Word of the Week: Immutability

By Elizabeth Prata



Immutability: Is the unchanging nature of someone. To be immutable is to be unchanging. God is unchanging in his character, will, and covenant promises. He does not change His mind, His will, or His nature.
Consider what thou owest to his immutability. Though thou hast changed a thousand times, he has not changed once; though thou hast shifted thy intentions, and thy will, yet he has not once swerved from his eternal purpose, but still has held thee fast. - Charles Spurgeon, The Christian—A Debtor, Sermon #96.
For someone to change, there must have been a point in time where the person was something else, or thought something different, or had alternate plans. Then as time passed, the person changed. Since God is outside of time, He is always the same, from point A to point B.

Also, His attributes are unchanging. He doesn't add to His character nor subtract from it. He isn't more loving today than when He was in Genesis 1:1 when our time began. He isn't more wrathful against sin than when He was 15 years ago or 100 years ago. He isn't more merciful or less compassionate than when Jesus walked in His incarnation.

What does immutability mean for us, His people?

As we read in Hebrews 6:17-18,

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

It means we should be encouraged that His promises are sure. The joy that is waiting for us in heaven, the reunion with the glorified family as adopted sons and daughters, the glory, the sinlessness, all that, is unchanging because God does not change. He promised this. It will happen.

It means doom for those who will not repent. God will not forsake His holiness and allow rebels into heaven. It means the judgment and subsequent hellish torment awaiting many millions is sure. It will happen.

The gulf between the two eternities is never more stark than when considering His immutability. He has forged those two paths and they will not change. Keep both in mind when pondering His immutability.




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