August 20 I Friday
Psalms 105-106
1 Corinthians 3
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” —Hebrews 13:8
The eternal nature and immutability of God are two incommunicable attributes of God. When we talk of God’s eternal nature, we are saying He has always been in existence, and there is no limit to time with God as He is without beginning and without end. He lives in the eternal “now.” This is why when Moses asked God for His name He responded, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Because God is eternal, His name is eternally present-tense.
There was an evangelical movement that spoke of the openness of God, where God does not know the future as firmly as we thought, so we could change the future. However, if God does not know all there is to know, He would not be God. This also subjects God to time, when God is eternal, outside of time, and therefore the past, the future, as well as the present are eternally present to Him.
Another way to understand God’s eternal nature is in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1 goes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” These two verses sound very similar, but they are different statements when we think about them. The first is a statement about the beginning, which is time related. John 1:1, however, speaks of a past-tense in the beginning. “In the beginning was (past tense) the Word, and the Word was (past tense) with God…” Altogether, in the beginning there was already—in past tense—the existence of the Word, because God predates time. Time is a created thing, but it is not an everlasting thing. God, because He is eternal, stands outside of time. This is why I AM the burning bush, I AM the cross of Christ, I AM at the return of Christ and I AM at the end of the ages. God is ceaseless.
Not only is God eternal, He is also immutable, meaning God is unchanging. He is always the same. Malachi 3:6 tells us, “I the LORD do not change.” In the New Testament, James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Nothing else in the universe is immutable, because everything in the universe is mutating.
We can find comfort in God, who is eternal and immutable, as we read the whole of Scripture and know that God is exactly the same God in the Bible, in the present and in the future.
Prayer: Dear God, I have confidence and security in You because You are the same yesterday, today and forever. You are eternal and immutable. Praise You!
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