Episode 133 - Rock of Ages: Finding Stability in God's Unchanging Nature

When everything around us shifts and changes, where can we find true stability? Our exploration of God's immutability concludes with this bonus episode that distills the rich theological insights we've gathered throughout this series.

At the heart of Christian faith lies this profound reality: the living God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—remains utterly faithful, reliable, and trustworthy from everlasting to everlasting. The promises He makes are "yes and amen" in Christ Jesus, never expiring or deteriorating. Unlike human beings who change their minds or break their word, God stands as the immovable Rock of Ages.

While Christians universally affirm God's unchanging nature, fascinating nuances emerge in how we understand this divine attribute. We unpack three layers of meaning: the straightforward biblical teaching of God's faithfulness, the creedal affirmation of the Trinity's eternal existence, and more philosophical concepts around divine simplicity and timelessness. These latter notions, which emerged from centuries of theological reflection influenced by Greek philosophy, represent areas where Christians may respectfully differ while maintaining unity on the essential truths.

What matters most isn't abstract theological speculation but the heart-transforming reality captured in Spurgeon's powerful words: "There is one place where change cannot put his finger. There is one name on which mutability can never be written. There is one heart which never can alter. That heart is God's." This unchanging divine love provides our only true security in a world characterized by constant flux.

How might your faith be strengthened today by resting on this unshakable foundation? Subscribe to our podcast for more explorations of how timeless theological truths transform our everyday lives.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Transcript

Introduction to God's Immutability

Speaker 1 0:30

Well, I want to just do a short bonus episode for our Christ-centered cosmic civilization, just gathering our thoughts and conclusions after this epically long investigation into the immutability of God, the faithfulness, stability of God, of the living God who is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so this is just a short episode, really to bring it all to a conclusion and draw us, hopefully, into real worship and love and faith and confidence in this God who is perfect in all his ways and that his perfections are not the way, are better, are so much better than the kind of abstract and often irrelevant perfections that we tend to create with our puny human wisdom. And so, if we ask the question, let's go right back to the beginning and ask the question is the living God of the Bible immutable? All Christians are going to say yes, yes, gloriously, yes, wonderfully. Yes, it's right.

Speaker 1 2:00

It's so consistently taught all the way through the Bible that there is this utterly reliable and trustworthy and faithful living God, the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob. The father sends his son in the power of the spirit, always in his ways, and works the same dependable. The promises he makes are always true and yes and amen in jesus christ, and none of them expire and never. He's, never, he never. He himself, the living god, is not becoming something different than he is and he's never deteriorating or upgrading or anything like that. No, the living God of the Bible is the rock of ages, the same yesterday, today and forever. So is the living God of the Bible immutable? All Christians will say yes, of course, but I think it's safe to say not all Christians seem to mean exactly the same by this. At the heart of it, we all, I think, mean the same, but when we get to some of these peripheral philosophical speculations, then I think there is variety. So, for the complete biblical sense of the immutability of the Trinity, we all swim together in the depths of the faithfulness of God, the reliability of God, and we run to this rock of ages for refuge, stability, order, meaning security in all the troubles of life fight, and we rest upon the eternal stability of the trinity. Always the same, uh, but for some, for those who are persuaded by the philosophical ideas of god as the philosophical ideas of God as timeless, or God as made of a simple, non-composite material or substance, I want to wish them well.

Speaker 1 4:27

I've read a lot of theology throughout my life, and theology from all down through a lot of history, not all of christian history, I think you can't quite get that in the very first couple of centuries, but you certainly from um the late fourth century and into the fifth century. You can get some of this kind of idea of god as timeless in in that absolute sense of having no before, present or after, and that idea that god is made of a non-composite substance, um, and and that tradition which flourishes, flourished really for a good thousand years in western christianity and still and still is around today and is championed. And I've read books that were uh like very powerful intellectually and not just that, but uh, full of warm devotion and deep holiness and reverence for the living god. So I I don't want to uh just be completely dismissive of that, even though I'm not, I'm not persuaded by it, either intellectually or biblically. But I do want to wish those well who still persist with that project of integrating that kind of a philosophical vision of God into the Bible and they believe that can be done or at least it can be harmonious. Um, no, not all of us will want to join them in that project, but uh, there are those who believe it, it's. It's fruitful to do that.

Biblical Faithfulness vs. Philosophical Timelessness

Speaker 1 6:28

But we all, all of us, all of us seem to agree on the immutability of the trinity in the first two senses, that's, the biblical biblical, the straightforward biblical teaching, the creedal sense and the creedal sense. But we are not perhaps all persuaded about the third category of claims about immutability that are of a more philosophical character. So let's just summarise it in this shorter episode that, first of all, when we say God is immutable, the Lord does not change, it certainly means that the Trinity is faithful, reliable, constant and trustworthy. The father speaks through his son in the power of the spirit, and he keeps his promises and doesn't change his mind as human beings do. The Bible repeatedly teaches us this the Lord, god, is an unmoving rock whose gospel and promises can be utterly trusted by all people at all times, perfect in all his ways, reliable. The will of the Father is set by his own good pleasure and he is never pressured into changing his will or purpose by any outside force. There is no development of ideas or beliefs within the living god, as if what he once said might be superseded by later views or ideas or events. There's no events that can happen that will undermine his words and ways and will. So here, in this first sense, what we saw from throughout the Bible on many occasions, in many ways, is that the works and ways and will of the living God do not change.

