PRAISE GOD HE NEVER CHANGES
In Malachi 3:6 God declares that he does not change. This is a wonderful, vital truth. If God could change, he would have to change either for the better or the worse. But if God changed for the better, then he was not as good as he could be when we first trusted him. And really, if he is continually getting better, then how do we know that he just doesn’t have really good intentions? How do we know that we can trust him? How do we know that he isn’t making mistakes? How can we be confident that he is answering our prayers in the right way? How could we ever truly commit our lives to him and stand on him as our Rock?
And if God changed for the worse, then what kind of God is he now? What kind of God might he become? If God could change for the worse, and even just a drop of evil came into his being, then how could we possibly trust him or give our lives to him? If God did right only 9,999 times out of 10,000, how do we know that we wouldn’t be victims of the 10,000th time? If God could become a little bit worse, how do we know that eventually, he might not become a whole lot worse, or even just decide to be evil? The idea that God could change leads to the horrible possibility that someday we might come to live forever in a universe dominated by an evil God, or that God might never become all that he wants to be and all that we need him to be.
The importance of God’s unchangeableness especially hits home when it comes to God’s Word, his promises and purposes. We read the Bible and see that God promised that Jesus would one day physically return to rule over a new heaven and a new earth. A completely redeemed universe where we the redeemed in Christ will live with him forever. But what if God just decided to abandon that plan? Or what if God decided that he would no longer save us on the basis of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave? Or what if he decided that he would withdraw our salvation from us the next time we sinned? If God changed his mind, we really couldn’t count on anything he’s told us.
Thinking about that just a little bit helps us to see how absolutely important the truth of God’s unchangeableness really is. Our entire faith and salvation depends upon God being our Rock, the one we can count on, the one who is infinitely worthy of our trust. This is why James tells us that we can count on our Father of Lights to give us good and perfect gifts, because he is without variation, he is not like a shifting shadow (James 1:17). This is why the Psalmist praises God for not being like the heavens and the earth, that were created, and will one day pass away, but for being constant and unchanging, always dependable (Ps 102:25–27). Knowing that God will never change his mind when it comes to his purposes or promises provides a firm foundation for our faith. Praise God for his unchangeableness!
