He is Unchanging

By Yolandie Mostert (May 2023)

 

His locks are wavy, and black as a raven. (Songs 5:11b) 

 

Black hair speaks of hair that doesn’t change colour with age. The colour stays the same. In this symbolism we can see the unchangeable nature of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:8) 

 

Matthew was not the first writer that introduced us to Jesus. Jesus was already present at the creation. Nothing came into being without Him.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (Joh 1:1-3) 

The same order with which the earth was created, is still His order. His heart for His creation has never changed. We read that His order will be restored during the thousand-year reign of peace.

 

Jesus was the Man that wrestled with Jacob until daybreak.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Gen 32:30) 

Jesus hasn’t changed. The man and woman who are still willing to wrestle through the night and who refuses to let Him go without a blessing, will be blessed and will never be the same again. He is still the One that calls us out of places of comfort and fear to glorify His name in and through our lives. He is still the One that goes before us. This has not changed.

 

Every facet of Jesus Christ that we are discussing in this series has been from ancient times and will not change even in eternity. We can find peace in His unchanging nature. It gives us security. We can look at the patterns in the Old Testament and recognise Him in the New Testament and even in our own lives.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. (Jam 1:17 AMP) 

 

A lie slipped into the church that is mostly being taught by the so-called ‘grace-movement’. They don’t say it in so many words, but it boils down to the Lord having an almost personality change at the cross. According to their teachings, God changed his methods from the Old Testament to the New. He was strict then, but now He is only love and grace. Prophetic word then was harsh, but now it’s only encouraging and positive. Before the cross He judged, but not anymore. Previously holiness was important, but now people can live in whatever way they want without any fear of consequence. Curses and consequences existed before the cross, but no more. And so I can continue. Everything that doesn’t tickle the ear, gets classified as pre-cross and whatever fits fleshliness and the comfort of man gets moved to after the cross.

These are all lies straight from hell. I hear sayings like: “just pull the situation through the cross” or “the Lord changed at the cross” or even “but that is Old Testament, rather only focus on the New Testament”. This is not what Scripture teaches us. There is nothing in the whole Bible that support these lies. Scripture teaches us that He is unchanging.

So what did change?

The Lord Himself certainly did not change. He is still holy and requires holiness. He is still love and requires love from us. It is the manner that we may approach Him that changed. Also the place from which He gives His law or instructions changed – from the outside (law on stone) to within us (law on flesh). And that is basically all that changed. Faith was a requirement long before the law of Moses – Abraham was justified by his faith and even today we are being justified by our faith in Him.

 

Let’s have a closer look at us approaching Him.

He is a holy God and His holiness consumes everything unholy. We’ve already discussed this in the message about His holiness. For the Israelites to be able to approach a holy God, they had to obey the Torah, the law. This enabled them to come before Him without being consumed by His holiness. God’s heart even then was for men to be able to come near to Him. It was men’s sinful nature that came in through Adam that blocked mankind from approaching God.

The Torah was given as a tutor or teacher until the permanent solution was to come – the New Covenant (Gal 3:24-25). The laws or instructions are no longer written on stone tablets, but it’s written on our innermost parts. We are now able to obey the instructions written within through the assistance of Holy Spirit in us. It’s no longer a struggle from the outside, but we are empowered from within. Please read Hebrews 8.

 

We can only enter in through the Blood of the Lamb. Without the Blood we can still not come before the holy God. This is what changed – the way that we may approach a holy, unchangeable God. He did not change. He changed the method of approaching Him through the perfect work of Jesus on the cross. And that is the true meaning of grace – the fact that we may approach based only on the Blood of Jesus and not through our own goodness.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh (Heb 10:19-20) 

 

What about His methods – did that change?

I really don’t see a change in His method in Scripture. When I read the Old Testament, the Epistles and the letters, I recognise exactly the same methods. He was a God of love, grace and mercy even before the cross, just as He is now. He is still calling sinners to repentance. He wasn’t harsh then, but now soft. His prophets then didn’t speak stern words of warning and judgement, but no longer so. He judged dead religion, pride and deceit through His Old Testament prophets and He judged the scribes and Pharisees for exactly the same thing. If we think that God has lowered His standards in the New Testament, go and read the story of Ananias and Sapphira his wife again. Read also what happened to Simon that wanted to purchase the gift of laying on of hands. Go and read the messages to the seven churches in Revelation. In each letter we see encouragement, warning, a call unto repentance and judgement that will follow disobedience. And that is as New Testament as you can get. The pattern has never changed. Jesus Christ is still the same – yesterday, today and forever.

 

But He is unique and unchangeable, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. (Job 23:13) 

 

Let us take comfort in the unchangeable nature of our wonderful heavenly Father, our Messiah and the sweet Spirit of the living God. God is not a man that He will change. He doesn’t have moodswings. He doesn’t deal with us according to the way He feels. He is always fair and by this I mean truly fair. Us humans have a different standard of fair depending if we know someone or not. God is not like that. He is always righteous – with everyone. He is always loving and full of mercy. We can find so much security and peace our unchangeable God.

 

Links

To listen to the introduction, as well as the Word I’ve received by the Holy Spirit concerning this series, please click here.

The audio version of this message is availalbe on our telegram channel: https://t.me/+1hYU7h46Jj1hZDc8

Part 1 – Who is the Bridegroom (background)

Part 2 – Who is your beloved?

Part 3 – He is my beloved

Part 4 – Hy is Light

Part 5 – Hy is Holy

Part 6 – Hy is the Warrior and Avenger

Part 7 – He is the Conqueror

Part 8 – He is the Head

Part 9 – The Set-Apart One