JESUS CHRIST IMMUTABLE – Charles Spurgeon

JESUS CHRIST IMMUTABLE

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8.

For a very considerable number of years, an esteemed and venerable vicar of a Surrey parish has sent me, at the New Year, a generous testimony of his love and an acknowledgment of the pleasure which he derives from the weekly reading of my sermons. Enclosed in the parcel which his kindness awards to me is a text from which he hopes that I may preach on the first Sunday morning of the New Year. This year, he sends me this golden line, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” I have preached from it before—you will find a sermon from this text in print. But we need not be at all afraid of preaching from the same text twice; the word is inexhaustible—it may be trod in the winepress many times, and yet run with generous wine! We ought not to hesitate to preach a second time from a passage any more than anyone going to the village well would be ashamed to put down the same bucket twice, or feel at all aggrieved at sailing twice down the same river! There is always freshness about gospel truth, and though the matter may be the same, there are ways of putting it in fresh light so as to bring new joy to those who meditate upon it. Moreover, what if we should repeat our teachings concerning Christ? What if we should hear over and over again the same things “touching the King”? We can afford to hear them! Repetitions concerning Jesus are better than varieties upon any other subject. As a French monarch declared that he would sooner hear the repetitions of Bourdaloue than the novelties of another, so we may declare concerning our Lord Jesus; we would sooner hear again and again the precious truths of God which glorify Him than listen to the most eloquent orations upon any other theme in all the world! There are a few works of art, and wonders of creation which you might gaze upon every day in your life, and yet not weary of them; a great architect tells us there are but few buildings of this kind, but he instances Westminster Abbey as one; and everyone knows, who has ever looked upon the sea, or upon the Falls of Niagara, that look as often as you may, though you see precisely the same object, yet there are new tints, new motions of the waves, and new flashes of the light which forbid the least approach of monotony, and give to the assembling of the waters an ever-enduring charm. Even thus is it with that sea of all delights which is found in the dear lover of our souls! We come then, to the old subject of this old text, and may the blessed Spirit give us new unction while we meditate upon it.

I. The Personal Names of Our Lord: “Jesus Christ”

Note first, our Lord’s personal name, Jesus Christ. “JESUS” stands first. That is our Lord’s Hebrew name, “Jesus,” or “Joshua.” The word signifies, a Savior, “for He shall save His people from their sins.” It was given to Him in His cradle— “Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining, Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall. Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining, Maker, and Monarch, and Savior of all!” While He was yet an infant hanging on His mother’s breast, He was recognized as Savior, for the fact of God’s becoming incarnate was the sure pledge, guarantee, and commencement of human salvation. At the very thought of His birth, the virgin sang, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” There is hope that man shall be lifted up to God when God condescends to come down to man! Jesus in the manger deserves to be called the Savior, for when it can be said that “the tabernacle of God is with men and He does dwell among them,” there is hope that all good things will be given to the fallen race. He was called Jesus in His childhood—“The Holy Child Jesus.” It was as Jesus that He went up with His parents to the temple, and sat down with the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. Yes, and Jesus as a Teacher in the very first principles of His doctrine is a Savior—emancipating the minds of men from superstition, setting them loose from the traditions of the fathers, scattering, even, with His Infant hands, the seeds of truth, the elements of a glorious liberty which shall emancipate the human mind from the iron bondage of false philosophy and priestcraft. He was Jesus, too, and is commonly called so both by His foes and by His friends in His active life. It is as Jesus the Savior that He heals the sick, that He raises the dead, that He delivers Peter from sinking, that He rescues from shipwreck the ship tossed upon the Galilean Lake. In all the teachings of His middle life, in those laborious three years of diligent service, both in His public ministry, and in His private prayer, He is still Jesus the Savior; by His active, as well as by His passive obedience, we are saved. All through His earthly sojourn He made it clear that the Son of man had come to seek and to save that which was lost. If His blood redeems us from the guilt of sin, His life shows us how to overcome its power; if by His death upon the tree He crushes Satan for us, by His life of holiness He teaches us how to break the dragon’s head within us. He is the Savior as a baby, the Savior as a child, the Savior as the toiling, laboring, tempted man.

