When we say that God is immutable we mean that He never differs from himself.
God does not change. From all eternity past, present, and future, God is what He has always been. His character hasn't and will never change.
All that God has revealed about Himself in the Scriptures will never be modified; nothing contained in the writings of the Old and New Testaments will be rescinded.
J. I. Packer, in his book "Knowing God" listed numerous examples of how God does not change.
Let us prayerfully consider each of the following:
1. God’s life does not change. He is from all eternity.
“But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.” Jeremiah 10:10
“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.” Romans 1:23
“Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” 1 Timothy 6:16
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:2
“They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Psalm 102:26-27
“Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.” Isaiah 48:12
God did not need to be made, for He was always there. He exits forever, and he is always the same.
2. God’s character does not change.
Nothing can alter the character of God. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good than he used to be. The character of God is today, and always will be, exactly what it was in Bible times.
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” Exodus 3:14-15
“I AM WHO I AM” - a phrase of which “Yahweh” (Jehovah “the LORD”) is in effect a shortened form. The Name is not as description of God, but simply a declaration of his self-existence and his eternal changelessness; a reminder to mankind that he has life in himself, and that what he is now, he is eternally.
“And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7
This proclamation supplements that of Exodus 3 by telling us what in fact Yahweh is; and that of Exodus 3 supplements this by telling us that God is forever what at that moment, three thousand years ago, he told Moses that he was. God’s moral character is changeless.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
3. God’s truth does not change.
“The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:6-8
“For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.” Psalm 119:89, 151, 152
When we read our Bibles, therefore, we need to remember that God still stands behind all the promises, and demands, and statements of purpose, and words of warning, that are there addressed to the New Testament believers. These are not relics of a bygone age, but an eternally valid revelation of the mind of God toward his people in all generations.
“If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;” John 10:35
Nothing can annul God’s eternal truth.
4. God’s ways do not change.
He continues to act toward sinful men and women in the way that he does in the Bible story. He still blesses those on whom he sets his love in a way that humbles them, so that all the glory may be his alone. He still hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and grief’s to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience. He still seeks the fellowship of his people, and sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself. He still teaches believers to value his promised gifts by making them wait for those gifts, and compelling them to pray persistently for them, before he bestows them. So we read of God’s dealing with his people in the Scripture record, and so he deals with them still. His aims and principles of action remain consistent; he does not at any time act out of character.
5. God’s purposes do not change.
“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.” 1 Samuel 15:29
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Numbers 23:19
Repenting means revising one’s judgment and changing one’s plan of action. God never does this; he never needs to, for his plans are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control which extend to all things past, present, future, so that there can be no sudden emergencies or unexpected developments to take him by surprise.
“The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” Psalm 33:11
What God does in time, he planned from eternity. And all that he planned in eternity he carries out in time. And all that he has in his Word committed himself to do will infallibly be done.
“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:” Hebrews 6:17-18
No part of his eternal plan changes.
6. God’s Son does not change.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8
His touch has still its ancient power. It still remains true -
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25
He never changes, the fact is the strong consolation of all god’s people.
In this world where men forget us, change their attitude toward us as their private interests dictate, and revise their opinion of us for the slightest cause, is it not a source of wondrous strength to know that the God with whom we have to do changes not? That His attitude toward us now is the same it was in eternity past and will be in eternity to come?
What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Neither does He change His mind about anything, Today, this moment, He feels towards His creatures, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to die for mankind.
God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm. His attitude toward sin is now the same as it was when He drove our sinful man from the eastward garden, and His attitude toward the sinner the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
God will not compromise and He need not be coaxed. He cannot be persuaded to alter His Word nor talked into answering selfish prayer. In all our efforts to find God, to please Him, to commune with Him, we should remember that all change must be on our part. “I am the Lord, I change not.”
Nothing can alter the character of God. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good than he used to be. The character of God is today, and always will be, exactly what it was in Bible times.
Knowing God by JI Packer p77-80
