The Immutability of God

Intro: I want to confess something that I believe some of you would agree with – it is hard sometimes to read the Bible (and I don’t mean just the harder parts); it’s hard because things THEN are so different from things NOW; the events in Scripture take place mostly in the Middle East thousands of years ago in primitive, unindustrialized, sometimes barbaric circumstances.

But we live in age of computers, smart phones, and space travel. It can be hard to link those two worlds together; it’s hard to relate; when we come face to face with that physical and cultural distance, we can lose interest in reading.

But there is a link between that world and this; it is God himself; he is unchanging; though circumstances, technologies, languages, cultures, and empires change, God today is the same as he was in Abraham’s day; he is the same as he was when created Adam and Eve and placed them in Eden’s Garden. God is immutable.

I. God’s Immutability Affirmed

A. Passages:

1. Malachi 3:6 – “For I the Lord do not change”

2. Heb. 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same…”

3. Psa. 102:26-27 – READ

4. James 1:17 – though sun casts shadows different directions because of change, God does not; consistent in nature.

B. Never becomes less truthful, merciful, good, or just; he has never increased those traits, either.

C. What immutability does NOT mean:

1. That the way God deals with an individual will never change. When a person changes his relationship with God, God will respond consistent with His will. His immutability demands it (cf. Ezek. 18:21, 24, 30-32).

2. That the specifics of his law could never change; if those changes were purposed from eternity (cf. Eph. 1:3ff), then carrying them out is a matter of consistency.

3. That prayer is unnecessary; James implies that God withholds some blessings until they are requested (4:2).

a) But this does not imply that God doesn’t want to bless, but “changes His mind” after rethinking the matter.

b) If He blesses in response to prayer, it was because He always intended to do so IF the prayer was offered as an expression of faith/dependence.

II. God’s Immutability Applied

A. Hebrews 6:17-18 – READ

1. God’s immutability gives us “strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

2. God is eminently worthy of our trust; believers in pagan gods were always fearful of the fickle nature of their “gods;” they never knew from one minute to the next how they would act.

3. God’s stability and constancy give us the same “strong encouragement”; it’s one less thing for us to worry about.

B. We can pray with full assurance that he will listen and respond the right way (1 John 5:14 – “if we ask anything according…”).

C. We can rest in the knowledge that he still cares (1 Pet. 5:7).

D. We can rest in the knowledge that he is “able to do exceeding…” (Eph. 3:20). That was not just a trait of the 1st century.

E. It should cause the sinner to tremble at his immutable wrath (2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rom. 1:18).

F. It should strengthen our faith in every promise he ever made: Matt. 28:20 – I am w/ you always; 2 Tim. 4:8 – crown of life awaiting all who “love his appearing”; Heb. 2:18 – able to aid the tempted; Heb. 4:15 – sympathizes w/ weaknesses; Heb. 13:5-6 – never leave or forsake us

G. It should cause us to worship…