But He comes out most clearly as Jesus when dying on the cross; so named in a writing of which the author said, “What I have written, I have written,” for over the head of the dying Savior you read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” There pre-eminently was He the Savior, being made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. After beholding the dying agonies of his Master, the beloved apostle said, “We have seen, and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” On Calvary it was seen that the Son of Man saved others, though through blessed incapacity of love, “Himself He could not save.” When He was made to feel the wrath of God on account of sin, and pangs unknown were suffered by Him as our substitute; when He was made to pass through the thick darkness, and burning heat of divine wrath, then was He, according to Scripture, “the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” Yes, it is on the cross that Christ is peculiarly a Savior; if He were nothing better than our exemplar, alas for us! We might be grateful for the example if we could imitate it, but without the pardon which spares us, and the divine grace which gives us power for holiness, the brightest example were a tantalizing of our grief! To be shown what we ought to be, without having any method set before us by which we could attain to it, were to mock our misery! But Jesus first draws us up out of the horrible pit of hell into which we were fallen, takes us out of the miry clay by the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice, and then having set our feet upon a rock by virtue of His merits, He Himself leads the way onward to perfection! And so is He Savior both in life and in death— “That JESUS saves from sin and hell, Is truth divinely sure! And on this rock our faith may rest Immovably secure!”

Still bearing the name of Jesus, our Lord rose from the dead! The evangelists delight in calling Him Jesus—in His appearance to Magdalene in the garden; in His manifestation of Himself to the disciples when they were together, the doors being shut; He is always Jesus with them as the risen One. Beloved, since we are justified by His resurrection, we may well regard Him as Savior under that aspect; salvation is still more linked with a risen Christ because we see Him by His resurrection destroying death, breaking down the prison of the sepulcher, and bearing away like another Samson the gates of the grave. He is a Savior for us since He has vanquished the last enemy that shall be destroyed, that we, having been saved from sin by His death, should be saved from death through His resurrection! Jesus is the title under which He is called in glory, for “Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” He is today, “the Savior of the body”; we adore Him as the only-wise God and our Savior. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” As Jesus He shall shortly come, and we are “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Our daily cry is, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Yes, and this is the name, the name, “Jesus,” by which He is known in heaven at this hour. Thus the angel spoke of Him before He was conceived by the virgin; thus the angels serve Him and do His bidding, for He said to John in Patmos, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify these things.” The angels prophesied His coming under that sacred name; they came to those who stood looking up into heaven, and they said, “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” Under this name, the devils fear Him, for didn’t they say, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you?” This is the spell that binds the hearts of cherubim in chains of love; this is that which makes the hosts of hell tremble, and shrink back in fear! This name is the joy of the church on earth! It is the joy of the church above! It is a common word, a household name for our dear Redeemer among the family of God below! And up there they still sing it— “Jesus, the Lord, their harps employ— ‘Jesus, my love,’ they sing! Jesus, the life of both our joys, Sounds sweet from every string.”

II. His Memorable Attributes: He is the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever

We shall now examine the second point, HIS MEMORABLE ATTRIBUTES. He is said to be the same. Now, Jesus Christ has not been the same in condition at all times, for He was once adored of angels, but afterwards spit upon by men! He exchanged the supernal splendors of His Father’s court for the poverty of the earth, the degradation of death, and the humiliation of the grave. Jesus Christ is not, and will not be always the same as to occupation. Once He came to seek and to save that which was lost, but we very truly sing, “The Lord shall come, but not the same as once in lowliness He came.” He shall come with a very different objective—He shall come to scatter His enemies, and break them as with a rod of iron! We are not to take the expression then, “the same,” in the most unlimited sense conceivable. Looking at the Greek, you will notice that it might be read thus, “Jesus Christ Himself yesterday, and today, and forever.” The anointed Savior is always Himself. He is always Jesus Christ—and the word, “same” seems to me to bear the most intimate relation to the two titles of the text; it does as good as say that Jesus Christ is always Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today, and forever; Jesus Christ is always Himself. At any rate, if that is not the correct translation, it is a very correct and blessed sentence! It is sweetly true that Jesus Christ is always Himself. Immutability is ascribed to Christ, and we remark that He was evermore to His people what He now is, for He was the same yesterday. Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ, and those who lived afterwards. We have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of Christ do not belong to the church of God! We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed one at a time in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement! Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing! The Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring, and others whom He hardly cares about. These who saw Christ’s day before it came, had a great difference as to what they knew, and perhaps in the same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed while on earth in meditating upon Christ; but they were all washed in the same blood, all redeemed with the same ransom price, and made members of the same body! Israel in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel, but all believers in all ages! Before the first advent, all the types and shadows all pointed one way—they pointed to Christ, and to Him all the saints looked with hope. Those who lived before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall come to us; they exercised faith as we must; that faith struggled as ours struggles, and that faith obtained its reward as ours shall, as like as a man’s face to that which he sees in a glass is the spiritual life of David to the spiritual life of the believer now. Take the book of Psalms in your hand, and forgetting, for an instant that you have the representation of the life of one in the olden times, you might suppose that David wrote but yesterday. Even in what he writes of Christ, he seems as though he lived after Christ instead of before, and both in what he sees of himself, and in what he sees of his Savior, he appears to be rather a Christian writer than a Jew. I mean that living before Christ, he has the same hopes and the same fears, the same joys and the same sorrows, and there is the same estimate of his blessed Redeemer which you and I have in these times. Jesus was the same yesterday as an anointed Savior to His people, as He is today, and they under Him received like precious gifts. If the goodly fellowship of the prophets could be here today, they would all testify to you that He was the same in every office in their times as He is in these, our days. Jesus Christ is the same now as He was in times gone by, for the text says, “The same yesterday, and today.” He is the same today as He was from old eternity; before all worlds He planned our salvation; He entered into covenant with His Father to undertake it; His delights were with the sons of men in prospect and now, today, He is as steadfast to that covenant as ever! He will not lose those who were then given to Him, nor will He fail nor be discouraged till every stipulation of that covenant shall be fulfilled. Whatever was in the heart of Christ before the stars began to shine, that same infinite love is there today! Jesus is the same today as He was when He was here on earth. There is much comfort in this thought; when He tabernacled among men, He was most willing to save: “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden,” was the burden of His cry, and He is still calling to the weary and the heavy-laden to come to Him! In the days of His flesh He would not curse the woman taken in adultery, neither would He reject the publicans and sinners who gathered to hear Him; He is still merciful to sinners, and says to them yet, “Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more.” That delightful sentence which so graciously came from His lips—“Your sins, which are many, are forgiven you”—is still His favorite utterance in human hearts.

