Our Unchanging God Gives Us Certainty – December 22, 2016

“In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”
Psalm 102:25-28

Our Unchanging God Gives Us Certainty

Things come, and things go. We can say that about almost everything in life. Money is earned and then spent. Clothes are bought and then worn out. Even people are born and then die. Things come, and things go.

Everything, that is, except for God. The psalmist gives us a beautiful, stark contrast in these verses of Psalm 102. Everything in creation will perish, but the Creator remains. All of it wears out like a garment, but he remains the same. Everything else has an expiration date, but God’s years will never end. Our God is constant and everlasting. He is eternal and unchanging.

Why is that such a beautiful truth? It’s because of who God is. He is a God of love. He’s always been that way, and that’s not going to change. He is a God of mercy. He’s always been that way, and that’s not going to change. He’s a God of grace. He’s always been that way, and that’s not going to change. He’s a God who desires to save sinners. He’s always been that way, and that’s not going to change.

That’s why we see his Son lying in a manger on Christmas night. It’s because our unchanging God of love and mercy and grace, who desires to save sinners, turned that unchanging desire into an unchanging promise and then that unchanging promise into an unchanging reality. His Son was lying in that manger on Christmas night as the full embodiment of his unchanging love and mercy and grace, because his Son was lying in that manger on Christmas night in order to be our Savior.

Even though that world-changing event of his Son’s birth took place over two thousand years ago, you never have to doubt whether or not he came to save you. Why not? Because even two thousand years can’t change an unchanging God’s love and mercy and grace. And even two thousand years can’t change an unchanging God’s desires and promises and plans.

Things come, and things go. Everything, that is, except for God. That beautiful truth is the reason why, this Christmas season, you can be certain of your salvation from sin.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, you are constant and everlasting. You are eternal and unchanging. May that beautiful truth assure us that the salvation you have desired for us and the salvation you have promised to us is, indeed, our unchanging reality. Give us that assurance, especially as we see the gift of your Son in the manger this Christmas. Amen.

The devotions on Thursdays and Fridays in December lead us in Songs from the Psalms.