In the Word: God is Immutable

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be pouring over Scripture with the goal of knowing God increasingly as He truly is. As we study together, we encourage you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you study these names of God along with us! 

Knowing Our Glorious God

“For I the LORD do not change”
Malachi 3:6a

READ:

God is immutable—or, unchangeable. In all of His promises, acts, words, and being, He is always who He is—and He cannot be otherwise. This is one attribute in a series of what theologians have classified as God’s “incommunicable” attributes; while humans cannot fully relate with/ share any attributes of a perfect, infinite Being (even those considered “communicable”—like love, justice, etc.), incommunicable attributes are those especially “other.” That label can alert us to not think about God as existing in the same manner as we exist—it can alert us pause for contemplation so that we can be led to worship.

I am a changeable creature. I might say to my husband, “I love you more each day.” And he would be appreciative that my love for him grows as I grow. But viewed another way, this also means that yesterday and the day before that, I loved less.

God on the other hand, is always capable of the same incomprehensively great love—as is the case with His other perfections. The Apostle John, who reclined on Jesus (Jn. 13:23), had a different experience of God than the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19)—but that is because people change and vary. Over time and in comparison with others, people display differing reactions to God and His Word. But God’s responses in both of these scenarios are perfectly aligned with who He never ceases to be.

By the time my daughter went ahead, God was already justly keeping His word in human history that mankind’s fall in the garden would result in death being part of this earthly experience (Gen. 3), and He had already planned to never leave or forsake me during one moment of my grief (Heb. 13:5). These may have felt like two different experiences for me—in experiencing the first, my view of God’s goodness became clouded for a time, and in experiencing the second, I was drawn nearer to His heart. I might have come to perceive and understand even more evidences of His loving presence as time went on, but never did God change. The minute death came so near, God was already even closer—just as He had always planned to be.

REFLECT:

• Read Number 23:19, Psalm 33:11, and James 1:16-18. When my life has been dramatically altered, what comfort do I receive from these truths?
• God’s unchangeableness can prompt me to both receive and share the gospel message while today is still here. For God will keep His Word that the time of grace (Titus 2:11-14) will turn into a time for judgment (Acts 17:31). For all eternity, He will never change in blessing those made righteous through faith in the Son Jesus Christ—His promise of eternal life. And for all eternity He will never change in punishing the eternally damned—His promised response to unrepentant sinners of everlasting wrath. Have I believed in the firm, unchanging nature of God’s gospel and future plans, and have I understood the urgency of sharing the gospel message during my own short stay on this earth?

PRAYER AND PRAISE:

Father, thank you that I can trust Your Word. You will not alter one bit of it. You will not change one promise. It is true that, for me, when my daughter went ahead, I had difficulty remembering your goodness. I thank You that, during those times, You were near to me—orchestrating the details of my life, ministering to me through others, and speaking to me through the truths of Your Word. I am grateful that You are a just and loving God. That means I can trust that You will always do what You say, and You will always do what is right. You are more wonderful than I comprehend, being unchanging in all of Your perfections forever. You are worthy of my life, goals, dreams, aims, and priorities. Have them all, my God. You have always been and will always be worthy—immutably to be worshipped.

QUOTE FROM SOURCES CONSULTED¹:

I know nothing, in a sense, in my Christian life and experience which is so comforting as the doctrine of the eternity and immutability of God. Of course, to the sinner it is one of the most terrifying of all the doctrines. In other words, God is eternally righteous. God is eternally holy. Is there anything more wonderful, especially in the modern world as it is?

Change and decay in all around I see,
Oh Thou who changest not, abide with me.
H. F. Lyte

Is it not a wonderful and a glorious thing to know that God never changes? (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son)

So God is absolutely immutable in His essence and attributes. He can neither increase nor decrease. He is subject to no process of development, or of self-evolution. His knowledge and power can never be greater or less. He can never be wiser or holier, or more righteous or more merciful than He ever has been and ever must be. He is no less immutable in His plans and purposes. Infinite in wisdom, there can be no error in their conception; infinite in power, there can be no failure in their accomplishment. He is “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17.) “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent; hath He said and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19.) “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Mal. 3:6.) “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever; the thoughts of His heart to all generations.” (Ps. 33:11.) “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” (Prov. 19:21.) “The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Is. 14:24.) “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Is. 46:9, 10.) Those passages of Scripture in which God is said to repent, are to be interpreted on the same principle as those in which He is said to ride upon the wings of the wind, or to walk through the earth. These create no difficulty. (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology)

¹Sources consulted for this series: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son; Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology; Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion; J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs

Lianna (@liannadavis) is wed to Tyler and mom of two dear daughters. She is author of Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss (Hope Mommies, 2019). More of her writing can be found at her website.

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