III. The Evident Claims of Christ

Our time has failed us, and therefore just two or three words upon our Lord’s evident claims. If our Lord is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” then according to the connection of our text, He is to be followed to the end. Observe the seventh verse, “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follows considering the end of their conversation.” The meaning being these holy men ended their lives with Christ; their exit was to go to Jesus, and to reign with Him. Beloved, if the Lord is still the same, follow Him till you reach Him! Your exit out of this life shall bring you where He is, and you will find Him then, what He always was; you shall see Him as He is. If He were a will-o’-the-wisp, forever changing, it would be dangerous to follow Him, but since He is ever and equally worthy of your admiration and example, follow Him evermore! That was an eloquent speech of Henry the Sixth, of France, when on the eve of battle he said to his soldiers, “Gentlemen, you are Frenchmen; I am your King; there is the enemy!” Jesus Christ says, “You are My people; I am your Leader; there is the foe!” How shall we dare to do anything unworthy of such a Lord as He is, or of such a citizenship as that which He has bestowed upon us? If we are His, and He is truly immutable, let us by His Holy Spirit’s power persevere to the end, that we may obtain the crown!

The next evident claim of Christ upon us is that we should be steadfast in the faith. Notice the ninth verse: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever; do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.” There is nothing new in theology but that which is false; all that is true is old, though I say not that all that is old is true.

Some speak of developments as though we had not the whole Christian religion discovered yet; but the religion of Paul is the religion of every man who is taught by the Holy Spirit. We ought not, therefore, to indulge for a moment the idea that something has been discovered which may correct the teaching of Christ! We must not even think that some new philosophy or discovery of science has risen up to correct the declared testimony of our Redeemer! Let us hold fast that which we have received, and never depart from “the truth once delivered unto the saints” by Christ Himself. If Jesus Christ is immutable, He has an evident claim to our most solemn worship. Immutability can be the attribute of none but God; whoever is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” must be divine. Then, believer, bring your adoration to Jesus! At the feet of Him who was crucified, cast down your crown! Give royal and divine honors unto Him who stooped to the ignominy of crucifixion! Let no one stop you from glorying in your boast that the Son of God was made man for you! Worship Him as God over all, blessed forever! He also claims of us, next, that we should trust Him. If He is always the same, here is a rock that cannot be moved! Build on it! Here is an anchor; cast your anchor of hope into it, and hold fast in time of storm. If Christ were variable, He were not worthy of your confidence, but since He is evermore unchanged, rest on Him without fear. And, lastly, if He is always the same, rejoice in Him, and rejoice always; if you ever had cause to rejoice in Christ, you always have cause, for He never alters! If yesterday you could sing of Him, today you may sing of Him; if He changed, your joy might change, but if the stream of your gladness springs solely and only out of this great deep of the immutability of Jesus, then it need never stay its flow. Beloved, let us, “rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.” And, until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, till the blest hour arrives when we shall see Him face to face, and be made like He is, be this our joy that “He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—Hebrews 13.

Charles Spurgeon