Several months ago, we listed the communicable (shareable) and incommunicable (un-shareable) attributes of God and I promised that we would spend some time defining some of these attributes. They are well worth defining and since some of these words are not a part of everyday usage, it may be beneficial to unpack them. The word we will attempt to tackle this month is immutability. Like I said, not a word that we commonly use.
The doctrine of God’s immutability basically states that God doesn’t change. He is “without change.” This is founded in the concept of God’s perfection. God’s perfection in all his attributes presupposes his changeless nature. Think about it for a minute—if God could change, then he would have to either become greater or better in some degree or worse. Any change in either direction would imply that God improved to become a better God than he was before or an inferior God than he was before. This is not just a product of logic or the supposedly Greek concept of a perfect God, but the direct and clear teaching of Scripture. “For I the Lord do not change” (Mal. 3:6) pretty much declares this truth in the clearest way possible. Additionally, James states that with God, the Father of lights, there is “no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas. 1:17). Perhaps, the greatest declaration of God’s immutability is the statement the author to the Hebrews makes about Jesus, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
This is important for us to grasp because change is something we cannot escape. Change is a constant inevitability for us. We may add change to the list of the two things that are certain in life (i.e., death and taxes). Whether its our age or weight or sight or knowledge or emotions or relationship status or career or political platform, we are in a constant state of change. In fact, we may even say that the only thing that doesn’t change in our lives is change. Change is the one constant that we experience. This is all a part of life’s grand adventure for us.
But this is not what God experiences. One may think that this makes God’s existence somewhat boring since change can be so dynamic for us. We could also think that this means that God must somehow be detached from this world, since his involvement would necessitate him being affected by his creation. Both of these thoughts misconstrue the reality of God’s triune existence, which is far from boring, and his active involvement in his creation. We must remember that the height of God’s involvement with his creation was what we just celebrated last week, that God entered his creation as the incarnate God-man. The changeless one entered the world that he had fashioned and became subject to its laws and experiences as a human, with all of the necessary consequences that experience entails. So, God is not distant in any sense of the word, nor does he fail to actively and appropriately respond to us. In fact, God’s unchangeableness gives us great confidence that he will respond in ways that are consistent with what he has revealed about himself. He is dependable since he doesn’t change. When we do this, when we come to him, trusting that he is who he has revealed himself to be, then we will find that he is the one that truly changes us. And this change is the best change of all.
We invite you to come and worship this great God with us as we gather together at Elk Community Church at 10:30 on Sundays. May this new year mark the beginning of this type of change in your life!