Picking up again with my Journaling on Knowing God… Chapter 7 is the first chapter of Part II of the book entitled Behold Your God! Packer begins the chapter 7 – which is on God’s unchanging or immutable nature with an interesting introduction. He digs into the existential angst felt by many a believer feels in connecting to the world of the Bible. The ancient world of the Scripture is very different than our own. It had its own languages, its own customs, many religions, and some forms of human existence that just seem bizarre to modern readers. Additionally, there are glorious and spectacular things at play in the world of the Bible – we feel our lives to be somehow disconnected from such divine movements in space and time. Brief Aside For now I will just withhold comment on how that world as well as our own were not filled with “every day miracles” – but the miracles throughout history have served a specific purpose in revealing God’s redemptive plan. Equally, the every day regularity has a voice displaying God’s nature and glory to us as well – the vastness of the heavens speak of the glory of God (Psalm 19), the regularity of seasons speaks of God’s providential provision for us (Acts 14) … so I would say whether miraculous or gloriously “normal” – this world is infused with meaning and the fingerprints of God. Packer’s solution to the time-epoch disconnect between or day and ancient days past is that we can be certain that the God who was at work in the Scriptures is the same God we walk with today. This truth is rooted in an attribute of the infinite one; the attribute of divine immutability. Biblical data for God’s immutability is in abundance in this chapter and Packer goes to great length to establish the unchanging essence of God His life does not change

His is from all eternity – Psalm 93:2
He is the eternal King – Jeremiah 10:10
He alone is immortal – 1 Timothy 6:10
He utterly stays the same Psalm 102:26, 27

A.W Pink summed it up well in stating this attribute in the light of God’s perfection: “He cannot change for the better, for he is already perfect; and being perfect, he cannot change for the worse.”

Quoted in JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 77.

His character does not change

God IS who He IS – Exodus 3:14
He has no variation or shadow due to change – James 1:17

His truth does not change

His Word will endure forever – Isaiah 40:6-8
His Word is eternal and stands firm – Psalm 119:89
His commands are true – Psalm 119:151-52

God’s ways do not change

God continues to act in the ways he did in the time of the Scriptures – we can be sure he will continue to be who he is, act in the ways he acted; he never will act out of character. This by no means makes God predictably, for he is mysterious in his ways, but it does make him incredibly trustworthy as we works out his good and perfect will in our lives.

God’s purposes do not change

He does not change his mind (literally, have regret) – 1 Samuel 15:29
He does not lie nor promise without fulfillment – Numbers 23:19 Again a great quote from Pink: One of two things that cause a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of foresight to execute them. But God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for him to revise his decrees

Quoted in JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 77.

God’s Son does not change

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever – Hebrews 13:8

I thoroughly delight in the contemplation of God being an immutable being. How great it is to know, love and worship one who is not a fair weather person. A person who is one way when the fair winds blow east and the other when the gales blow westward.

Out...

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