040. IV. Immutability Of God.
IV. Immutability Of God.
1. The Truth in Scripture.—This great truth also receives its intensely forceful expression in the Scriptures. “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14) is at once the truth of the divine eternity and of the divine immutability, and of the latter in as profound a sense as of the former. “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalms 33:11). Here the thought rises from God in himself to the principles of his providence and asserts his immutability therein. The very heavens, seemingly so changeless and eternally permanent, are, in comparison with God, but as a fading, perishing garment, while he is eternally the same (Psalms 102:25-27). “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6): a truth of his providence, as of his being and attributes. God is ‘‘the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). These words express a lofty conception of the divine immutability.
2. Immutability of Personal Perfections.—We previously pointed out the truth of immutability in the essential being of God. It is the truth of his eternal absolute identity of being. He is immutable in the plenitude and perfection of his personal attributes. His omniscience, holiness, justice, love, considered simply as attributes, are forever the same. Definite and varying acts of personal agency, and new facts of consciousness, such as must arise with the personal energizing of will in his creative and providential work, are entirely consistent with such immutability. The earth and the heavens, as temporal forms of existence, are ever in a process of change; but even this ceaseless change arises from changeless laws, which point to an unchangeable divine original. In the perfection of his personal attributes God is forever the same.
3. Immutability of Moral Principles.—Sacred history discloses a changing frame-work of expediency in the older dispensations of revealed religion, and a great change from the elaborate ceremonials of Judaism into the simple forms of Christianity, but the same moral principles abide through all these economies. Change within the sphere of expediency is entirely consistent with the unchangeableness of God, while the changeless moral principles are a profound reality of his immutability. That ho regards the same person now with reprehensive displeasure, and again with approving love, is not only consistent with his immutability, but a requirement of it in view of the moral change in the object of his changed regards. The immutability of God is a great truth in the Scriptures, and a truth vital to morality and religion ; but as it arises from the perfection of his personal attributes, and is equally a reality of each, it is not itself an attribute in any distinctive sense.[244]
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Systems of theology very uniformly discuss these same questions. Works of the kind are so well known that no detailed reference is necessary. It will suffice that we name a few authors: Knapp; Nitzsch; Watson; Hodge; Pope; Breckinridge; Raymond; Martensen; Shedd; Van Oosterzee; Corner; Smith; Strong.
Special reference.—Samuel Clarke: Being and Attributes of God, Boyle Lecture, vol. ii; Charnock: The Existence and Attributes of God; Bates: Harmony of the Divine Attributes; Pearson: Exposition of the Creed, article i; Barrow: Works, vol. ii, “The Apostles’ Creed,” sermons x-xii ; Saurin: Sermons, “The Divine Attributes,” sermons ii-xi ; Christlieb: Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, lects, iii, iv; Howe:Works, “Oracles of God,” lects. xi, xii, xvii-xxv; Macculloch: Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God; Robert Hall: Spirituality of the Divine Nature, Works, vol. iii, pp. 295-310; Dwight: Theology, vol. i, sermons iv-xiii; Harris: The Self-Revelation of God, part iii; Muller: Christian Doctrine of Sin, vol. ii, pp. 13-39; Smith: Existence and Nature of God; Thompson: Christian Theism, book iv.