So, what have we seen so far?
It is impossible for God to lie, so we should trust Him.
It is impossible for God to do (or be) evil, so we should love Him.
It is impossible for someone to be so lost in their own success that God can’t save them, so no matter what you are guilty of, turn to Jesus for rescue.
Today, let’s talk about change. Specifically, let’s talk about the fact that God can’t change (He is immutable). And because of that, He doesn’t ever change His mind. He doesn’t repent. He can’t repent.
In Ecclesiastes 3:14 Solomon wrote, “I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.”
But what does that mean for us? Well, what it should tell us is that we can safely commit everything to Him. As His children, we can and should fully surrender our all to Him. It’s not like we can hold out for a better idea that He might have later. Many have repeated the mantra: “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?”
So, God’s ideas are all perfect ideas. He is incapable of any inferior plan. He only does the best. In every circumstance there is truly only one option for God: the best option. While He has the prerogative to do anything and everything that is in keeping with His character, His character includes such perfection that He can and will ONLY do things perfectly. And, when an entity does the perfect thing every time, then of course they never have to apologize for or redo anything.
It is true that due to God’s patient condescension to us and His desire to reveal Himself to us, He often presents Himself in terms that we are familiar with. These presentations of Divinity are called anthropomorphisms. It is God describing Himself (or someone else describing Him) as if He has the traits of created humans.
Examples: His eyes run to and fro throughout the earth. His arm is not short. He casts our sins behind His back. And, He repented of the evil that He thought to do.
But those are all essentially idiomatic expressions that help us to understand the incomprehensible. There are other passages that force us to accept the anthropomorphic nature of those and other descriptions of God’s nature and behavior.
Consider these:
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6)
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and shall he not do it? or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)
“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent.” (1st Samuel 15:29)
There are other passages that teach the same idea, but you get the point.
So, if God is that dependable; that reliable; that consistent; that perfect, then our “followship” of Him should be a full send kind of a deal. According to dictionary.com, the explanation of the phrase “FULL SEND” goes like this: “YOLO! If you do something full send, especially in extreme sports, you’re doing it full-throttle and with 100% commitment—even if you end up failing. In extended, popular slang, full send has the sense of ‘intense,’ ‘hardcore,’ or 'without regard to consequences.’”
Well, that’s truly how we should be following and pursuing Christ. Since He never changes His mind and truly never needs to change His mind, then we can move forward with Him with no holds barred. There is literally no reason to hold anything back in yielding to God. No restrictions or restraints are needed as we cooperate with His Spirit. It is impossible for Him to mess up.
So, if we “abide in Him” (as Jesus described it), then we are sure to persevere, overcome, triumph, conquer. We will be victorious! In the end, losing is not an option. If God be for us, then who can stand against us? Our enemies can’t prosper perpetually. We know the last chapter. We win because God wins. He can’t be defeated, so neither can we be defeated.
Hallelujah!
