The Unchanging Christ: The Same
Yesterday
All of my life I have heard the
plea for a relevant “new Christ for a new age.”
The truth is Jesus Christ is
God’s final word to men in all ages. He is relevant
for every age. He is “the same yesterday, today and
forever” (Heb. 13:8).
The same Jesus sits today “on
the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3).
He is the same person as He was when here on the
earth.
When we read the words, “Jesus
Christ the same yesterday” we are carried back to
the long ages before He became flesh. I can point to
a date, time, and place when I was born. However,
Jesus did not begin to live when He was born in the
flesh of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He simply
changed His robes.
The apostle Paul tells us Jesus
was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, divested Himself of His garments of
glory that had been His from all eternity and
clothed Himself in the garments of a common
household slave in the flesh and was obedient unto
death. He was God-man. He was fully God and fully
human (Phil. 2:5-8).
The absolutely essential fact
is He was the same in past eternity; He changes not.
I search for an absolute in an
age of change; He changes not, and I therefore have
security.
He came from the Father and He
returned to the Father. He dwelt in the ageless past
in the bosom of His eternal Father. The apostle John
tells us, “in the beginning was the Word.” When
everything else had a beginning He already existed
and He had no beginning. His beginning had no
beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in
the beginning with God. All things came into being
through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into
being that has come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men” (John 1:1-4).
“Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday . . .” His eternal existence is declared
in these words, “in the beginning was the Word.” He
is no vacillating whim of the age. “The Word was
with God,” a distinct personality of the true and
perfect deity because “the Word was God.” His
personal relationship with the Father is
unchangeable. He “was in the beginning with God,”
and because of His resurrection and ascension, He
still is in the presence of the Father in a perfect
relationship.
Moreover, His understanding of
man never needs to change. No one knows me like the
one who made me. “All things were made by Him; and
without Him was not anything made that was made.”
“In Him is life.”
Where would you turn for a
relevant Christ that is not found in the historic
Christ? Would you, like the modern self-made cults,
turn to your own making, or to some new age
“enlightenment”?
God in Christ has already
become one of us in order to demonstrate His love
for us, and to show us what God is really like. God
came and revealed Himself to sinful and disobedient
rebellious men.
I don’t need a greater “light.”
I only need to respond to the One true and all
supreme Lord of all creation. Why should I turn to
some lesser “light”? All other spiritual lights are
only creepy shadows of the one who masquerades as
“the angel of light,” Satan himself.
We don’t have to look afar to
discover what evil lurks within the heart of man.
God has fully revealed Himself (Heb. 1:1-3), and man
in his stubborn rebellion cries for something
greater and better like selfish, pampered,
narcissistic children whining for something new.
God has spoken. He has not
changed and He will not. He is the same as He was
yesterday, and I find stability for my soul and
eternal peace with God. Because He is the same I
have eternal security of a right relationship with
Him, not of my self-making, or choosing, but in His
all-sufficient wisdom and grace.
Because He is the same
yesterday, I know that what He has said will still
remain true for you and me today. “For God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life” (John 3:16).
That great truth will not
change, because our Savior changes not. His word and
eternal promises remain the same throughout all
eternity. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today
and forever.” Thank God.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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