Jesus Christ Is the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

Consistency is something we may rarely think about, but it is so very important in every relationship.

We yearn for some stability since we live in a rapidly changing world! There are job losses and transfers. There are moves to new places, resulting in new neighbors and new classmates. Relationships fail. Pets die. Friends come and go. Time passes. Children grow up.

Some of the wonderful things of the past will never come again. There is a lot of uncertainty about the future.

This can be sad, but we realize we have to adjust to some changes. As some have jokingly said, Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

To handle all the changes, we long for a foundation of stability. Structure in the family is so important, especially for the children. They need to know that Mom’s and Dad’s love will always be the same and that the rules of the household will be the same. If the home, family and marriage are stable, built on bedrock, then each family member will be better able to handle the changes that life brings.

If consistency is important in human relationships, it is even more so in our relationship with God.

Humans are fickle; God is constant

Jesus Christ was well aware of human failings and fickleness.

“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25).

Many of our decisions are based on our emotional state at the moment and then change later. Too often, humans don’t stick to their commitments.

God’s love for us is just as strong today as it was the day He gave His Son that we might have life forever. Man may change, but God’s love and foundational teachings remain the same always.

The teaching of mainstream Christianity today is that God has changed. Many believe that for thousands of years He required His servants in the Old Testament to obey His laws, including laws about the Sabbath and holy days and laws about meats He revealed were unclean. But most churches today teach that God’s servants no longer need to obey these laws.

Does God have a double standard? No, He doesn’t!

The author of Hebrews states: “But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.’

“And: ‘You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail’” (Hebrews 1:8-12, emphasis added throughout).

His teaching has always been constant

The author of Hebrews follows this up in the last chapter with, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

In our relationship and worship of God, it is extremely important that we understand the encouraging truths behind this verse.

Commentator Albert Barnes, in his notes on this verse, wrote:

“The evident design of this independent proposition here is, to encourage them to persevere by showing that their Saviour was always the same; that he who had sustained his people in former times, was the same still, and would be the same forever. The argument here, therefore, for perseverance is founded on the ‘immutability’ of the Redeemer.

“If he were fickle, vacillating, changing in his character and plans; if today he aids his people, and tomorrow will forsake them; if at one time he loves the virtuous, and at another equally loves the vicious; if he formed a plan yesterday which he has abandoned today; or if he is ever to be a different being from what he is now, there would be no encouragement to effort.

“Who would know what to depend on? Who would know what to expect tomorrow? For who could have any certainty that he could ever please a capricious or a vacillating being? Who could know how to shape his conduct if the principles of the divine administration were not always the same?”

We can find tremendous comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It means that the Father and the Son’s purpose for creating us has never changed. God’s love and mercy have always been constant. What He requires from us and what He promises us—for now and for the future—are still the same and always will be.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

What pleased God in the past still pleases Him now—and will please Him in the future.

God’s prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16). This is speaking of those eternal moral laws found in the earlier books of the Bible.

Three time periods

The Bible discusses three time periods: the past, present and future (for example, see 2 Peter 3:6; Luke 18:30; Ephesians 1:21).

We can draw an analogy from these time periods to add to our understanding of Jesus Christ—who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The past

In the past God gave His requirements (Genesis 2:16-17) and taught His laws that are designed for our benefit (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

The Bible also records the results of disobedience and choosing the way that God said would bring curses. After taking the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24). When “every intent of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), humanity (except Noah and his family) was wiped out by the Flood (2 Peter 3:6). When the Israelites continually disobeyed God, they were punished and eventually taken into captivity (Ezekiel 39:23).

Paul wrote of the experiences of the ancient Israelites as God dealt with their acts of disobedience. “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted . . .

“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11).

What should we learn? We all have a past. And we all have sinned in the past and have earned the penalty of death (Romans 6:23).

But the Bible also records that God has made a way for us to be saved from that penalty and from slavery to sin. Jesus Christ came to die to pay the penalty for our sins. Because of His great mercy, all of those sins can be erased, if we repent of them. Study this further in our articles “Why Jesus Had to Die,” “How to Repent” and “God’s Forgiveness.”

