God Is Immutable

What does it mean for us that God is immutable, and what are the implications? Well, in the first place it means that His character does not change.

The immutability of God means that we know how God will be and how He will interact with us and treat us. He never has bad days. He never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. As His people, we are not subject to divine whims and mood swings. He will treat us today as He has always treated His people.

That is the point the writer of Hebrews made in chapter 13 of his letter. He began by encouraging the readers to imitate their leaders in the way they walk with the Lord, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). The idea is to reflect on how it went for them trusting and following Jesus. It went well; they finished strong. The implication is that if it went well for them, then it will go well for you, too. And the basis of that claim is that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Jesus Christ never changes. He will behave toward you as He did toward believers who have gone before. He will be gracious and kind and forgiving and persevering and sustaining. He will be all the things He always is to His people.

In his great song recorded in Deuteronomy 32, Moses declared this about the Lord:

For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!
“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” (Deut. 32:3–4)

God is the rock, the One on whom we can depend. Big rocks do not tend to move or change very much year by year, and the image points us to the stability and trustworthiness of our unchanging God. In a world like ours, how much we need to know the One who does not change and the One on whom we can rely. It may be that you are looking for some kind of stability in a time of chaos or disappointment or grief or overwhelming change. Maybe you are searching for something stable and dependable in a confusing and changeable world. Well, this is the God in whom we trust, and He offers each one of us security, stability, and steadfast love if we come to Him through Jesus Christ. God’s character is unchanging.

J. C. Ryle, in the introduction to his book Holiness, wrote, “I have had a deep conviction for many years that practical holiness and entire self-consecration to God are not sufficiently attended to. . . . Politics, or controversy, or party spirit, or worldliness, have eaten out the heart of lively piety in too many of us.” He went on with concern for nineteenth-century Christians who had lost their biblical vision for holiness. “The subject of personal godliness has fallen sadly into the background. The standard of living has become painfully low in many quarters. The immense importance of ‘adorning the doctrine of God our Savior’ (Titus 2:10), and making it lovely and beautiful by our daily habits and tempers, has been far too much overlooked.”[1] Reflecting on those comments, I often wonder what Ryle, if he were transported here to observe our lives, would make of us today. I wonder what would strike him about our standards of holiness.

[1] J. C. Ryle, Holiness (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1979), xvii.