Jesus Christ Is the Same

Jesus Christ Is the Same.  Variety is the spice of life, we say. Changing up the routine is healthy, we believe. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, we recite. While those statements are superficially plausible, are they theologically true? To answer that question, we must first navigate one of the chief distortions (i.e., deceptions) in the world of ideas, that sameness is boring. Its corollary is that sin is thrilling. An illustration of this chief distortion is the false view of heaven where each saint sits half-asleep on a cloud, strumming a harp forever. However, in view of the theological concept of God’s sameness, perfection is not monotonous but infinitely creative, joyful, blessed, and free. God is most free because he is most holy! Because he doesn’t change in his essence, he can change his activity as he wills.

Without divine help, since we cannot imagine perfection, the best we can do is enlarge our view of self, projecting it upon God. Because we get easily bored within our limitations, and since sin gives us a temporary sensation of escape, we naturally imagine a god within those finitudes. We make that god in our image, so to speak. Yet with divine help, we learn from the Scriptures that perfection is endlessly magnificent. “I, the Lord, do not change” (Mal. 3:16a). Thus, the sameness of God becomes the foundation for our assurance that the promises of God will play out exactly as foretold. “Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6b). God’s sameness is solid, unmoving, trustworthy, a sure foundation. “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste’” (Isa. 28:16).

Sameness is one of the ways that God is unlike humans. Humans change, but God does not. Only God can be rightfully described as immutable, or unchangeable. Thus, when we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8), we learn that Jesus is God. Even though he became a man, suffered, died, and was resurrected, his essence never changed. His activities changed, but his nature did not. Therefore, our confidence in his promises is sure.

So then, is sameness boring? No! Sameness, if it is an expression of perfection, is never boring because perfection doesn’t improve and cannot decrease, a divine characteristic. If sameness is an expression of imperfection, then it is limited, flawed, and stunted, a human characteristic.

All in All

All in All.  The limitation of language meets the greatness of God in the study of systemic theology. God reveals his nature with inspired words, yet he exists essentially beyond the true words he uses to describe himself. His revelation is accurate but not comprehensive because God is categorically unfathomable (Rom. 11:33). To capture the infinite beyond-ness of God theologians have resorted to using words such as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent to explain God’s perfect attributes. God is all powerful. God is all knowing. God is everywhere present. Yet, these omni— words, too, are finite expressions of infinite attributes.

In addition to the omni— words, the Lord is also … all good (Psa. 86:5), all glorious (Psa. 99:2), all faithful (Psa. 100:5), all kind and just (Psa. 145:9), all sovereign (Psa. 145:13), all righteous (Psa. 145:17), all wise (Rom. 16:27), all gracious (2 Cor. 9:8), “who gives life to all things” (1 Tim. 6:13). “Christ who is God over all, [is] blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5). He “who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23) is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph 1:21). He is “in everything … preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:18-19). “Jesus Christ is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

And, in addition to all the all statements, the Lord is also called “a man of war” (Exo. 15:3). “The Lord is a God of knowledge” (1 Sam. 2:3). “God is a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). “God is a merciful God” (Deut. 4:31). “God is a righteous judge” (Psa. 7:11). “The Lord is a stronghold” (Psa. 9:9). “God is a refuge” (Psa. 62:8; Joel 3:16). “God is a God of salvation” (Psa. 68:20). “God is a sun and shield” (Psa. 84:11). “The Lord is a great God” (Psa. 95:3). “The Lord is a God of justice” (Isa. 30:18). “The Lord is a God of recompense” (Jer. 51:56). “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God” (Nah. 1:2).

Our Lord is all of that, and more, all the time. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).

The Love of God Is Folly

The Love of God Is Folly.  Well worth acquiring, though it may require a double effort to catch the meaning, is the traditional Pascale (e.g., Easter) greeting in France: “L'amour de Dieu est folie!” The love of God is folly. Wait a second, is that a good saying or a bad saying?

Were French people ridiculing the death and resurrection of Christ? No, they were not; they were celebrating the unpredictable, unthinkable path of redemption that Christ accomplished. So unpredictable, so unthinkable was the death of Jesus to deliver humankind from the grip of death that most people dismissed his great love as foolishness and absurdity. Sacrificial substitution seems nonsensical at first and unsophisticated to natural man. Surely, God would not die; how ludicrous! Yet, God’s so-called folie is man’s unlooked-for hope.

The world insists that nothing comes for nothing, that there is no such thing as free lunch; that you get what you pay for. To be fair, in this dog-eat-dog world such a conclusion is usually accurate. To believe otherwise would be foolish, they say. But Jesus didn’t come from this world. He came to this world, but he comes from heaven. This world is upside-down. The only right side-up part about this world is that God created it and loves us, despite our sin.

When Jesus arrived, humanity concluded since he seemed so backward that he deserved death, though it was we who were backward all along. When Jesus healed, humanity concluded that he must be in league with the devil. When Jesus spoke, humanity concluded that he must be a lunatic. When Jesus died, humanity concluded that he must be cursed by God. When Jesus rose again, just as he predicted, and “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me [Paul]” (1 Cor. 15:5-8), humanity concluded that it was a hoax. If the love of God is foolishness, then count me a fool!

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, famously hated Christianity. Worse than folly, he labeled it a “psychological crutch,” a childhood neurosis and wish projection into the sky. But, as my Christology professor in seminary retorted, “If Christianity is a crutch, then give me two.” All that and more is wrapped up in the saying, L'amour de Dieu est folie! The love of God is folly. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).