Jesus Christ the Same

Dear weekly readers!
 
This week we have an article by Pastor Gene Mixon from Seattle, WA which reflects back on the last year and looks forward to the future.
 
May God bless your week!
 
 
Jesus Christ the Same
 
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8
 
When we look back at the year past and honestly assess it, we find that it has been a year of change. Some changes have been small and almost seemingly unnoticeable and others have been large and unmistakable. There have been good changes that we have welcomed. There have been hard changes that if we could have avoided we would have, and even now we lament their occurrence and desire their reversal. In this assessment of the past year and the years that have come before it, we see that nothing in our physical existence in this world has any permanence. We find quite the opposite.
 
Everything in this life is changing or, more clearly put, passing away. This is how our blessed Savior and Lord Jesus put it in Matthew 24:35: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Our Lord portrays for us in these words a clear distinction, that which is temporary and that which is permanent or eternal. The temporary is the world in which we exist at present, as well as everything that is visible to the eye, including the body that we bear in this life. The permanent, or eternal, are His Words, the Word by which He joins Himself to us.
 
In the verse from Hebrews with which we began, we are directed to our unchangeable Savior, Lord and God Jesus Christ. We are clearly told that He is the same yesterday. The passage of time has no power over Him as it does over this world that is passing away. He is the same today. The very moment that we live in now finds Jesus exactly the same as He was yesterday, at the very beginning of time, even from eternity. He is the same forever. Tomorrow He will remain unchanged from yesterday and today. If the Lord gives us another day here on earth, we will wake to a multitude of changes in this world. Again, they will be big and small, welcomed and unwelcomed. They will take place because this world is passing away. Jesus and His Words, on the other hand, are not passing away. They are permanent, eternal.
 
The context of Hebrews 13:8 is bound to the entirety of the whole book. I would encourage you to read all of Hebrews at one time, in one sitting. I will tie verse 8, for the purpose of this short meditation, to the preceding verse, Hebrews 13:7: Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Those who have spoken the Word of God to us have delivered the only source of permanence there is, the unchangeable crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, the same enduring Word that Jesus said would not pass away. Yes! Jesus is His Word; Jesus is the Word of God.
 
There have been many preachers of the cross of Jesus Christ in our lives. Some of them are still here with us and continue to point us to the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. Many others have passed from life in this world, because this world is passing away; it is changing. In Hebrews 13:7, we are directed to remember them and to follow the faith they received in this life by hearing the Word of God that they preached and believed for themselves, the Word that told them and tells us that Jesus Christ was crucified and shed His blood for the remission of our sin and rose from the dead for our justification before God. We are to consider the outcome of their life, or their conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.
 
The implications of this are without limits. Because God sent His Son to suffer, die and rise from the dead, sin has been paid for and death has been overcome. Those who have passed from this life having faith according to God's grace in Jesus Christ are not dead, but live. The changes in this life have no permanent or eternal impact on them, even the death of their bodies, because they knew they would receive a new one according to the Word of God.
 
As we step off into another year, let us, according to the grace of God, rest in the Word that has been spoken to us and trust in the Word that has saved us in spite of ourselves and that never changes, Jesus Christ. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. Jesus is sufficient for us. Let us be content with what we receive in this life, because all the riches of the world cannot compare with the riches of God in Christ. Our Savior says in John 11:25-26: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Believe it! It is true, because it is the Word of God spoken to you.
 
May our heavenly Father establish and keep our hearts according to His holy grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
Pastor Gene Mixon