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WEEKLY
ARTICLE
God's
Unchanging Nature and our Uncertain Future
by
the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Weekly
Article
August
2nd, 2006
God does not change his mind. He knows the end from the beginning,
the future and the past, the last day and the first. God does
not change his mind because his decisions are not contingent,
they are eternal as are his decrees.
Our decisions, by contrast, are contingent. We respond to things
that happen in real time. Anne and I may decide to take the
kids to the park for a picnic. This is a contingent decision.
It depends on several unknown factors: 1. that nobody gets sick
2. that no emergency arises 3. that it does not rain…etc. If
one of these variables comes to pass, we will change our minds
and not go to the park.
God does not make contingent decisions. Were God planning the
picnic, he would know whether or not it was going to rain (in
fact he's in charge of the weather) and his decision would be
unchanging.
As James says:
Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect
gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly
lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:16-17)
God's word and his promise do not change because God does not
change. He is not like a “shifting shadow.”
There are however some curious passages in the New Testament
and the Old Testament in which it seems as if God does change
his mind, especially with regard to discipline and blessing.
Let's take a look at Jeremiah 18.
If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to
be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned
repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it
the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce
that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and
if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will
reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. (Jeremiah 18:7-10)
It is important to remember when you come across passages like
this is that the bible is written from an anthropomorphic, or
human perspective. That means that events and divine acts are
generally described as they appear from a human point of view,
not necessarily as they are in themselves. This is a common
aspect of human speech. For example, when the weatherman says,
“the sun will rise at 6:30am tomorrow” he's not being completely
accurate. The sun doesn't really rise. The earth rotates on
its axis. But we all know what he means. From a human perspective,
an anthropomorphic perspective, the sun rises.
The same principle applies to many biblical descriptions of
divine behavior. In the passage from Jeremiah above, God says
that in response to repentance he will “relent” or change his
plans to discipline.
But if God is eternal, how can he “relent”?
From our perspective, from the perspective of the sinner or
the sinful nation that repents, it will seem as though God has
“changed his mind.”
In fact, God has not changed at all. The sinner has.
From the divine perspective, God is eternally pleased with righteousness
and eternally militant toward sin.
To get a better understanding of this principle, take a blank
sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle, dividing the
paper into two halves. At the top of one half write “Pleasing
to God.” At the top of the other half write “Displeasing to
God.”
The line down the middle represents the line between righteousness,
walking in accordance with God's commands, and unrighteousness,
living in disobedience to the commands of God.
Those who live lives characterized by disobedience, displease
God. They live in the shadow of God's displeasure. If someone
who lives in the shadow of God's displeasure, hears the gospel,
repents of his sin, and surrenders his life to Jesus Christ,
that person moves from disobedience to obedience, from unrighteousness
to righteousness. They will live, from that moment on in the
light of God's pleasure.
To this new believer it may seem as if God has changed or “relented.”
But in fact, God has not relented. The sinner has repented and
moved from one side of the chart to the other.
Don't get confused, the “righteousness” that now characterizes
this new believer, is not his or her own. It is Christ's own
righteousness that is given to all who repent and surrender
their lives to Christ. As Paul says in his letter to the Philippians:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the
sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared
to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having
a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that
which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes
from God and is by faith .(Philippians 3:7-9)
Once you are in Christ, God considers you righteous on his account
and bestows upon you the blessing of eternal life.
But don't throw away the chart. Even as a believer whose life
is characterized by faith and obedience rather than sin, you
can still displease God and walk for a time in the shadow of
divine displeasure.
The difference is that as his adopted child your salvation is
assured and secured by the person and work of Christ. This does
not mean that God will not punish. It does mean that rather
than wrath that begins now and continues into eternity, as a
child, you will receive discipline that leads to repentance
and ultimately restoration.
This is not because God is mean, but because God loves you and
does not want his children to become slaves to sin and misery.
Here is how the author of the book of Hebrews puts it:
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.
For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not
disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are
illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all
had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for
it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits
and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they
thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may
share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time,
but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness
and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrew's 12:7-11)
In the same way, as believers and as a church, if we devote
ourselves to walking in accordance with God's Word and cooperate
with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, we will please
God and can expect his blessing. This is the covenant promise
that applies to all the children of Abraham:
If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow
all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set
you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings
will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your
God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your
land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds
and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading
trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in
and blessed when you go out. The LORD will grant that the enemies
who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will
come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The
LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you
put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land
he is giving you. The LORD will establish you as his holy people,
as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the
LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on
earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD,
and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in
the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the
crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your forefathers
to give you. The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse
of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless
all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but
will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not
the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your
God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you
will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn
aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right
or to the left, following other gods and serving them. (Deuteronomy
28: 1-14)
We are the children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ
(Romans 4) and that means that we are heirs to these promises
so long as we remain faithful and obedient to the covenant.
Of course these promises do not preclude the blessing of suffering
for the name of Christ, but as Jesus said, should we find ourselves
in such a position the proper response is to rejoice:
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice
and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in
the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5:11-12)
So, what does all of this mean for us at Good Shepherd?
It means that faithfulness to the law of God matters; that the
unchanging and eternal God has passed down his decrees through
his apostles and prophets in the Old and New Testament; that
we must, as individuals, as families, and as a body, be familiar
with his Word so that we know what displeases and pleases him;
and that discipline and blessing are prepared for those who
seek them.
These are crucial lessons as God leads us into unfamiliar and
uncertain territory. We do not know what or where we will be
in two weeks, not to mention two years, but we do have two clear
paths: obedience or disobedience; and two possible futures:
blessing or discipline.
May God lead us into faithful obedience and may he bless us
with the opportunity to both suffer for the name of Christ and
to lead the lost into a saving relationship with him
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