Tuesday: God’s Changeless Character
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 4th of February 2025
Read Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17. What do these passages teach about God’s character?
In Malachi 3:6, God declares, “ ‘I am the Lord, I do not change’ ” (NKJV). While some read this part of the verse and take it to mean that God does not change in any way whatsoever, the rest of the verse and its immediate context shows that the changelessness of God affirmed here is God’s moral changelessness. The rest of the verse indicates that God may change relationally, for God says: “ ‘Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.’ ” And in the very next verse, God proclaims to His people, “ ‘Return to Me, and I will return to you’ ” (Malachi 3:7, NKJV).
Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com
So, God does enter into back-and-forth relationships with His creation, but through all such back-and-forth relationships, and through everything else, God’s character is constant. This is likewise affirmed in James 1:17, which proclaims that all good and perfect gifts come from God, with whom there is no variation. God is not the source of evil.
Here and elsewhere, Scripture repeatedly teaches that God’s character is unchangeable. In other words, the Bible consistently teaches that God is morally changeless. Yet, God can and does enter into real relationship with creatures, to whom God responds, but always with love and justice.
Read 2 Timothy 2:13; Titus 1:2; and Hebrews 6:17-18. What do these texts teach about God?
God cannot deny Himself; God never lies; and God’s promises are unbreakable. We can be confident that the God of the Bible is the same God who (in Christ) willingly gave Himself for us on the cross. He is a God who can be trusted, without reservation, and we can have confidence and hope for the future because, as Hebrews 13:8 puts it, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (NKJV).
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How can you learn to trust in the goodness of God even when things have gone really badly in your life? What does the image of God on the cross do to help you learn to trust in His goodness? |
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What does it mean that God is changeless? How does that impact or influence our spirituality? The Bible firmly states that God is immutable. His nature, character, and promises never change regardless of the circumstances (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, Psalm 102:25-27). God’s nature of holiness, faithfulness, love, kindness, longsuffering, mercy, and justice remains the same always. Secondly, God’s Word and promises are constant through all the generations. Also, God's will (purpose) remains unchanged. Whatever God declares will come to pass.
How does God’s changelessness impact or influence our spirituality?
1. We can absolutely rely on and depend on God. We can fully trust God in every aspect of our lives. Our God is a solid rock in whom we hide from the storms of life (Psalms 18:2, Psalm 28:1, 2 Samuel 22:3, Jeremiah 16:19). Our God, who changes not, has loved us with everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3, Lamentations 3:22-23).
2. We can absolutely be confident in God’s promises because He is not human that He should lie or change (Numbers 23:19). His promises are always true and sure.
3. Our salvation is secured in Jesus Christ our eternal God. He who began a good work in us will see it to its fruition (Philippians 1:60. Jesus Himself promised us eternal life, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” - John 10:28-29).
4. God’s moral stability remains constant. God’s truth is not a variable but a constant. Unlike the world’s moral stability, which is shifting like quicksand, but God's moral compass is sure. We are not tossed about by every wind of doctrine (Isaiah 40:8).
“We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll; fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love” - (SDA Hymnal 534)
I had two very different children; one was an introverted nerd and the other was vocal and socially active. People who know Carmel and me ask, "What is surprising about that?" My kids are fiftyish now but I look back on those parenting days and recognise the real challenge of treating them equally. Good parenting requires equal but different; to suit the needs of the individual.
We can, if we are not careful with our definitions of "changeless" create an aloof uncaring God. God is not a deterministic computer algorithm the churns out the same actions every time, Rather he is more like an adaptive algorithm that uses the best-fit action depending on the circumstances.
It is interesting to note that the reference in Malachi that we like to quote:
... is in the middle of a discourse on the way God judges ...:
It was a reminder that God loves everyone and that judgment is called upon those who oppress and use others. God has an adaptive love and in a sense that never changes.
In our society today where most people see God through our actions, how adaptive are we in interacting with the people we call "others"?
Today’s lesson study left me speechless! How can I ever again doubt or forget that God’s love and care is my surety until Jesus comes!
