THE UNCHANGING SON
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea, and forever."—HEBREWS 13:8
The closing chapter of the letter to the Hebrews consists of injunctions and instructions based upon all the teaching that has proceeded. Faith in God manifested as obedience to His revelation is seen to be the secret of life. God has spoken. Men have heard. When they have believed what God has had to say, whether in times past in divers portions and in divers manners through the prophets, or now in His final speech to man in His Son; and when they have believed with the belief that produces obedience, they have found the secret of life.
In the midst of these closing instructions and injunctions, with none of which I propose to deal, this great declaration of the writer is found:
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea, and forever";
or slightly to change the reading:
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea, and unto the ages."
This is the ultimate statement in the book as to the finality of what God has said to men in His Son. There can be no change, because He is changeless. While referring to Him "today," the writer links the statement with the past "yesterday," and with all the future, "unto the ages." The reference to "yesterday" includes not merely the period of God's speech to men, but the far-flung mystery of which we can only speak as ages past. The reference to the future shows that in Him all life is to be conditioned not here and now alone, but in all the mystery of that which is to come, "unto the ages."
In dealing with this statement we take for our divisions the simple thoughts suggested by these phrases ; Jesus Christ yesterday, Jesus Christ today, Jesus Christ forever.
Here we pause briefly to notice definitely how the writer refers to the Son of God at this point, as he speaks of Him as "Jesus Christ." There is no carelessness by New Testament writers in the use of a name or a title at any point. Here, as in the Old Testament, we find no carelessness in the particular name of God employed at any point. As we have taken our way through the letter we have found the Son of God referred to in different ways. He is called "The Son." That is the great introductory word, when declaring that God has spoken to us in "a Son." Eight times over in the course of the letter does he thus refer to Him. Four times he distinctly calls Him "the Son of God." Three times he designates Him "the Lord." Eight times he uses the human name alone, "Jesus." Once he links that name with the title, "the Lord Jesus." Eight times he employs the Messianic title, "Christ." Three times he employs the formula of this statement, linking the name with the title, "Jesus Christ." Four times he refers to "the Word of God." Whatever the title may be, the Person is always before the mind, but every name has some distinctive value at the moment it is employed.
Here, as we have said, he joins a name and a title which he has done on two other occasions, once when declaring that the Son is the One through Whom the will of God for our sanctification is accomplished, once where he declared that the Son is over His own House. Here then we find the titles together once more. The name, so sacred and so familiar, Jesus, is used. Very little need be said about that.
"Jesus, Name of sweetness, Jesus, sound of love; Cheering exiles onward To their rest above.
Jesus, oh the magic Of the soft love sound, How it thrills and trembles To creation's bound."
It is a peculiarly human name, yet full of profound significance, a name which, according to the records, was first borne by the man who succeeded Moses, and was given to him by Moses; a name in which certain parts of the Divine name, Yahweh, and certain parts of this man's original name Hoshea, were linked together. Its significance then is that of salvation by Jehovah. Said the angel:
"Thou shalt call His name JESUS, for it is He that shall save His people from their sins."
It is inevitable, however, that when we use the name our attention is fastened upon the human. In this writing this name does not emerge until we reach the second chapter and the ninth verse. We have first the whole of the introduction, fastening attention upon the glory of the Person of the Son. Then says the writer:
"We behold Him Who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus."
When we turn to the title "Christ," we find that it is not employed by the writer until we reach chapter three and verse six:
"Christ as a Son, over His House; Whose House are we."
Now, says the writer, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and unto the ages." This Person is defined for us by a name that brings Him into closest association with our human nature, the name He bore in the days of His flesh, the name which nevertheless has significance concerning the meaning and purpose of His incarnation, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS."
He is, moreover, entitled "Christ," the Messiah, the One Who is at once King and Priest, Whose crown of kingship is a mitre of priesthood, Whose ephod of priesthood is purple in royalty. That is the One concerning Whom the writer makes the declaration that He is "the same yesterday, today, and unto the ages."
The Person introduced, then, is according to the opening of the letter a Son, Heir of all things, through Whom God fashioned the ages, the Effulgence of the Divine glory, the very Image of the Divine substance, Who upholds all things by the word of His power, and Who made purification for sins. This is Jesus, Whom men observed, and heard speak with a human voice, and He is the Christ.
