The Immutability of God

Malachi 2:17-3:6

We live in an ever-changing world. Things change so fast we cannot rely on a daily newspaper for up-to-the-minute news; we must have news programmes all day long. Some changes are for good, and some are for bad or evil. Some changes are welcome; some are not. A great comfort for the Christian living in these turbulent, troubled times is the confidence we have that God does not change. This attribute of God is referred to as the “immutability or unchangeableness of God.” It means that in essence, attributes, consciousness, and will God is unchangeable.

There are many passages in the Bible and several Christian hymns that affirm the immutability of God. Three of the most explicit texts are: Numbers 23:19, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” James 1:17, where God is described as “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change;” and Malachi 3:6, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

The people in Malachi’s day were questioning God’s justice. People were doing whatever they wanted and no one ever seemed to get punished or suffer the consequences. The prophet laid a strong charge against the people: they had wearied the LORD with their words and accusations (v. 17). The LORD then issued a strong warning to the people: He would come to execute justice (vv. 3:1-5). He also reminded His people of two very significant facts: first, He is the LORD Almighty and does not change (v. 6a). As Scripture declares, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). He is immutable, unchangeable. His will is firmly established and so is His Word. Therefore, when He established His covenant with Israel when He made them His own nation and people, it was forever. Even if they broke the covenant, He would keep it. Even though they sinned, He would find a way to atone for their sin, to forgive and cleanse them. This way was through Jesus Christ the Messiah.

Second, the LORD reminded the people that they had not been destroyed because God is unchangeable. This is the only reason they had not been judged and completely cut off from the LORD. Though they had sinned and violated every term of God’s covenant, He would not change. He would uphold His covenant and abide by it. He would still judge the wicked and purge the nation of unrepentant sinners, but the nation as a whole would not be consumed. God would always protect and preserve a righteous remnant, those who would trust and obey Him.

There are three things that we must note about the immutability of God. First, immutability applies to the nature of God. He is always God, and He is always infinitely powerful. Never will God fail to accomplish His will due to a change in His power to accomplish His purposes. Second, God is immutable with regard to His character or attributes. God is immutable in His attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were before the universe was called into existence, they are precisely the same now and will remain so forever. This is necessarily so; for they are the very perfections, the essential qualities of His being. His power is unabated, His wisdom undiminished, His holiness unsullied. His veracity is immutable, for His Word is ‘forever settled in heaven’ (Psalm 119:89). His love is eternal: ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love’ (Jer. 31:3). His mercy ceases not, for it is ‘everlasting’ (Ps l00:5).

When Jonah protested against God’s dealings with the Ninevites, he made it clear God was not acting inconsistently with His character but rather He was acting predictably. Jonah sought to flee from the presence of God in a futile attempt to thwart God from acting consistently with His character (Jonah 4:1-2, “1But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity”). When God “relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon” the Ninevites, God was not only acting consistently with His character; He was acting consistently with His Word, as written in Jeremiah 18:7-8, “7At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.” This very hope prompted the king of Ninevah to repent, along with the rest of the city (Jonah 3:5-9). God’s actions are predictable because He is immutable.

Third, God’s purposes and promises are immutable (Romans 11:29— “29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable). God finishes what He starts. This was the basis for Moses’ appeal to God in Exodus 32:11-14. God’s actions in response to Moses’ appeal were not a contradiction to His immutability but an outworking of that immutability. In other words, God happily relents of His judgments whenever sinners repent. Indeed, His dispositional will is “that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He is slow to wrath for our sake. He is patient and merciful toward us, giving us time and time again to turn in repentance toward Him. In Exodus 34:6-7, God revealed Himself to Moses as the LORD who will not clear the guilty but forgives sin by His steadfast love, mercy, and grace. How can these both be true? The answer is only found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Due to the immutability of God’s goodness, righteousness, justice, and holiness, He cannot simply pass by sin as if it did not exist. God’s eternal and unchanging justice demands restitution for sin’s trespass. In order to satisfy the demands of His immutable justice, God, by His boundless love for us, made another way. The eternal Word, the second person of the triune God, united Himself to humanity and willingly submitted Himself to death in our place. His single, physical death paid the penalty for all our sins, once for all. Thus, God’s justice is maintained. Sin is still punished, eternally so. Yet God is also able to grant forgiveness, full forgiveness, a forgiveness that declares to us that no condemnation exists for we who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

What then are the benefits of God’s immutability to a believer? One, it gives us confidence in God. The immutability of God is closely related to the immutability of the Word of God (Matt. 24:35; 1 Pet. 1:22-25), which means His Word is never out of date, never irrelevant to our lives or our times. Because God keeps His promises and He is absolutely faithful, we can have total confidence in God, and we can build our entire future on the foundation of His truths. The individuals mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, who are presented as examples of faith, had their faith rooted in the fact that they considered God to be faithful to His promises (Hebrews 11:11 “since she considered Him faithful who had promised”; Romans 4:20-21 “yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform”).

Two, it gives us peace of mind. In a 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, it is a source of wondrous strength to know that our God does not change. What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. When we come to Him at any time, we don’t need to 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 neither keeps office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Today, even at this very moment, He feels toward His creatures, 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 towards sin now is the same as it was when He drove out Adam and Eve from the eastward garden, and His attitude toward the sinner is the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’” (The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer, p. 59).

Three, it gives us courage and confidence during trials. Life is full of trials, and when we face them, we need the courage and confidence that come from the knowledge of God’s immutability or unchangeableness. Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 10:13, that, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it;” Also, Peter, in 1 Peter 4:19, said that “those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” The word entrust, is the technical word for depositing money with a trusted friend. In the ancient days, there were no banks and few really safe places in which to deposit money. So, before a man went on a journey, he often left his money in the safekeeping of a friend. The friend was absolutely bound by all honour and all religion to return the money intact.” (Barclay p. 310).

Four, the immutability of God is a standard for Christians. As the “sons of God,” we are to emulate God, to reflect Him in our daily lives (see Matt. 5:43-48). While there is much need for change in our lives, there is also the need for us not to change. We are not to allow the world to change us by conforming us to its ungodly mold (Rom. 12:1-2). We are not to change by losing heart and abandoning our confession of faith (see Heb. 6:11-20; 10:19-25, 32-39). We are not to change by forsaking our commitments when fulfilling them is costly to us (Psalm 15:4).

Five, it gives us hope when we fail. God ever stands ready to forgive us when we humbly confess and repent of our sins (1 John 1:9). God’s unchanging nature means that He is always eagerly awaiting the return of the repentant sinner (Luke 15:20; 2 Peter 3:9).

Six, the immutability of God is an awesome warning that God will fulfill His Word regarding judgment for sin. God’s immutability is not only a comforting assurance concerning the blessings which God has promised but also an awesome warning that God will fulfill His Word regarding judgment for sin. There is a time for repentance, and during that time men may repent with the assurance that God will forgive their sins and turn from the judgment He threatened. In Jer. 18:7-8, God promised He would relent of the disaster He pronounced against a wicked nation if they would repent. But when the time for repentance ends, men must face the consequences of their sins. In Jeremiah 4:27-28, God spoke to Judah concerning the judgment that was about to come upon the nation for their sins. The judgment was certain and would not change because He would not change His mind. The reason for this is that His appeal to them to repent of their sins was ignored (Jer. 4:14). Once the time for repentance has passed, God’s wrath is sure to follow.