I'm the one who needs to change; that's the fact! I need to recognize this to help my Lord to make me a better character. Whenever I think I'm too good, I fall and hit hard the reality. Lord, make me liquid to fit your model today.
Evil is like a tidal wave rising up out of the sea. If it is not disrupted it will swallow up everything on land in its path as it did before the flood (Gen 6:5 All Mankind was continually Evil). God's allowing, even directing His judgement is showing His mercy to His people or they too would be swallowed up in Evil.
This is a profound reflection on parenting Dr Mourice, divine consistency, and our social interactions. Just as good parenting requires treating children equally but differently—meeting their unique needs—so too does God’s unchanging nature manifest in adaptive love and justice. His "changelessness" isn't rigidity but a steadfast commitment to love, justice, and righteousness.
Your final question is especially relevant today. How adaptive are we in interacting with those we consider "others"? Do we practice a love that understands individual needs and circumstances, or do we impose one-size-fits-all judgments? If God, who does not change, meets people where they are—judging the oppressor but uplifting the oppressed—then we too should strive to be consistent in principles yet adaptable in our approach to people.
Perhaps the true challenge for us is to reflect God's adaptive love by being firm in values but flexible in how we express them—listening, learning, and responding in ways that bring healing rather than division. How do you see this playing out in our own community/Church as christians?
I find myself wondering why we so often define God’s character using human terms. Do we attempt to shape His nature in ways that make Him more relatable — easier to trust, love, and understand on our own terms? Yet, Jesus Christ revealed the Father to us, and that revelation should be enough to trust Him.
Still, we are called to build a relationship with Him in Spirit and Truth. In the Old Testament, those who encountered God gave Him names that reflected His nature as they experienced Him. These names testify to His unchanging character:
• Elohim – God
• Yahweh – Lord, Jehovah
• El Elyon – The Most High God
• Adonai – Lord, Master
• El Roi – The God Who Sees Me
• El Shaddai – Lord God Almighty
• El Olam – The Everlasting God
• Jehovah Jireh – The Lord Will Provide
• Jehovah Rapha – The Lord Who Heals
• Jehovah Nissi – The Lord Is My Banner
• El Qanna – Jealous God
• Jehovah Mekoddishkem – The Lord Who Sanctifies
• Jehovah Shalom – The Lord Is Peace
• Jehovah Sabaoth – The Lord of Hosts
• Jehovah Raah – The Lord Is My Shepherd
• Jehovah Tsidkenu – The Lord Our Righteousness
• Jehovah Shammah – The Lord Is There
["How to see many names of God"]
Do these names fully capture His character, or do we still seek to define Him further? Love and justice are experienced in many forms in the lives of those who follow Him. Maybe we can add new names for Him to the list already established; yet He — I AM — will remain forever unchanged. He is Spirit, and He is worshiped in Spirit and Truth.
God is all that we are not — the Creator and everlasting Sustainer of all that is.
Perhaps because we are human and we can only speak "in human terms"?
I notice you wrote in "human terms." And, if you didn't, we'd have no idea about what you are trying to communicate. 😉
I think one of the purposes of the Bible is to reveal God in terms we humans can understand. The limitation is what we can understand and that does not put a limitation on God.
Here is a little hypothetical. Suppose you tried to explain human characteristics to a cat. Cat language is very limited and while a meaow or a purr can be quite expressive, they are very limited when it comes to expressing the deep mysteries of human behavior. So how do we talk to cats. Most cats can understand that we love them if we scratch those parts of their back they find hard to reach. They also understand you don't like them when you pull their tails. It is a very limited language but it is enough for cats.
So it is not surprising much of our expression of what God is like is in human terms. That does not dimisish our appreciation of God, nor his love for us.
Maurice and Inge, thank you for your comments – please allow my response.
My goal is to emphasize that we risk limiting our understanding of God when we compare Him/assign to Him our human nature. God's character far surpasses all human traits because it is singularly focused on Love and Righteousness. As the lesson highlights, He — the great I AM — is unchanging, while our nature experiences constant fluctuations in intent, thoughts and emotions.
My concern is that we may unintentionally judge God and excuse our own nature when attributing human characteristics to explain His justice or lawfulness. Do we assess His worthiness to rule based on how closely His emotions align with ours, using this as validation before offering our approval?