If, then, we would apprehend the great declaration we are considering, we realize, that the focal point of revelation is found as we look at Him as He was in the "yesterday" of time. The central facts of God and of our own nature are utterly beyond the possibility of our complete apprehension or understanding. That, of course, is the meaning of the Incarnation. It was that John had in his mind when he wrote:
"The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us . . . and we beheld."
The Eternal had in Jesus temporal manifestation. The Infinite Logos came to the level where it was possible for finite eyes to behold, and by such beholding to be introduced to the infinite things themselves.
We will look at Him then in the midst of that period of manifestation, the days of His flesh. This necessarily means we must consult the records. Going back, then, to the Gospel narratives we ask, How do we see Him? This is an easy question to ask, but an impossible one to answer with adequacy. Nevertheless there are certain outstanding facts which are full of value.
As we behold Him there, we see One Whose appeal was forever made to essential humanity, quite apart from any racial position, or privilege, or limitation, or disadvantage. An illustration of what I mean is an old and familiar one, but nevertheless pertinent. Many years ago there was an exhibition in London of Tissot's pictures, about 270 of them, illustrative of the earthly life of Jesus. There is much in them that does not appeal, but there is one outstanding fact, and it is that, while the artist depicts with accuracy the setting of the story, and the customs of the time, so that as we look we can racially place the Roman patrician or plebeian, the cultured Greek, the barbarian, and the Jew, he never painted the face of Jesus so that it could be thus placed. Now literally he may have been wrong. It is possible that our Lord had the distinct face of the Jew, though we have no means of proving it. But it is certainly spiritually correct. Paul understood the great truth when he wrote:
"There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male or female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
All the things by which we place individuals so as to mark their separation from others are absent. It was in this way He made His constant appeal to men, and attracted them towards Him. It was not the teaching of Jesus that appealed to men. They refused it. They knew it was true, and that was why they objected to it, because the truth condemned them. As long as Savonarola said to Florence, "Be free," they applauded him; but when he said, "Be pure," they refused him. Jesus said, be pure from first to last. Therefore His teaching did not appeal. But His humanity did. He was irresistible. It is impossible to read the narratives without hearing the tramp of the crowds following Him, the common people, which does not mean the people of what we sometimes call the lower orders, but of all orders. Men found in Him a merging of grace and truth, sweetness and strength, meekness and majesty, light and love. "Yesterday," then, He appealed to men by His sheer humanity. The truth abides today.
In the title "Christ" we have a recognition of the appeal He made to humanity in its need. For the purpose of our present article we may say that humanity's need is revealed in the use of two words, sin and sorrow. Sorrow is the result of sin. We watch Him then in the world where sin and sorrow abound. With regard to sin we see that He never excused it. We speak today of "necessary evils." Such a phrase never passed His lips, for such a thought never occupied His mind. It is indeed a contradiction of terms according to Him. What is necessary cannot be evil. What is evil can never be necessary.
But again. If He never excused sin, He never abandoned the sinner. We will take another phrase that we are apt to use, "a hopeless case." That phrase, moreover, never passed His lips, because it had no place in His thinking. There were no hopeless cases as He looked at men. The story of His dealings with men and women reveals what in a proper and guarded sense we may refer to as His magnificent optimism in the presence of all human dereliction. However evil a man might be, however low a woman might have sunk, He treated them as salvable.
When we turn to sorrow, He was Himself a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and in His dealing with others He never ignored sorrow; but neither for Himself nor for others did He submit to it. He never treated it as something which should fill men with despair. Just as He was leaving His disciples He said this remarkable thing to them, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Let this be carefully noted, that He did not say, Your sorrow shall have compensating joy, but rather that the sorrow in itself should be transmuted into joy.
Thus we see Him "yesterday," appealing to humanity by the essentials of His own humanity, and facing the conditions of sin and sorrow, never excusing the sin or abandoning the sinner, never ignoring sorrow or admitting that it was the final word.
