hebrews xiii. 8.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
the exhortation, which the apostle gives the Christian Hebrews in the verse preceding this, is to remember and follow the good instructions and examples of their ministers, “Remember them who have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 1 ” The last part of this exhortation is to follow their faith. By following their faith, the apostle seems to intend adhering to the Christian faith, and those wholesome doctrine which their pastors taught them, and not depart from them, as many in that day had done, to heretical tenets. And the enforcement of the doctrine is in these words, ” Considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 2 ” Christ is the end of their conversation, he is the end of their conversation in their office, the end of the doctrine which they taught, and the end of all their administrations, and all their labours in all their work. And as he was so, they ought to follow their faith, or cleave stedfastly to the doctrine they had taught them, and not depart to other doctrine; for Jesus Christ was the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
If they still professed to be Christians or the followers of Jesus Christ, then they should still cleave to the same doctrine that they were taught in their first conversion; they should still follow the faith of them, who had first indoctrinated them in Christianity; for Jesus Christ was the same now that he was then, and therefore, Christianity was obviously the same thing. It was not one thing now and another when they were first converted, or even like to any other thing than it always had been. Surely therefore, when Christ and Christianity were thus unchangeable, he would therefore have them not fickle and changeable in their faith, not depart from their former faith, nor be carried about with divers and strange doctrine, as it follows in the next verse.
When it is said that Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, by yesterday is meant all time past; by today, the time present; and by for ever, all that is future, from the present time to eternity.
Doctrine. Jesus Christ is the same now that he ever has been and ever will be.
Christ is thus unchangeable in two respects.
I. In his divine nature. As Christ is one of the persons of the Trinity, he is God, and so hath the divine nature, or the Godhead dwelling in him, and all the divine attributes belong to him, of which immutability or unchangeableness is one. Christ in his human nature was not absolutely unchangeable, though his human nature, by reason of its union with the divine, was not liable to those changes to which it was liable, as a mere creature; as for instance, it was indestructible and imperishable. Having the divine nature to uphold it, it was not liable to fall and commit sin, as Adam and the fallen angels did, but yet the human nature of Christ, when he was upon earth, was subject to many changes. It had a beginning; it was conceived in the womb of the Virgin; it was in a state of infancy, and afterwards changed from that state to a state of manhood, and this was attended not only with a change on his body, by his increasing in stature, but also on his. mind; for we read that he not only increased in stature but also in wisdom. Luke ii. 52. And the human nature of Christ was subject to sorrowful changes, though not to sinful ones. He suffered hunger, and thirst, and cold; and at last he suffered dreadful changes by having his body tortured and destroyed, and his soul poured out unto death; and afterwards became subject to a glorious change at his resurrection and ascension. And that his human nature was not liable to sinful changes, as Adam’s or the angels’, was not owing to any thing in his human nature, but to its relation to the divine nature which upheld it. But the divine nature of Christ is absolutely unchangeable, and not liable to the least alteration or variation in any respect. It is the same now as it was before the world was created. It was the same after Christ’s incarnation as before, when Christ was born in a stable, and laid in a manger, and underwent many changes on earth, and at last suffered that dreadful agony in the garden, and suffered on the cross; it made no real alteration in the divine nature; and afterwards when Christ was glorified, and sat on the right hand of the Majesty on high, it made no alteration in his divine nature.
II. Christ is unchangeable in his office. He is unchangeable as the Mediator and Saviour of his church and people. That unchangeableness of Christ in his office of Mediator, appears in several things.