TWO IMMUTABLE THINGS

Friday 23 May

For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, Hebrews 6:13 (AMPC)

This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us]. Hebrews 6:18 (AMPC)

When God said in Malachi 3:6 ‘I am the Lord, I change not’ He was telling us about His immutability i.e. unchanging nature. This was before the incarnation of Christ which means these words came from the Father speaking through His prophet to the Jews.

Hebrews 1:1 says, ‘God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

Where was Jesus? He was in the bosom of the Father as He clearly stated in John 1:18.

‘No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.’

Hebrews 1:1-2 says, ‘God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets’…

So the Father’s word was one of the immutable things that was spoken about in our second text verse. This relates back to Hebrews 11:1a where it says ‘faith is the substance of THINGS hoped for’…. This lets us know that the ‘things hoped for’ mentioned here were not of a physical or material nature and beyond that, it points to Christ as the person that they were all hoping for. The substance of their faith was Christ.

This leads us to the second immutable thing that Hebrews 6:18 talks about. The fulfilment of the Father’s word in Christ. Therefore, what God has said in the scriptures and what Jesus has fulfilled in the scriptures ARE the two immutable things. I hope you caught that.

Let me explain it another way for clarity. Whatever Christ fulfilled WAS what God said in the Old Testament. What Christ did not fulfil WAS NOT not what God said and is therefore the assumption of man concerning God’s nature and character.

When the Bible says ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever’ it is telling us that God’s nature is exactly the same as we saw in Jesus because He is the fulfilment of the Father’s words.

Hebrews 1:3a says about Jesus ‘who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power,’

Did you see it? Jesus is the same in character and nature as the Father and is the upholder or fulfiller of everything that God said in the scriptures concerning Christ.

So what does this show us? You can know the script of God in the Old Testament by the fulfilled prophecies of Christ in the New Testament. Again, if Christ has not fulfilled it, then God didn’t say it.

That is why we sometimes refer to God’s word as being everything that is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just all the events in the Bible in general. This is why the New Testament is the revelation of the Old Testament in relation to what was of Christ. Let me explain further.

Anything that Christ did not fulfil in His incarnation, death, burial resurrection and ascension today, that is not found in the gospels or the epistles should be discarded totally. We will cover this in depth at another time.

God said in Exodus, say to Pharaoh ‘I am that I am’ meaning ‘I will be what I will be’. Here is the pattern. God said what He would do and Christ fulfilled it. This is why we say the gospel is an ‘Eppagelia’ or self fulfilling promise that God made to Himself. This is why He swore an oath promising that He would be the fulfilment of everything that He spoke regarding salvation and His redemptive plan in Christ.

Only God has the ability and wherewithal to make such a promise and the power to back it up. Are you getting it? If anything would be required to fulfil the promise of Christ it would come from God. If a man needed to die for the sins of the world, that man would come from God.

If a spirit was going to dwell in the spirit of man it would come from God.

I trust you are encouraged by this reality. 2 things in your life can never change. What God has said concerning you in Christ and what Christ has fulfilled based on what the Father has said.

‘For He has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me.

Truth be told, whatever God said, He has now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He was and is and is to come, the same yesterday, today and forever!

APPLICATION

Study all the things that God has said concerning Christ and look for the fulfilment of His word in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension in the gospels and epistles.