I. First of all, we have set before us the doctrine of THE IMMUTABILITY OF
GOD. “I am God, I change not.” Here I shall attempt to expound, or rather to
enlarge the thought, and then afterwards to bring a few arguments to prove
its truth.
1. I shall offer some exposition of my text, by first saying, that God is
Jehovah, and he changes not in his essence. We cannot tell you what Godhead
is. We do not know what substance that is which we call God. It is an
existence, it is a being; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it
is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. The substance of
mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns,
doff their old diadems in summer, in rivers trickling down their sides, while
the storm cloud gives them another coronation; the ocean, with its mighty
floods, loses its water when the sunbeams kiss the waves, and snatch them in
mists to heaven; even the sun himself requires fresh fuel from the hand of
the Infinite Almighty, to replenish his ever burning furnace. All creatures
change. Man, especially as to his body, is always undergoing revolution. Very
probably there is not a single particle in my body which was in it a few
years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been
removed by friction, fresh particles of matter have in the mean time
constantly accrued to my body, and so it has been replenished; but its
substance is altered. The fabric of which this world is made is ever passing
away; like a stream of water, drops are running away and others are following
after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its elements. But
God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any substance or material,
but is spirit-pure, essential, and ethereal spirit-and therefore he is
immutable. He remains everlastingly the same. There are no furrows on his
eternal brow. No age hath passed him; no years have marked him with the
mementoes of their flight; he sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He
is the great I AM-the Great Unchangeable. Mark you, his essence did not
undergo a change when it became united with the manhood. When Christ in past
years did gird himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity was not
changed; flesh did not become God, nor did God become flesh by a real actual
change of nature; the two were united in hypostatical union, but the Godhead
was still the same. It was the same when he was a babe in the manager, as it
was when he stretched the curtains of heaven; it was the same God that hung
upon the cross, and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the self-same
God that holds the world upon his everlasting shoulders, and bears in his
hands the keys of death and hell. He never has been changed in his essence,
not even by his incarnation; he remains everlastingly, eternally, the one
unchanging God, the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,
neither the shadow of a change.
2. He changes not in his attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were of
old, that they are now; and of each of them we may sing “As it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.” Was he
powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spake the world out of the womb of
nonexistence? Was he the Omnipotent when he piled the mountains and scooped
out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and
his arm is unpalsied now, he is the same giant in his might; the sap of his
nourishment is undried, and the strength of his soul stands the same for
ever. Was he wise when he constituted this mighty globe, when he laid the
foundations of the universe? Had he wisdom when he planned the way of our
salvation, and when from all eternity he marked out his awful plans? Yes, and
he is wise now; he is not less skillful, lie has not less knowledge; his eye
which seeth all things is undimmed; his ear which heareth all the cries,
sighs, sobs, and groans of his people, is not rendered heavy by the years
which he hath heard their prayers. He is unchanged in his wisdom, he knows as
much now as ever, neither more nor less; he has the same consummate skill,
and the same infinite forecastings. He is unchanged, blessed be his name, in
his justice. just and holy was he in the past; just and holy is he now. He is
unchanged in his truth, he was promised, and he brings it to pass; he hath
saith it, and it shall be done. He varies not in the goodness, and
generosity, and benevolence of his nature. He is not become an Almighty
tyrant, whereas he was once an Almighty Father; but his strong love stands
like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity. And blessed
be his dear name, he is unchanged in his love. When he first wrote the
covenant, how full his heart was with affection to his people. He knew that
his Son must die to ratify the articles of that agreement. He knew right well
that he must rend his best beloved from his bowels, and send him down to
earth to bleed and die. He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor
did he shun its fulfillment. He loves as much now as he did then, and when
suns shall cease to shine, and moons to show their feeble light, he shall
love on for ever and for ever. Take any one attribute of God, and I will
write semper idem on it (always the same). Take any one thing you can say of
God now, and it may be said not only in the dark past, but in the bright
future it shall always remain the same: “I am Jehovah, I change not.”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
