THE great glory of our Christian faith is that we are dealing with a living Christ, who is to all His disciples today what He was to those who saw and heard Him nearly twenty centuries ago. His biography is not that of one who has slept for ages in a Judean tomb. It is the biography of an earthly life that is continued in the heavens; the life of a divine Redeemer who is "alive for evermore"; the life of One who is the same in love and power as ever the unchanged and unchangeable One. The sinful today find Him the same Forgiver as of old, the sorrowful the same Comforter, the despairing the same Deliverer, as He ever was.
The deep reality of the Christian's life rests in the words of the text: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever" (He brews 13:8, R.V.). The apostle Paul wrote these words of encouragement to his fellow disciples. He and they knew that all that the Temple in Jerusalem symbolized would pass away, that the system of religion which had its center there would come to an end. But Paul reminds them that this passing of sacred institutions and time-honored traditions would not touch the core of their faith, but rather would enable them to realize more truly what that core was, and is, that the springs of spiritual life are in no system, but in the person of the Lord, apart from whom all systems are nothing.
Amid all the changing views and varying theories about Christ our Lord, the living Person still remains the same. As the supreme revelation of God, and as the Saviour of man, He stands unaltered through the countless changes of the ages, and it is this permanence of the living, unchanging Christ that is the pledge and guarantee of the life of Christianity. Christianity does not and cannot die, for the life of Christianity is the Living One: "Behold, I am alive for evermore." He is the abiding, the unchanging, the imperishable One.
Change is among the chief characteristics of our time. Occasionally one sees a sign on an old business structure: "This building is coming down." It is another reminder of the changes we are seeing every day. Other things of man's creation are also coming down, and great changes are in the making. Every facet of our generation is now in a state of flux politics, philosophy, industry, government and we who are in this changing world find uncertainty, confusion, unrest, and often despair on every hand.
However, we may be thankful that some things do not change. Take for instance the laws of nature and the fixed principles of the universe. Principles do not and cannot change because they have their source in the change less character and laws of God.
We recognize the need for change in many areas; but in the factors that concern the soul's welfare we crave permanency. And the human heart must have permanency to ensure confidence, certainty, comfort, and peace. It is good to know that no matter what outward changes may come, we can still confide with full assurance in our unchanging Saviour. He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the Ending, "the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever."
Thus, if we know Jesus Christ personally, we do not need to fear change, for change will really mean progress; nor need we fear the storms of life, for they will drive us to the cleft in the Rock; nor fear the valley of the shadow, for our Shepherd will be there with us.
"Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!"
