God’s Immutability
It is fitting that we think of the immutability of God at the end of another year. Much has happened in the world during the past year, and many things have changed. There has been economic, social and political change. Every day brings fresh reports of major developments that affect all our lives.
Political upheaval and war have redrawn national boundaries, destroyed nations and created nations. Here in Northern Ireland, especially in these last few months, there has been talk of changes that may affect our very existence as a country. Some speak of political betrayal; others speak of a possible solution to our troubles. Which, if either, will it be?
Even in the church there have been changes. The love of many has waxed cold. Iniquity abounds (Matt. 24:10–12). More and more the faithful church appears to be “a besieged city” (Isa. 1:8). Things, at least for the present, do not bode well for the church of Jesus Christ.
In our families many of us have experienced great changes too—changes that are not all pleasant. For some there has been happiness and health, marriage and children, success and well-being. For others there has been loss and trouble. Some still mourn loved ones who have died. Some have endured grievous trials. For some there has been suffering and pain.
What will another year bring?
No one knows what the new year will bring, though many think themselves prophets. Only this is certain: another year will bring more change and decay, for the world in which we live is still the same old world of sin, darkness and death.
But God does not change. That is what His immutability means. He cannot change. He is “Jehovah who changes not” (cf. Mal. 3:6), “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). “From everlasting to everlasting” He is “God” (Ps. 90:2).
He has not changed His purpose and plan for all things. He still unchangeably wills the salvation of His people. Nor has He changed in power, as though He were no longer the almighty, the sovereign God of heaven and earth. He still controls and directs all things (Ps. 115:3), including everything that happens to us.
Above all, He has not changed in His love and grace. He has not forgotten or forsaken us, even when it seems so to us. Of this we can be sure, because our Lord Jesus—the one through whom our immutable God reveals Himself—is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).
Is it not wonderfully comforting to know that our God does not change? In Him, through the unchangeable Jesus, we rest. Rev. Hanko
Love for Our Enemies (4)
“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you …” (Luke 6:27).
While we have discussed this verse in previous issues, there is still one question about the text that we must face.
You will remember that the difficulty centres on the word “love”—the strong Greek word for love—because it refers to a bond of fellowship between two people who are holy. If that is what the term means, how can Jesus use this strong word here when He speaks of our enemies as the object of our love?
The answer matters.
Ordinarily, the love of which Jesus speaks is what we might call a “two-way street.” It is reciprocal—a bond between two or more people who love one another. Such is the relationship of love between God and His elect in Jesus Christ. Such a bond unites the saints in the communion of the people of God. Such love exists between husband and wife when both are believers. It is that bond which unites a family of parents and children.
But it cannot be such a bond of fellowship when we are called to love our enemies. In such circumstances, this love is really a “one-way street.” The love is on one side only—our love for our enemies, but certainly not their love for us.
The result is that a bond is not actually formed, and cannot be formed. We love them, but they do not—and cannot—love us. Therefore no bond of fellowship is established, because they remain wicked.
Yet Jesus still uses the word “love.” Why? Because by loving our enemies we express our deep desire that those enemies be brought into our fellowship.
You will recall that an earlier article explained that this love expresses our desire for their salvation; and that when we show the wicked our love, we bring to them the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By bringing them the gospel, we show our desire that they be brought into the church of Christ and into the fellowship of the love of the saints.
We do not—and cannot—have fellowship with them as long as they remain unbelieving. Yet we do express our hope that it will please God to save them.
If God is pleased, as we said earlier, to save them because they are elect, then our love for them will become the full love of fellowship, for they will be joined to the church where the love of God rules.
If they are not elect, God will use our very testimony of love to harden them, so that their enmity and hatred increase. In time they will be so hardened that any contact with them becomes impossible. Then we will no longer even be able to bring them the gospel, for they will hate it—and us. In that case we cannot show love to them in the same way, though even then we can continue to pray for them.
But at last comes the time when we must say with David: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Ps. 139:21–22).
So the conclusion of the matter is this: the child of God who has tasted God’s love for him—unworthy sinner that he is—cannot help but testify of that amazing love. He testifies of it in such a way that he loves the neighbour whom God has placed on his path.
Never may the child of God return evil for evil. Never may he retaliate when he is harmed. Never may he speak evil of his neighbour. Always he must earnestly seek the salvation of those with whom he daily comes into contact. Anything else is contrary to the love which God has shed abroad in his own heart.
He must therefore be a living witness to the love of God in this sin-cursed world. He must boldly and courageously testify of the truth, call sinners to repentance, do good to all, help the oppressed, comfort the sorrowing, bless them that curse him, pray for them who persecute him and earnestly seek the salvation of all his enemies.
God will use this for His own purpose. When a sinner is brought to repentance, he rejoices—together with the angels. When hatred and opposition increase and he is called to suffer, he does so gladly, knowing that he suffers for Christ’s sake. And in all things God is glorified. Prof. Hanko
When Will Christ Come?
The question we wish to answer in this issue of the News is: “Certain texts seem to tell us that Jesus said He would return in the lifetime of His hearers. Can you explain why it is now 2,000 years and Jesus has not returned?” What an appropriate question as we come to the end of another year and see that Jesus still has not come!
Did Jesus promise to come in the lifetime of His hearers? We should remember that there are other senses in which Jesus comes throughout the New Testament, even while He does not return “in the flesh.” There is, for example, His coming through the Spirit. When He promised to send the Holy Spirit as our Comforter in John 14–16, He said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). So too, He comes through the preaching of the gospel (John 10:27; Rom. 10:14) and for His own at the time of their death (John 14:3). In some sense, therefore, He comes in the lifetime of every believer.
There are, however, certain passages that seem to say that His final coming would take place in the lifetime of His hearers. Matthew 24:29–35 is a good example. It is all but impossible to understand verses 29–31 as referring to anything but His final coming. Yet verse 34 says, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” For that reason many have understood the passage to be speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and not of Christ’s coming for judgment.
In studying the passage we should remember that “fulfilled” does not necessarily mean “finished and done with” (cf. Matt. 5:17–18). For that reason we believe there is an ongoing fulfilment of the prophecies that attend Christ’s coming. In other words, there is a repeated and increasingly clear fulfilment of what is foretold, so that a passage like Matthew 24 can be fulfilled both at the destruction of Jerusalem and in the end times. Thus, the generation to whom Jesus spoke would have seen a fulfilment of these things. Nevertheless, that did not complete the fulfilment of the prophecies. They continue to be fulfilled in our day, and will reach their full fulfilment only at the very end, when heaven and earth pass away (Matt. 24:35).
This still does not answer the question completely, however. The one who asked is surely also asking what God’s people have been asking for 2,000 years: “Why so long, when Christ said He would come quickly?”
Then the answer is found especially in II Peter 3:8–9. The word of God assures us there that “quickly” must not be measured by the way we count time, but by the Lord’s own “time clock,” on which one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. On that “time clock” the whole New Testament era, which has seemed so long to us, is but a day—the day of the Lord, the last day, the end (I Cor. 10:11; I John 2:18).
The Lord is not slack (slow) concerning His promise (II Pet. 3:9), but shows mercy, waiting until all His chosen people have been called and gathered in. Beyond that full ingathering of the harvest of salvation He will not delay one moment, but will come and avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night.
With that knowledge we can continue to pray through the weary years: “Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Come and take us unto thyself!” And we pray with assurance that this dark night of sin will soon be over, that the day will dawn, and that the Daystar will arise in our hearts. Rev. Hanko
