Young Men and Women, Consider the Unchanging Jesus

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”
(Hebrews 13:8, NIV)

No one can doubt that we are living in a changing world. Indeed, the rate of change in every realm of life is so rapid that we find it impossible to keep pace with its multifaceted movements. H.F. Lyte’s hymn is more appropriate today than when he wrote it:

Change and decay in all around I see,

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

In the midst of our changing and unstable world stands the unchanging Christ. In Hebrews 13:7, the writer exhorts Christians to remember their former teachers; but in verse 8, he turns their eyes to Jesus, who is always the same. All that He was in the past, He is in the present and will be in the future.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, will care for all our yesterdays. Our past sometimes haunts and even paralyses us, and the devil delights to keep us chained to it. But the changeless Christ is able to cleanse us from all the guilt and defilement of the past. He is able to deliver us even from the tyranny of memory. We must not allow the devil to resurrect what God has forgotten. We should remember, too, that for the believer He is the God of the second chance. “Lord, who is a God like you? You forgive sin. You forgive your people when they do what is wrong. You don’t stay angry forever. Instead, you take delight in showing your faithful love to them” (Micah 7:18).

Jesus Christ, the same today, will take care of all our todays. He who delivers from the tyranny of the past will dissolve the complexity of the present. And how insoluble they often seem – cares of family, health, finance, business, age, etc. But no problem is really new; they are common to all ages. Jesus experienced family problems. He had no money to pay His tax. He wept in sorrow with Mary. He can solve temperamental problems as He did with Peter. As Great Physician, He can help in our physical problems.

Jesus Christ, the same for ever, is well able to care for all our tomorrows. He is able to dispel the uncertainties of the future. We are all apt to succumb to fear. There are fears that assail us at every stage of life. Fear of the future can cripple us in meeting the demands of the present. But in the midst of life’s uncertainties stands One who is utterly dependable and entirely competent. Trust Him fully.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.