Immutability Of God
Holman Bible Dictionary [1]
Secular Philosophical Thought In secular thought—God's immutability connotes innate divine perfection and completeness. Since God is complete in and of Himself, relation to anything other than Himself is an addition to His completeness, an addition which is a philosophical impossibility. Since relationship requires change or response on the part of the beings in relationship, God, perfectly complete and completely perfect, cannot relate to that which is outside Himself. This kind of God, who is possessed by an immutability which prohibits relationship to His creation, is not the God portrayed by the Bible.
Biblical Teaching God, as the Scriptures portray Him, responds to the needs of His creation and, therefore, changes in the sense that He relates to what is not God. The biblical idea of immutability is couched in the constancy of God's self-revelation to humanity: He is holy ( Joshua 24:19 ), jealous ( Exodus 20:5 ), zealous, ( Isaiah 9:7 ), beneficent ( Psalm 107:1 ); and righteous ( Exodus 9:27 ). God expresses wrath, though He is “slow to anger” ( Nehemiah 9:17 ). He expresses love ( Proverbs 3:12 ) in the election of His people for service ( Hosea 11:1; Matthew 28:19-20; Ephesians 1:4 ) and by sending His one and only Son as the Savior of the world ( John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10 ). The God of the Bible is the constant, unchangeable God in His revelation and response to humanity. He gives His name as “I am that I am” (lit. “I will be what I will be,” Exodus 3:14 ). He is the God who is and will be what He has already been in the past: “the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob this is my name for ever” ( Exodus 3:15 ).
The greatest religious significance of the unchanging God is His eternal stance of salvation toward His creation. He is eternally faithful to His people. He therefore repents of judgment when persons answer His call to obedience, as did the Ninevites in Jonah 3 . The unchanging God of salvation is the eternal, free God who reveals Himself in the eternal Son ( John 1:1 ,John 1:1, 1:18 ). As such, he is the immutable God who comes to seek and save the lost ( Mark 10:45 ), the God who is the same “yesterday, and to day, and for ever ( Hebrews 13:8 ).
Walter D. Draughon III
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [2]
In his unchangeableness. He is immutable in his essence, James 1:17 . In his attributes, Psalms 102:27 . In his purposes, Isaiah 25:1 . Psalms 33:11 . In his promises, Malachi 3:6 . 2 Timothy 2:12 . And in his threatenings, Matthew 25:41 . "This is a perfection, " says Dr. Blair, "which, perhaps, more than any other, distinguishes the divine nature from the human, gives complete energy to all its attributes, and entitles it to the highest adoration. From hence are derived the regular order of nature, and the steadfastness of the universe. Hence flows the unchanging terror of those laws which from age to age regulate the conduct of mankind. Hence the uniformity of that government, and the certainty of those promises, which are the ground of our trust and security. An objection, however, may be raised against this doctrine, from the commands given us to prayer, and other religious exercises. to what purpose, it may be urged, is homage addressed to a Being whose plan is unalterably fixed? This objection would have weight, if our religious addresses were designed to work any alteration in God, either by giving him information of what he did not know, or by exciting affections which he did not possess; or by inducing him to change measures which he had previously formed: but they are only crude and imperfect notions of religion which can suggest such ideas.
The change which our devotions are intended to make, are upon ourselves, not upon the Almighty. By pouring out our sentiments and desires before God, by adoring his perfections, and confessing our unworthiness; by expressing our dependence on his aid; our gratitude for his past favours, our submission to his present will, and our trust in his future mercy, we cultivate such affections as suit our place and station in the universe, and are to be exercised by us as men and as Christians. The contemplation of this divine perfection should raise in our minds admiration; should teach us to imitate, as far as our frailty will permit, that constancy and steadfastness which we adore, 2 Corinthians 3:18; and, lastly, should excite trust and confidence in the Divine Being, amidst all the revolutions of this uncertain world." Blair's Sermons, ser. 4. vol. 2:; Charnock's works, vol. 1: p. 203; Gill's Body of Div. vol. 1: p. 50; Lambert's Sermons, ser. on Malachi 3:6 .
Charles Spurgeon's Illustration Collection [3]
There be many Christians most like unto young sailors, who think the shore and the whole land doth move when they ship, and they themselves are moved. Just so not a few do imagine that God moveth, and saileth, and changeth places, because their giddy souls are under sail, and subject to alteration, to ebbing and flowing. But the foundation of the Lord abideth sure.: Samuel Rutherford.
