:15: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Even if we agree with Heraclitus’ brainy deduction and concept of change it is important to know that God is immutable. He is immutable which means that our God is changeless and steadfast. There is good news in knowing that He changes not, because while seasons change, time changes, people change my God remains the same. The word same from the text applied to what has either been previously mentioned or, when the whole discourse is looked at must necessarily be supplied.

Not only is the unchangeableness of God’s nature asserted in Scripture, and placed in relation to His dealings with men, but also it is declared to be the distinctive characteristic of God’s nature as contrasted with the entire universe of finite being. While the heavens and the earth change and are passing away, God endures forever and forever the same God

Ps 102:26–28: They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end. 28 The children of thy servants shall continue, And their seed shall be established before thee.

The application of the language of this psalm to Christ by the author involves the unchangeableness of Christ, which is again explicitly asserted, being another clear indication of the way in which the Deity of Jesus Christ pervades the NT. This idea of God’s immutability, as contrasted with the mutability of finite existence which is His creation, is given expression in the NT by the apostle James. As Creator of the heavenly bodies, God is called the Father of lights. While their lights, however, are intermittent, God’s light is subject to neither change nor obscuration (1:17: 17  Every good gift and every perfect gift  is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,  is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

In accordance with this idea of the unchangeableness of God’s nature, the Scripture, in ascribing life and personality to Him, never regards God as subject to any process of becoming or self-realization, and the views which so conceive of God are unscriptural whether they proceed upon a unitarian or a trinitarian basis.

The difficult bases of being is change but our confidence is in God’s immutability, the fact that He changes NOT. The text states: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, but why? Hebrews 13, gives the believer some detailed instruction in the role of the Christian disciple. The child of God is subject to changes as we are human beings but we must continue in some things. Verse 1 instructs us to continue in brotherly love...

Verse 3 instructs us to continue to remember those in bonds as bound with them; see just because you’re saved and sanctified and filled...