Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. A modern writer says “More sermons have been preached on this text than any other verse in Hebrews, so that this verse has attained confessional status in the church.” We even sing it in a chorus “Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same”.
It is a verse many know, even if unsure where to find it. Whether original to the writer or a saying of the time, it has a proverbial quality that makes it easy to remember. ‘It has been’ says another “a source of strength and encouragement to Christian believers in every generation.’ It ought to be for us.
It may have been intended to stand alone as a good thing the Hebrews would do well to remember. “Whatever you do, keep looking to the unchanging Christ. Go to him in all your needs and troubles. Look to him for strength and encouragement.” Verse 5 is similar, Never will I leave you or forsake you.
Most commentators link it back to verse 7. Your leaders have now died but remember their example and keep looking to the unchanging Christ. When Christian leaders die there is a sense of foreboding. How will we manage without them? But such deaths serve to remind us where our true focus should be – on Jesus himself. That seems to be what happened to Isaiah in Isaiah 6. One ancient writer (Herveus of Tours) says “The same Christ who was with them is with you and will be with those who come after us, even to the end of the age. Yesterday he was with the fathers, today he is with you, and he will be with your posterity evermore.”
It may be that the writer intended to introduce verse 9. Certainly, if we keep looking to Jesus we will not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. There were all sorts of strange teachings around in those days and down through the ages there have been such things. These days there are perhaps more than ever. What is the antidote? In many cases they have to be carefully answered, of course, but the fundamental need is that we look away from men, who constantly follow this or that fad, and instead focus on Jesus, who is constant and unchanging.
We want to highlight three things in the verse worth noting at any time but especially at the start of a new year.
The world constantly changes
We live in a world where time is always going forward. The very change of the year reminds us of the relentless march of time. It is a familiar thought – you can take a clock and turn the hands back very easily but you cannot turn back time. “If I had my time over again … ” people say, or “I wish I could turn the clock back” but we know it is impossible.
People do not live forever. I do not have to argue this point. It is, as we often say, conscious of the irony, a fact of life. Death is everywhere.
Leadership changes. Because of death and other factors leadership changes. Prime ministers come and go. In churches there are changes too. If it is not death then something else will call a man away – retirement, ill health, a need elsewhere. Sadly sometimes there are moral falls or doctrinal failings that force removal.
Jesus Christ never changes
Although as far as leadership and many other things are concerned there is constant flux, nevertheless Christ never changes. He is constant.
Change
Of course, Jesus does change in a sense. His grace is dispensed in different ways. There are obvious differences between Old and Testament times. Looking forward to Messiah gives way to Messiah's actual coming. There are other differences - before and after the flood, before and after the Law is given, before and after the resurrection, before and after the pouring out of the Spirit, the time when the Scriptures were being written and the apostolic gifts were in evidence and the days that have followed. It is no good simply finding something in the Bible and saying “That’s what they did then so it must be right now.” That simply will not work. No, there have been changes over the years, different dispensations of God's grace and the verse is not contradicting that. Christ has existed in different states. Think of his pre-incarnate state in glory, his humiliation (conception, birth, life, death, burial), his exaltation (resurrection, ascension, session at God's right hand), his coming return in glory too, to judge the world and reign.
No change
Having said all this, as for his attitude of grace towards his people, Jesus Christ never changes.
He never needs replacing. If a player in a football team cannot play, he is replaced. Sometimes the replacement is worse, sometimes better. Now with Jesus not only can he never be replaced – no-one is good enough – but he never needs to be replaced. Why? Because he is the same yesterday, today and forever! Even though he died, he lives forever. He is always there. People die. Great leaders go and are missed. We try to replace them. Children lose their mothers and fathers sometimes and someone has to attempt the impossible task of standing in for them. But Jesus will never need replacing. Once you put your faith in him he can never be lost. He will be yours forever – through all the changing scenes of life. What a comfort! Don’t forget it.
Nothing can be added to his perfect work. Nothing more needs to be done. He has completed the work. Hebrews 10:11-14 makes that clear. Do you realise that he has done it all? There is no need for anything more from us. What a glorious thing is the finished work of Christ.
So we must trust only in him today and forever
The conclusion is obvious. Negatively, do not look to men. On John Wesley's memorial in Westminster Abbey, it says “God buries his workmen but he carries on his work”. We must keep looking to the unchanging Christ and not to men – obviously not to bad men but, in one way, not to good ones either. The best way to think of Christian leaders you admire is to imagine them saying, as any decent one would, “Look to the one who cannot fail, who never needs to be replaced and who is permanently available to his people.”
Positively, do look to Christ. That is the obvious lesson. Whatever the situation personally, nationally or in the churches, we must look to Christ. He is the same divine person with the same divine purposes in all generations.
Look to him
- For help and support in your inadequacy. He will uphold you. He will always be true to himself. He remains the same and his years never end.
- For power and protection in your weakness. He is always there to defend and protect his people. He will not let them come to harm for sure. What an encouragement in every difficulty this is.
- For grace and deliverance in your failure. We fall and fail but he is always there to forgive us and raise us again. He will not fail. He is Alpha and Omega, faith's beginning and end.
- For guidance and consolation in your ignorance. If you go to him you can be sure of finding all the help you need.
From the world's beginning it was God’s purpose that sinners should only ever trust in one person - Jesus Christ. His will on this has never changed and can never change. Keep looking to the eternal one who never changes. He is worthy of all faith.
Faint not nor fear his arm is near
He changeth not and thou art dear
Only believe and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.
Originally published in Grace Magazine
