The Attributes of God
Steve LawsonTrinity Bible Church, Men's study, 3/31/22
Review of lesson 8, the OMNIPOTENCE of God
An Omnipotent God is the best ____________, but the worst ____________!
Psalm 90:11 "Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due to You?"
Revelation 19:6 "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!"
LESSON 9. The IMMUTABILITY of God
MESSAGE INTRODUCTION
It is hard for anyone to go a day, even an hour, without changing in some way. Our thoughts and emotions are in a constant state of flux. Even our greatest desires and plans change over time. God, however, never changes His mind or His course of action in the world. He is an immovable rock, a mighty fortress, and the only sure anchor in an ever-changing world. In this lesson, Dr. Lawson explores the biblical view of God's immutability, showing how His character, Word, plan, and salvation never change.
DEFINITION (Brad Klassen)
"The immutability of God refers to His unchanging existence, perfections, purposes, and promises. While God causes change in His creation, and while He responds differently to different situations outside of Himself, He nonetheless experiences no change within Himself. He is what He is always and forever.
This attribute immediately highlights the profound difference between God and His creation. God is eternally constant and unchanging, while creation is constantly changing."
MOTTO VERSES:
Psalm 102:25-27 "In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them and they will be discarded. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end."
Malachi 3:6 "I am the Lord, I do not change."
TEACHING OBJECTIVES
1. To explain the nature of God's immutability and how it affects the Christian's life
2. To encourage reliance upon Him who never changes
3. To inspire praise for the One whose eternal and glorious plan will never be thwarted
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. God's CHARACTER is unchangeable
A. God's personality is eternal and unalterable.
1. He never increases or decreases (Psalm 102:26,27).
2. All of God's attributes are constant and steadfast.
B. We have Scripture's guarantee that the God whom we serve is the same each day.
1. Though our lives unfold in various stages, the same God is with us throughout.
2. When we lift our prayers to Him, we do not have to anticipate divine inconsistency or mood swings.
3. Moreover, when God is present in all places, He is present in the fullness of His being.
II. God's WORD is unchangeable
A. God's Word can never be altered or abridged.
B. God's Word cannot fail to come to pass.
C. God neither lies nor takes back what He has said (Numbers 23:19).
1. Fallen human beings, on the other hand, tend to twist the truth, change their minds, or mislead others intentionally or unintentionally.
2. Even human laws change, but God's Word stands forever (Isaiah 40:8).
D. Jesus taught that it would be easier for Heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of God's law to fail to be accomplished (Luke 16:17).
E. In all generations, God's standards are the same, and His plan of salvation is the same.
Brad Klassen: "God's promises of blessing and His promises of cursing, His promises of salvation and promises of judgment are completely immutable."
III. God's PLANS & PURPOSES are unchangeable
A. God's eternal decrees can never be altered.
B. God is never forced to change His plans or adopt a "Plan B."
C. God's purposes override and encompass human plans.
D. No one can frustrate or annul God's plans.
Job 42:2
Psalm 33:11
Proverbs 19:21
Isaiah 14:24; 26-27
Isaiah 46:9-10
Romans 9:11
Ephesians 1:11
Ephesians 3:11
Hebrews 6:17
Revelation 13:8
Proverbs 16:33 "We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall." NLT Bible
"The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him]." Amplified Bible
Spurgeon: "God does not alter His plans. Why should He? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform His pleasure. He is All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. You worthless atoms of earth, ephemera of a day, you creeping insects upon this bay-leaf of existence—you may change your plans, but He shall never, never change His!"
Brad Klassen: "God always acts in time and space according to His predetermined purposes. While God was not forced to make such plans (to create the world; to make man in His image; to elect specific individuals to salvation; etc.), He nonetheless fulfills these plans unwaveringly once they have been made. His purposes flow out of His immutable character, and therefore are immutable themselves. In other words, God does not change His mind."
Arthur Pink: "God's purpose never alters. One of two things causes a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: lack of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of power to execute them. But as God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for Him to revise His decrees."
IV. God's SALVATION is unchangeable
A. Though God's redemptive work advances throughout human history, His plan of salvation has remained unchanged.
B. From eternity, God has set apart His elect, and He will not reject or fail to save even one of His children.
C. The spiritual rebirth that believers experience is a new birth unto eternal life and is not a merely short-term sample of divine favor.
D. God's promises to believers are given unconditionally and with absolute certainty.
Brad Klassen: "God's immutability is connected closely to His eternality. Since God is independent from time, having neither a beginning nor an end, and since He does not experience the succession of time in His being, He cannot experience change.
