The Immutability of Christ

This Sunday we will celebrate the Lord's Supper. As we approach the table of our Lord for this commemorative celebration, we are instructed to "do this to remember Me." (I Cor 11:24) It dawned upon me recently, that while I always challenge people to remember, I don't know that enough emphasis is given with regard to "what" we are to remember about our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the great comforts to us as believers is the immutability, the changeless nature of Christ. Hebrews 13:8 declares, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever."

We live in a world that is in a constant state of change. In fact, most of us find the changes happening so fast, it is hard to keep up with all of them. The earth is in a constant state of change, one season follows another. Countries and kingdoms are in a constant state of change. Recently when I was in Vienna, I met believers from countries that comprised the former Soviet Union. I had to update my geography, that part of the world has changed drastically over the past few years. Families change, from one generation to the next. Even you and I change as our bodies age and grow. Change is a constant in life.

Yet, Hebrews 13:8 tell us Jesus does not change. What a great comfort for us. If we can grasp this fully, the beauties, excellencies and perfections of Christ will be a great consolation for us.

Consider His person! He is the express image of the true God. He is the Heir of all things, the Lord of Glory. Jesus is unrivalled in His glory, His exalted position and throne are immovable. The praise and honor due Him is exhaustless and eternal. He is self-existent, truly the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Maybe most noteworthy is the vastness of His love to us. Love is the unalterable essence of His nature. Above all else, He is love. This love is expressed to us in so many ways, yet it is never lessened or affected by the circumstances of this life. Jesus remains the source and fountain of gracious love. This love is most wonderfully manifested in His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. The virtue and merit of His sacrifice extend to every age and avail for a guilty world. I believe it availed for Abel in Genesis as he bought the appropriate sacrifice and it extends down through the ages to every contrite sinner who in faith has responded to the Gospel, the efficacy of which is unimpaired. It is guilt-removing, soul-purifying, and peace-procuring.

Here's a story that brings all of that into focus.

When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door, and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, THAT is middle C!”

The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one “still point in a turning world.”

For Christians, the one “still point in a turning world,” the one absolute of which there is no shadow of turning, is the immutable Jesus Christ .. "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Isn't that a powerful comfort for us in a world of constant change?

Do this to remember Me! Oh, may Jesus be an anchor to your heart and soul!