Speaker 1 8:44

And though people may think, ah, god is not as bothered by evil as he used to be and he's not so strong about goodness as he used to, that is nonsense. The Lord does not change and we can, forever and ever, from everlasting ages to everlasting ages. That is absolutely ages. Two everlasting ages, that is absolutely unchangingly certain. But there's this second way that God is immutable means that the father eternally begets his son and eternally breathes out his spirit. There was never a time when either the son or the spirit did not exist, and either the Son or the Spirit did not exist. Any talk about the Father turning into the Son, who turns into the Spirit, is totally false. Any idea that when Jesus became human he was no longer God or became God in a reduced form or any, that's totally false and ludicrous. The father, son and spirit are all truly and eternally divine, the one living God, unchanging from everlasting ages to everlasting ages. That is the sense of the immutability of God that we kind of find expressed and reaffirmed in the great ecumenical creeds and they are, you know, tremendously important to us and joyful.

Different Theological Approaches

Speaker 1 10:17

But there's this third category and we've been over it in great the living God is a simple, perfect, timeless substance and therefore cannot change. Or they may believe one of those things they might say because God I believe God is timeless in the sense of having no chronology, no before, present and after, and therefore God cannot change. Or they may say they may just pick one of, they may pick that simple element. They may say no, because God is made of a single, non-composite divine substance that cannot decompose or deteriorate. Therefore there is no change in God. Or they may have that third idea that because God is being and not becoming, and is a perfect being without any becoming or any potentiality within God, therefore God cannot change Now. So some argue all of those or one or two of them or whatever, a very popular way of synthesizing philosophical ideas with Christian theology. Even if we're not persuaded by the whole package, we might find it edifying and helpful and stimulating to pursue those lines of thought.

Speaker 1 11:54

But definitely not all Christians around the world. First of all, not all Christians around the world have been connected to this Greek philosophical tradition. So even those categories of becoming and being and things like that that were generated within that Greek tradition not all philosophical traditions around the world even have those categories operate really differently. And the desert and that like contrast between, uh, the idea that the best kind of being is to be made of a sing, a simple, single substance that has no composite character to it, that is, uh, not at all the kind of way that philosophy works in other parts of the world.

Speaker 1 12:47

But look, the point simply is there are many Christians who have not been part of those philosophical traditions and arguments, and there are many Christians who are just not persuaded by those philosophical arguments and genuinely do not believe that the Bible teaches that God is either timeless in that sense of no consecutive moments, nor do they believe that the Bible teaches that the Father, son and Spirit are made of a simple, non-composite substance, or they simply say I have no idea to say anything at all about what the Father, son and Spirit are composed of. I don't know, I don't want to say anything at all about the essence of God, the substance of God, and so they are not persuaded by the kind of immutability that is associated with the concepts of divine simplicity or divine timelessness in that way. So what I want to I'm hoping we've come to is to realize we all want to say the important things about that. God is immutable, the, the things that are important about that the eternal, the eternity of the trinity, that the be like, the being of god, what god is father, son and spirit is unchanging and then like, more importantly in terms of what, how the bible emphasizes things, is this unchanging ways, works, words and will of the father, son, and the utter reliability and trustworthiness of this immutable God, the rock of ages, that we're all on the same page about. It's just, it's possible that there are philosophical expressions of the immutability of God that are not persuasive to every Christian in the world. But I want to return, as we're concluding now, to Spurgeon's sermon on the immutability of God, and I love this, so I'm going to read it and I make no apology for this, and it's as he's kind of applying, because this is what we want to get to After these, I don't know, 11 weeks or more of meditation on the immutability of God.

Spurgeon on God's Unchanging Love

Closing Hymn: "God Will Not Change"

Speaker 1 15:34

What I'm constantly hoping is that we are applying these truths to our hearts and it's making us love and worship and trust the living God Father, son and Holy Spirit more and more, and that we are turning away from the world, the flesh and the devil that are changing and weak and unreliable and untrustworthy and instead becoming ever more grasping hold of this rock of ages that is the living God. Well, that's that's me. Let's forget that. Let's get to Spurgeon. He always says it the best way. He says this may change, but God does not. Your brethren may change and cast out your name as vile, but God will love you still. Let your station in life change and your property be gone. Let your whole life be shaken and you become weak and sickly. Let everything flee away. There is one place where change cannot put his finger. There is one name on which mutability can never be written. There is one heart which never can alter. That heart is God's. That name love I also. That's the end of Spurgeon there.

Speaker 1 17:51

But I came across a hymn that I didn't know, by someone called Sevilla Martin, and it's from 1913. And with this we'll close this series on the immutability of God. And this is the hymn Change and decay on. All below, we see as on. Through life we go. All below we see as on through life we go. How blessed then for us to know God will not change, god will not change.

Speaker 1 18:47

And then the chorus, verse two On this strong rock we'll ever stand. All other ground is sinking sand. The ground is sinking sand. Our father's love, our life has planned. God will not change, god will not change. Then the chorus again Though friends we love soon pass away and earthly hopes live, but a day Our saviour lives for a and a, he will not change, he will not change. Then the final verse how safe when trusting in the Lord, how sure believing his sweet word, how happy hid with Christ in God, god will not change, god will not change. The chorus finally Though friends we love soon pass away and earthly hopes live, but a day Our saviour lives for a and a, he will not change, he will not change.