Still looking on that "yesterday" we see that He was forever creating in the minds of those about Him new surprise. Ever and anon there broke from Him, in some act or word or attitude something that amazed His followers, something for which they could not account. It may safely be declared that He trained His disciples by surprising them step by step. Such is an incomplete and inadequate attempt to glance back to the "yesterday" on the human level.
The writer of the declaration affirms that He is the same "today," that is, the same in these essential matters. We realize that there is a difference between "today" and "yesterday." In the days of His flesh He was localized and limited by such localization. Knowing this, before He left His disciples He said to them:
"It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you."
He is no longer with us as He was with those early disciples in bodily form, but in all the essential things that found manifestation then he is with us still. We know Him through the writings. In these we have the account of Him in germ, by which, of course, I mean it needs elaboration, application, and contemplation. But He is found in the Gospels not only in germ, but in norm. That is to say, all our thinking must forever be conditioned by their revelation. Here is the point in which much attempted interpretation of Jesus Christ, and of His message, fails. A Person adapted to a natural philosophy is not the Person of the Gospels. In the Gospels we find the One Who gave the world its final ethic, and its only evangel. If we change the Person we lower the ethic, and destroy the evangel.
Briefly we may apply the things considered. He still appeals to humanity. When Jesus is revealed, apart from ecclesiasticism and secularism, He remains as attractive to human nature as He was in the days of His flesh. Let the simple story be told, and whether they obey or not, men see the beauty of the Person.
He remains, moreover, the same in His attitude towards sin. He never excuses it, and hypocrisy is impossible in His presence. Perhaps the chief and most radiant glory is the fact that He is the same in that He does not abandon us if we have sinned. He is still saying to all critical, cold, callous moralists; let him that is without sin cast a stone at this sinning woman. Moreover, He is still the same in His attitude towards sorrow. He never ignores it. If Mary is weeping at His feet for her dead brother, He will weep with her, even though He is Master of life and death. As Faber wrote:
"In every pang that rends the heart, The Man of Sorrows has His part."
And yet again, the same mysteries abide. He cannot be finally placed. All human examinations have failed to do that. No decade has passed but that some light that had never before been apprehended, has broken upon some devout student of the Christ, and found expression in some interpretation.
Once glance at the "forever," or "unto the ages." I prefer this more literal translation because it attempts no mathematical measurement. It is poetically suggestive. We refer to the ages, and our thinking follows as far as is possible, and then reverently halts. It always seems to me that the strongest expression concerning Eternity in the New Testament came from the pen of Paul when he wrote, "unto the generation of the age of the ages." The ages come, and they pass, each having its own nature, its own periods of duration, its own peculiar forces and values. Paul seems to see them all generated, or born in succession, and encompassed into one age. This is the phrase employed by the writer, when looking into the future he declares that Jesus Christ is the same. At the beginning of the letter he had declared the ages were fashioned through the Son. He now affirms that through them all He remains the same. Whatever the future may have in store therefore, He will ever be the Revealer of truth, and the Manifester of grace. All the unfathomed deeps and distances are seen in Him.
Through Him God has spoken to man, and He has nothing more to say. There is no need for more. There is need that we should understand what He said in the Son more perfectly, and so grow up into Him in all things in knowledge and experience.
Change (a popular phrase in America politics); we are all conscious of change. It is at once the salt and the poison of life. As salt, it prevents corruption. If we knew nothing of change along the level of our human experience it would indeed be a terrible thing. The Psalmist once said of the wicked, "They have no changes." But it is also the very poison of life, as it seems to interfere with our arrangements, and apparently with our progress. It is out of the poignant sense of this that the singer sang:
"Change and decay in all around I see."
But observe carefully that this statement was made to lead to the great appeal:
"O Thou Who changest not, abide with me."
In all human life we need a center of permanence, that to which we can fasten our lives, and know that it abides. We need also a secret of perennial freshness. Both are found in Him. I change, He changes not. Moreover, He is the Secret of perennial freshness. There is never a day in the loneliness of our own situation when, if we abide in Him, He does not break upon us with some new glory, some new beauty.
Thus the final word of God to men is spoken in a Son, Jesus Christ, Who is -"the same yesterday, today, and unto the ages."
Sorry Obama!
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