God’s Immutability and You: Seven practical applications of the immutability of God.
God’s Immutability and You
Seven practical applications of the immutability of God.
1. Your assurance of salvation should increase.
Even though you are saved, do you still have doubts whether or not you will truly be saved in the end? If so, a possible cause of this could be an insufficient understanding of God’s immutability. There is great comfort in understanding that your salvation is tied directly to the immutability of God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 3-5).
A Christian is forever God’s possession. It is His power that brought you to repentance of sin and belief in Jesus Christ, and it is His power that permanently secures your salvation.
2. Your purpose in life should be more greatly realized.
Most people’s purpose, time, energy, money, and efforts are focused on this world, a world that is in an unstable, unsure, and constant state of change. As a Christian, however, you should make better use of your life than living for the pursuit of only temporary gain.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).
Passages like this serve as a reality check. How foolish is it for you to spend all of your efforts and days on that which is perishing, and give little thought to the eternally immutable One? Your chief purpose is to glorify God with all that you are and to enjoy Him forever.
3. Your steadfastness during suffering should increase.
It is common for people to have doubts about God’s love, goodness, or power during difficult times. However, instead of allowing your mind to think such wrong thoughts of God, times of suffering, persecution, or trials should be a time when you focus more than ever on God’s immutability. Think of all that Job went through; the loss of his family, all his possessions, his health, companionship, yet, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22)
4. Your trust in God’s Word should increase.
You have a standard of truth from God, of which to base your beliefs and behavior upon. Many people just believe and behave how the culture expects them to as if there is no standard of truth. However, God, who is changeless, has given us truth that we can depend on. So that no matter how much the culture around us changes, you should remain steadfast in our adherence to the doctrine and behavior that God has put forth in His Word. You can trust in the Word of God, because, “All scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16).
5. Your rest in the love of God should increase.
Sadly, some people’s view of God’s love fluctuates so much that it could be called, “He loves me, He loves me not theology.” However, a better understanding of His love for you would be, “He loves me immutably and eternally.” God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3).
There is no perfect relationship on earth. Your relationships fluctuate significantly based on emotion, hormones, distractions, etc. However, you must realize that God’s love for all who are in Christ is absolutely perfect and unchanging.
6. Your trust in God should increase.
“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Is. 26:4).
The scriptures often use the analogy of God as a rock, because of the rock’s ability to stay put and be unaltered by change. He is your everlasting Rock of stability; therefore, you can trust in the Lord forever.
Trust is a beautiful attribute for people to have, yet perhaps you have been hurt by those who have abused your trust; but God can be fully trusted, because He is forever, and immutably trustworthy.
7. Your worship of God should increase.
While immutability may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you are worshipping God, maybe it should be.
The Apostle John gives us a glimpse of the worship that God receives in heaven around the clock.
“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Rev. 4:8).
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Noah’s Ark: Cute and Cuddly, or Wrath and Fury?
Noah’s Ark: Cute and Cuddly, or Wrath and Fury?
What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of Noah’s Ark?
Is it cute bunnies, giraffes, and kangaroos; or is it the death and destruction of sinners at the hand of God?
If you are like most, your mind immediately goes to the various childhood images of a lot of cute animals on a large boat. However, despite its overemphasis, the preservation of animals is not the primary lesson to be learned from the story of Noah’s Ark.
Both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter taught about the flood, yet neither of them even mentioned the animals. Instead, they used the flood account to teach on more serious matters such as sin, judgment, and salvation.
Let’s look at what Jesus and Peter said about the flood to discover what they found to be of most importance.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1 Peter 3:18-22).
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God’s people were, and are, in the minority.
Peter’s audience of believers were the minority in their society, yet God was with them. Peter used the ark account to remind his audience that counting heads is not the way to determine who is right and who is wrong. The most important factor is to be right with God; even if that does put you in the minority view.
Think about it. Only eight people in the entire world were following God in the days of Noah. As it was in the days of Noah and Peter, the same goes for us today. Christians may not be in the majority, but we are right with God.
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God’s method of salvation was, and is, exclusive.
Out of His mercy and grace, God provided the Ark. No matter what other ways people thought they could be saved by, in the end, they were proved wrong.
Perhaps some of them did not believe that God would judge their sin like He said He would. Perhaps others trusted that they were good enough to escape God’s judgment. And still, others may have thought that if God is good and loving, then surely He will not really bring destruction. However, God provided only one way for people to be saved: the ark.
So it was with Peter’s audience, and so it is for us today. The exclusivity of salvation by God’s ark points to the exclusivity of ultimate salvation from sin, judgment, and wrath through Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father accept through me” (John 14:6).
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God’s method of salvation was, and is, 100% effective.
God put Noah and his family on the ark and sealed them the door. The rest of the world received God’s wrath, but those on the ark were safe. The ark floated perfectly through the storms, and by the hand of God, all of its inhabitants arrived safely. Its passengers had weathered the storms, were spared God’s wrath, and were saved just as God said they would be.
Peter reveals that the ark was a type, or shadow, of the ultimate Ark of salvation, Jesus Christ, who will succeed in preserving, protecting, and bringing all of His elect safely home to God the Father.
Peter reminds his audience that Jesus suffered God’s wrath for their sins to bring them safely to God. We can also fully rest in God’s method of salvation. As he clarified earlier by writing,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
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God did, and will, punish sinners.
Sinners hope that God will not judge them for their sins. However, the global flood and consummate death reveals that God does not wink at sin. He wiped out all people on the earth, except for eight, due to their sinfulness. It was a catastrophic event brought about by the anger, wrath, and judgment of God against sinners.
Both Peter and Jesus Christ use the story of the ark to reiterate that the Day of Judgment is coming for all sinners. And as bad as dying in a flood was, it will be nothing compared to the coming final judgment of God.
Jesus said,
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:37-39).
Summary:
Jesus, God in the flesh, and the Apostle Peter clearly taught that God really did judge sinners by causing a global flood. They also taught that a greater judgment and punishment is coming for all sinners.
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