God's immutability is also connected to His aseity (self-sufficiency). God is not reliant upon anything outside of Himself for existence, but rather supplies life to all. Nothing brought Him into existence and nothing can end His existence. Nothing external to Himself can influence His being. The passing of time has no influence on His essence.
God's immutability is also connected to His faithfulness. God is not a God who wavers in His commitment to His decrees and promises. There is a precise equivalency between what He says He will do and what He actually does. He is reliable not only because of His determination to fulfill His promises, but because His immutability allows no change.
Change implies ignorance and the need for learning.
It implies imperfections that need to be corrected.
It implies weaknesses that need improvement.
It implies immaturity that needs experience.
However, since God is absolutely perfect, the possibility of change is necessarily excluded.
God is unchanging in His existence. God has never experienced change with respect to a beginning, He never experiences change with respect to growing or decreasing, and He will never experience change with respect to an ending. As the God of supreme perfection, He can neither get better, nor change for the worse."
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Put the following events in the order that they appear in Romans 8:29–30.
_____ He justified
_____ He called
_____ He predestined
_____ He glorified
_____ He foreknew
2. While it is true to say that God does not change with respect to His being, He is nevertheless able to adjust His plan in history so as to bring more glory to Himself. a. True b. false
3. Which of these is not correct?
a. Immutability relates to God's character.
b. Immutability means that the number of those saved will neither increase nor decrease.
c. Immutability is best understood apart from God's other attributes.
d. Immutability also applies to God's Word.
4. Malachi 3:6 states that the sons of Jacob are not consumed because of God's mercy. a. True b. false
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If God never changes, how is it that our relationship with Him can change over time?
2. How should reflection on the unchangeableness of God's plan, including His plan for your life, lead you to thanksgiving when things go well, and comfort you when they do not?
3. How can Christians affirm God's immutability in light of the incarnation of the Son of God? Did the Son not change when He became man?
4. How does God's unchangeableness with respect to His Word inspire confidence in your study of Scripture?
5. Your thoughts on a mutable God.
IMPLICATIONS of God's Immutability (Brad Klassen)
1. Remember how different God is from you.
Immutability is an incommunicable attribute; it is a quality in which a created being cannot partake. God cannot change; we must change.
This attribute instantly highlights the difference between God and man, and sets man in his proper place. The fact that you must grow in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness highlights just how different you are from the One who is eternally and perfectly omniscient, wise, and holy. The very fact that you must change is proof of your creaturehood.
Again, Charnock writes, "What an infinite distance is there between the immutable God, and the mutable man, and how should we bewail this flittingness in our nature! This creature-mutability is not our sin, yet it should cause us to lie down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of our immutable Creator." Let this reality sink in deeply, and foster profound humility.
Joel Beeke: "Man's plans are often frustrated and have to be changed; God's plans are never frustrated and stand forever."
2. Refuse to trust in mutable things.
Idolatry can be partly defined as faith in a mutable object. Such faith can be placed in money, personal health and physique, human beauty, a career, social standing, fame, a legacy, children, etc. One thing is certain about all of these things: they will change!
The only true and worthy object of faith is the One who alone does not change. Your faith must be completely focused on Him.
3. Rely upon the promises of God.
If God could change, what would then happen to His promises? Charnock asks, "What comfort would it be to pray to a god that, like the chameleon, changed color every moment? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that was so mutable as to grant a petition one day, and deny it another?"
But this is not the God of the Bible. He remains the same. His revelation about Himself is absolutely reliable, and His promises can be embraced at face value. As Pink writes, "Herein is solid comfort. Human nature cannot be relied upon; but God can! However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove, God never changes!"
Joel Beeke: "When our prayers receive a firm no from God, we must humbly bow before his sovereign, immutable will and trust that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:7–10)."
This is both a ground of comfort and a stark warning. For those who embrace the promises of God as revealed in Scripture, God's promise is immutable. But for those who ignore the promises of God, His promises remain unchanged concerning them also: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him!" (John 3:36).
QUOTATIONS
Arthur Pink: "Immutability is one of the divine perfections which is not sufficiently pondered. It is one of the excellencies of the Creator which distinguishes Him from all His creatures. Creaturehood and mutability are analogous terms. If the creature was not mutable by nature, it would not be a creature; it would be God."
Joel Beeke: "The most stable objects in the visible universe, the ground beneath our feet and the skies above our heads, change, decay, and ultimately will be destroyed: but the Creator is of another nature than creation, and He abides forever unchanged. He is the same God he was before he created the world, and will remain the same God when this world is no more!"
