The Same Jesus Remains the Same (Hebrews 13:8)

We live in changing times. There is a sense in which we always do so. Our circumstances change every day, and we change along with them. We can look back on our lives and see many changes have occurred throughout the years, some that we did not see coming, but which had their effects.

Some changes are good. Children grow up, become adults, marry, and have their own families. People get jobs and form career paths which fit the gifts with which the Lord has endowed them as creatures made in his image. In contrast, some changes are bad, such as when a country may find itself at war because of an aggressive neighbour.

Some changes are limited in their effects while others are far reaching. All institutions in a society experience change. Governments change and introduce new policies, and they bring further changes, which are changed again in the future. Churches change and do so in a variety of ways. Believers finish their course in this world and go to heaven and their absence from the church on earth affects it, even in the fact that their prayers have ceased.

Who received this verse initially?

The people who received this first-century letter from its unknown author had experienced dramatic changes, changes that caused profound issues in their lives. The biggest change for them personally had been the marvellous discovery that the promised Messiah had come into the world in recent years. His arrival had been prophesied down through the centuries in the Bible, but now he had come, and some of them were among the first generation who had believed in him as Saviour and Lord.

They had heard the message about Jesus that promised them many blessings connected to his divine salvation. Through faith in him, they had received forgiveness of their sins, had become members of the family of God, and were assured of a place in heaven at the end of their lives. No doubt, those changes caused by their faith in Christ were ones for which they were grateful to him.

Yet believing the gospel and becoming disciples of Jesus had brought other changes into their lives. They were Jews, but since every Jew did not believe in Jesus, those new Christians soon experienced a frightening form of hostility from their unbelieving countrymen. Those who remained unbelievers in Jesus regarded the believers as heretics and persecuted them in several ways. Some had lost their property, and they did not receive any protection from the civil authorities of the empire who were suspicious of them.

What was the advice or guidance given by the author to troubled believers living in such times? His answer is given in Hebrews 13:8: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.’ Whatever else changes, he does not, and that is the message of his letter to them.

Who is Jesus?

Obviously, the statement is a reminder that Jesus is God. Unchangeableness is a divine attribute. It is one of the perfections of God, without which he would not be perfect. Because he is unchangeable, he is always wise, always powerful, always holy, always love. God is not affected adversely by the constant changes of life.

The three terms ‘yesterday, today and forever’ are interpreted in several ways. I think it is easier to take them as describing another divine attribute of Jesus, which is that he is eternal. Being eternal and unchangeable go together and remind us that he is infinitely greater than us who are time bound and changeable.

Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the blessed Trinity, is the same today as he was on New Years Day of 2024 and as he was on New Years Day in 1024 and as he was on New Years Day 2024 BC. The passing of the centuries has not changed our glorious God as far as his attributes are concerned. Jesus is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow because he is God.

The verse also stresses something else about Jesus. Literally, the sentence reads that Jesus the Messiah or Jesus the anointed one is the same yesterday, today and forever. When he is referred to as Jesus Christ, normally the reference is to the offices that he has, normally summarised as prophet, priest and king.

The verse then is also a reminder that Jesus is God and man. Even the name Jesus points to that wonderful truth. The eternal Son of God, while never ceasing to be divine, added a human nature to his divine person. He is now God and man in two distinct natures, yet one person.

In that human nature, he entered our world not as a visitor, nor as a tourist, but as a Saviour. He came on a mission to save sinners, a mission that took him to the cross where he paid the penalty of sin. Yet that mission of salvation continues even although he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. There, as he sits at God’s right hand, glorified in his humanity, he continues with that mission, fulfilling his offices.

As far as his role as Saviour is concerned, he is the same yesterday, today and forever. Even although he is highly exalted, he is exalted to be a Saviour. Since we know he is God and man, Saviour and friend of sinners, what deductions can we make to help us as we begin a new year that inevitably will bring changes? Here are some suggestions that are more than suggestions, but facts that we should hold on to.

Shaping

Flowing from his exaltation is his constant activity from the throne of God. What is the unchanging Jesus doing today that he did yesterday and will do tomorrow? He is building his church in two senses: he is building it numerically and he is building it in stature and maturity. This has happened throughout 2024 whatever else has taken place and it will take place in 2025 as will. Stones were sought by him for the extension of the building, then shaped by him to fit in perfectly in their allotted place in the structure, a place decided only by him.