The world that is—the present

The Bible calls the time before Jesus Christ’s return “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). Sin and selfishness continue to reign today, and Satan remains the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Like those of the past, our lives are daily filled with choices. And all choices have consequences. “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). How we live, what we do today, determines not only our quality of life now but, even more, the quality of our eternal future.

So, again, we find in Hebrews, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12-13).

God is there to help us in our day-to-day battles and our journey through the difficulties of life. We don’t have to fight them alone. We’re told to cast our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7). We can do that on our knees in prayer.

God’s love for us is just as strong today as it was the day He gave His Son that we might have life forever. His plan to offer people an opportunity to become His children has been there from the beginning (Genesis 1:26), and the first group will be resurrected as children of God at Christ’s return (1 John 3:1-2).

The world, or age, to come—the future

The Bible also refers to “the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5).

Biblically, this age begins with the Millennium—the thousand years following the return of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom here on earth. Many prophecies include promises of the world to come.

This future should inspire and motivate us. Jesus Christ said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

Hope is such an important thing to keep us going, and going in the right direction, toward things that are lasting, enduring, eternal. Those promises and teachings given a long time ago are still relevant today. God’s expectations, requirements and future rewards never vary down through time.

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19).

The hopes of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, etc.—were focused on things to come (Hebrews 11). So much of the Bible is about things to come. That’s what we should focus on more and more as we see the increasing pain and problems of the world around us.

There is a world to come for all of us. The prophecies God inspired are about that wonderful time, and it will be beyond our imagination!

Malachi 3:6—similar, but different

A similar statement to Hebrews 13:8 is made in Malachi 3:6: “For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” While the verse in Hebrews primarily refers to doctrine, Malachi refers more to God’s love and mercy.

God has always been patient, longsuffering and willing to forgive. Essentially, He tells us, “I will punish, but not destroy you. I will give you an opportunity to repent first.”

Yesterday’s sins don’t end our hopes. People are given enough time and opportunity to change.

The woman caught in adultery

This is so wonderfully illustrated by the example of Christ and the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11).

The self-righteous Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus and asked if she shouldn’t be stoned. In their eyes she was nothing but filth, but filth they could use to trap Jesus if He didn’t agree that she should be put to death. If He didn’t, they planned to accuse Him of teaching against the law.

But He answered, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (verse 7). He had written some things on the ground that might have been some of the sins they were guilty of. One by one, they walked away, leaving Him and the adulterous woman.

So He asked her, “Has no one condemned you?” She answered, “No one, Lord.” And He said to her these comforting words: “Neither do I condemn you” (verses 10-11).

He wasn’t saying she hadn’t sinned. She had sinned. She was guilty of breaking the Seventh Commandment. A judgment was made, but not a condemnation. Instead, Jesus extended mercy! The same mercy shown in the past to Noah and to multitudes of others.

It is in this example that the past and the future come together. Yesterday’s sins don’t end our hopes or our future. All of us, like the woman caught in adultery, can have another chance in life.

We need to be very slow to judge others. And we must judge their conduct, but not condemn them. Only God has that right. Who hasn’t sinned?

Christ didn’t minimize the sin. He was not dismissive. He told her to clean up her life: “Go and sin no more” (verse 11; see “Go and Sin No More”). The penalty of sin is death. If she didn’t repent, she would ultimately suffer condemnation—eternal death.

She was shown mercy and given another chance in her life. That’s what forgiveness is! What would she do with it? It was not cheap forgiveness. That forgiveness cost Jesus His life! For He would take the penalty instead if she chose to repent. He knew what He had come for—to die for people like her—and you and me.

“In Jesus there is the gospel of the second chance. He was always intensely interested, not only in what a person had been, but also in what a person could be. He did not say that what they had done did not matter; broken laws and broken hearts always matter; but he was sure that every man has a future as well as a past” (William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible, commentary on John 8).

Many scriptures speak of God’s mercy and steadfast love for us, and He desires that we always be likeminded toward Him.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).

We can be thankful God is constant. Will we be?