Thomas Boston: "Though God alters His dealings, yet not His nature. He is the same in all His perfections, constant in His intentions, steady in His purpose, and unchangeably fixed in all His decrees and resolutions."
Arthur Pink: "God cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse. Altogether unaffected by anything outside Himself, improvement or deterioration is impossible. He is perpetually the same. He is altogether uninfluenced by the flight of time. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. Therefore His power can never diminish, nor His glory ever fade."
Martin Luther: The greatest consolation of Christians in their adversities, is the knowing that God does all things immutably, and that His will cannot be resisted, changed, or hindered.
Arthur Pink: "However unstable I may be, however fickle my friends may prove—God changes not. If He varied as we do, if He willed one thing today and another tomorrow, if He were controlled by caprice, who could confide in Him? But, all praise to His glorious name, He is ever the same. His purpose is fixed, His will is stable, His word is sure."
Arthur Pink: "God is immutable in His attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were before the universe was called into existence, they are precisely the same now, and will remain so forever. Necessarily so; for they are the very perfections, the essential qualities of His being. Semper diem (always the same) is written across every one of them.
His power is unabated,
His wisdom is undiminished,
and His holiness is unsullied.
The attributes of God can no more change, than Deity can cease to be!"
"We blossom and flourish, as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changes Thee."
"Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day,
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see,
O Thou who changest not, abide with me!"
SUMMARY: An Immutable God is the best _________, but the worst _________!
J.C. Ryle: The saddest part of all the good things of earth, is their instability.
Riches make themselves wings and flee away;
youth and beauty are but for a few years;
strength of body soon decays;
mind and intellect are ever withering.
All is perishing. All is fading. All is passing away.
But there is one splendid exception to this general rule, and that is the friendship of Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus is a Friend who never changes! There is no fickleness about Him. Those whom He loves—He loves unto the end! Husbands have been known to forsake their wives. Parents have been known to cast off their children. Human vows and promises of faithfulness have often been forgotten. Thousands have been neglected in their poverty and old age—who were honored by all when they were rich and young. But Christ never changed His feelings towards one of His friends. He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)
The Lord Jesus never leaves His friends. There is never a parting and good-bye between Him and His people. From the time that He makes His abode in the sinner's heart—He abides in it forever.
The world is full of departures; death and the lapse of time break up the most united family; sons go forth to make their way in life; daughters are married, and leave their father's house forever. Scattering, scattering, scattering—is the yearly history of the happiest home. How many we have tearfully watched as they drove away from our doors, whose pleasant faces we have never seen again! How many we have sorrowfully followed to the grave—and then come back to a cold, silent, lonely, and blank fireside! But, thanks be to God, there is One who never leaves His friends! The Lord Jesus is He who has said, "I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)
The Lord Jesus goes with His friends wherever they go. There is no possible separation between Him and those whom He loves. There is no place or position on earth that can divide them from the great Friend of their souls. When the path of duty calls them far away from home—He is their companion. When they pass through the fire and water of fierce tribulation—He is with them. When they lie down on the bed of sickness—He stands by them and makes all their troubles work for good. When they go down the valley of the shadow of death, and friends and relatives stand still and can go no further—He goes down by their side. When they wake up in the unknown world of Paradise—they are still with Him. When they rise with a new body at the judgment day—they will not be alone. He will own them for His friends, and say, "They are mine!" He will make good His own words: "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Look around the world, and see how failure is written on all men's schemes. Count up the partings, and separations, and disappointments, and bereavements which have happened under your own knowledge. Think what a privilege it is that there is One at least who never fails, and in whom no one was ever disappointed! Never, never was there so unfailing a Friend as Jesus Christ!
Seek every day to have closer communion with Him who is your Friend, and to know more of His grace and power. True Christianity is not merely the believing a certain set of dry theological propositions—it is to live in daily personal communication with an actual living person—Jesus the Son of God. "To me," said Paul, "to live is Christ!" (Philippians 1:21)
Oh, think, think much upon your unfailing Friend! Yet in a little while, your Friend shall come to take you home to Heaven, and you shall dwell with Him forever! Yet in a little while, you shall see as you have been seen, and know as you have been known. And then you shall hear assembled worlds confess, that he is the happiest man, who has Christ for his friend!
Seek every day to glorify your Lord and Savior in all your ways. No man surely is under such mighty obligations as the friend of Christ. Avoid everything which would grieve your Lord. Say to your soul, whenever you are tempted to do that which is wrong, "Soul, soul—is this your kindness to your Friend?"