For example, my daughter rejects this God for exactly this very reason, perceiving His described 'traits' as flawed because they represent human nature. By projecting our own emotional values — both positive and negative — onto Him, we risk reducing Him to our image instead of reaching higher to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
This is why God tells us that we can only worship Him through Spirit and Truth, expressed in us and through us by HIS Love and Righteousness. It is only through our intent of loving HIM that we are able to reach out to our fellow man and testify to His changeless, loving nature. We cannot excuse our own shortcomings by saying “He acted in this way as well”.
Jesus experienced all the frailty of humanity, but He wants us to become like Him. Perhaps, instead of referring to "human terms" in my original comment, I should have said "our own humanness." When we convey thoughts and intentions, we express human emotions, words, and actions. But God is beyond those limitations — He is the Creator and eternal Sustainer of all that is His and will never change.
There are two issues here:
Making God in our own Image
You are quite right when you infer that we can make God in our image and construct a satisfying, but incorrect view of God. But there is a very big difference between using human language to better understand God and using our language to construct a God that satisfies our perception of him.
I think that it is fair to say that most of us in this conversation are trying to grasp a better understanding or appreciation of God rather than building a god in our likeness.
We talk about the wrath of God as expressing his disappointment when we continue in sin. But, that does not give us an excuse to be wrathful in our dealings with others. And conversely, if we get wrathful and angry with one another that does not mean that God is like that.
Limitations of our language
We often use simplification to get an idea across. In teaching students about electronic orbitals in atoms we often draw pictures of the circles and show the electrons as little dots. Now some of us who know a whole lot more about probability distributions and wave functions for describing electon behaviour, but for beginners we use a simplifaction to help their understanding. Likewise in describing God we have to start somewhere that is understandable and grow our understanding from that. We all recognise that God's characteristics are better than our own but we rejoice in the fact that we are made in his image and we can grow our understanding from that.
What a a true reflection Dr Maurice Ashoto:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8)
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
This doesn’t mean we should stop trying to understand God. Instead, we start with what we can grasp and allow our understanding to grow. A child's drawing of an atom is not wrong—it’s just incomplete. Likewise, our descriptions of God, though limited, help us relate to Him and should lead us to a deeper and more reverent understanding over time.
Your reflection encourages a humble and thoughtful approach to theology. We must be careful not to mold God into a version that suits us, and at the same time, we should recognize that our language is a tool—not a perfect representation—of His divine reality.
James 1:17 helpfully compares God's changelessness to the celestial bodies of light. God is "the Father of lights". The stars are always shining there, but we miss seeing them in the dirt and storms and clouds and pollution. The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. Even at night when we can't see the sun, it never stops giving light. It is shining as brightly as ever before, it's just that where we are the Earth has turned away from the sun and that's why there is darkness. Now to the analogy....God never turns away from us nor stops shining upon us (Num. 6:24-26; Heb. 13:5). The shadows of death (Ps. 23:4) we experience are a result of humanity's own turning away from the Son of God. We are in spiritual darkness when we stop seeing Jesus. Jeremiah 32:40 is a wonderful promise that affirms that not only does God never turn away from us, but He also helps us to never turn away from Him.
Welcome back, Esther Pelletier.
Thank you, my brother Thomas Warner 🙏🏻🤗
I am glad God's grace changes according to how much sin does abound. Take a look at this quote. Now I do understand that God's character of of Grace and mercy does not change, yet I do believe that the amount of grace changes according to our needs. I do believe that is what the author is saying when he says, " While some read this part of the verse and take it to mean that God does not change in any way whatsoever." We can call that mercy, conditional change in His promise. Read the following from the last paragraph of the the 1st chapter of the Book 'Humble Heros. I apologize my Kindle verson does not have page numbers, encouraging us to read the whole chapter.
Where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more. The earth, the very field Satan claims as his, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe. Here, where the King of glory lived and suffered and died, here the dwelling place of God will be with humanity, and “God Himself will be with them and be their God.” Revelation 21:3. Through endless ages the redeemed will praise Him for His unspeakable gift—Immanuel, “God with us.”