Connected to this activity of Jesus is the reminder that Jesus spent all of 2024 interceding for his church in earth. There are many aspects of his intercession that we do not understand, but which we can rejoice in, and one of them is that his intercession is continuous. So, as we look ahead to 2025, pick any day, and any time of that day, and we will discover that it is covered by the intercession of the Saviour.

Shepherding

This verse reminds us that the unchanging Jesus is constantly the good Shepherd of his flock. The writer refers to him in verse 20 as the great shepherd of his sheep. What ideas come to mind when we think of a shepherd? Provision, protection, progress, and peace (sense of ease) are some of them.

Each of them is essential in a spiritual sense and each of them comes only from the good Shepherd. We need daily food for our souls and Jesus will provide that for us in his Word. We need protection from our spiritual enemies (the world, the flesh and the devil) and only Jesus can ensure our safety. We need guidance through our lives as we travel to our heavenly destination, and ahead of us as we move is the Saviour taking us along the path to glory. We always need a sense of peace in our souls because it is the peace of God that garrisons our hearts.

Think briefly of the prospect connected to Jesus as the giver of such peace. It is a blessed study to consider the times in the Bible when Jesus promised peace – to disciples in a stormy sea, to the same disciples in the upper room as their dreams seemed to have collapsed, and then to them in the upper room on the resurrection day when their hope became alive again now that they had discovered that he was alive forevermore.

Spirit-giving

This verse is a reminder that the unchanging Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to the members of his church (as well as to others when God converts them). What happened to the Lord’s people in 2024? They were being sanctified throughout it in a marvellous way. Their inner lives were being changed from glory to glory by the indwelling Spirit, and that process will continue in the coming year. Who brings about that ongoing change? Jesus does so, through the activity of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to send to his disciples.

What does the unchanging Jesus do for us by the Holy Spirit? He convinces, he consecrates, and he comforts. The unchanging Saviour convinces us of our sin and leads us to engage in the sweet activity of repentance – I hope we had many experiences of repenting in 2024, and that a similar number will be given in 2025.  The unchanging Christ consecrates us to the service of the Lord by leading us to dedicate ourselves to his service, and then he enables us to perform those acts of service for the glory of God. The unchanging Jesus comforts us by the Holy Spirit with the consolations of the scriptures, assuring us that they detail descriptions of the treasures connected to our spiritual inheritance.

Strategy

This verse is a reminder that the unchanging Jesus adheres to a plan. This plan is an eternal one, the product of infinite wisdom, designed for the glory of God, with endless blessings for those he has favoured, some given in this world of uncertainty. It involves finding his people lost in the mass of sinful humanity. Jesus does not have to guess about what he should do next. He is never taken by surprise by an unexpected event. This plan is cosmic in its purpose and detailed in its application. And we should remember that what we call changes are all part of his plan.

An astonishing detail is the care with which the unchanging Christ implements it. Even a brief consideration of what it means for us as individuals will reveal to us the competence of the Saviour as he leads his church through the centuries of time and brings each of his people to the planned destination. We can have confidence from knowing that the plan is being worked out perfectly in our imperfect world.

Sanctioning

I use the word in its meaning of granting. One of the great privileges of believers is the fact that they can pray in the name of Christ. He informed his first disciples that they should pray in his name, a reminder of his unchanging authority in the courts of heaven. At that time, his instruction was a gracious declaration to disciples who were not what they should have been in a devotional sense.

We too have this great privilege of knowing that we pray in his name while allowed to draw near, which does not mean that we will get any answer we imagine. What we will receive is the answer he knows we should receive. How many prayers did Jesus hear and answer in 2024? How many will he answer in 2025? He answered the ones offered in his name, and he will continue to do so because he is the unchanging Christ.

We could have considered other details connected to the unchanging Christ. Yet the ones we have thought about should be an encouragement as we begin another year in which there will be many changes. Nevertheless, through them all the same Jesus will be the same. Therefore, we can trust in him, knowing that he will act, according to his offices, perfectly and constantly throughout 2025. Maybe this verse can be a motto for the year, one to repeat to ourselves as we begin each new day.