Category: Attributes Of Christ

The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 3 - Immutability

11/14/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Divine Attributes Of Christ: Part 3 - Immutability

The next attributes that Christ shares with God is immutability. Immutability, according to Louis Berkof, “is that perfection of God by which He is devoid of all change, not only in His Being, but also in His perfections, and in His purposes and promises…”(1) Thus, immutability means that God does not change.

For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. - Malachi 3:6
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. - James 1:17

God’s immutability also guarantees that what God says, He will do.

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? - Numbers 23:19
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. - Hebrews 6:17-18

As God, Christ does not change.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8

However, immutability is not immobility. Consider the incarnation of Christ. At a moment in time, the second person of the Godhead took on human flesh and nature. However, nothing changed in regard to His deity. He remained one hundred percent God, while becoming one hundred percent human.

ENDNOTES:

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1941), 58.

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The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 2 - Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence

11/11/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · New The Divine Attrributtes Of Christ: Part 2 - Omnipresence, Omniscience, And Omnipotence

The next attributes that Christ shares with God is omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Omnipresence means that God is all-present or present everywhere at once. Because God is eternal (not bound by time), self-sufficient (not bound by limitation), and Creator (not bound by space), He can be present to the entirety of creation and its various parts. However, when Christ took on flesh, He limited His humanity to the time, space, and matter, but His deity remains omnipresent. Hence, Christ could promise the disciples that He would be with them always.

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. - Matthew 28:20

Omniscience means that God knows all things actual, possible, past, present, and future in one moment before they occur. As God, Jesus knew what was in the heart of man.

and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. - John 2:25

Though having never met, Jesus knew the Samaritan woman’s past.

for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly. - John 4:18

The disciples recognized Christ’s omniscience.

Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God. - John 16:30

Omnipotence means that God is all-powerful and can to do whatever He wills so long as it conforms to His perfect nature. Jesus, as God, had all authority or power.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. - Matthew 28:18

His authority included the power to forgive sin.

And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. […] Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone? - Mark 2:5, 7

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The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 1 - Eternality

11/11/2020

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TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Divine Attributes Of Christ: Part 1 - Eternality

Christ is not simply God-like, He is undiminished God, absolutely equal with the Father.

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, - Philippians 2:6

Being equal with God, He shares all the attributes of God.

The first attribute which Christ shares with God is eternality. Micah 5:2 prophecies that while Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, He existed throughout eternity. That Christ is eternal means that He is not beholden to temporal limitation. In other words, something that it eternal has no beginning or end. Only God possesses eternality.

Indeed, I lift up My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, - Deuteronomy 32:40
But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end. - Psalm 102:27

The Apostle John stated that in the beginning… [Christ] was with God (John 1:1). In the beginning refers to the beginning of the time, space, and matter. The verb was (eimí) is in the imperfect tense, which communicates continual existence in the past. The verse could be rendered that Christ (i.e., the Word) was continually existing with God in the beginning.

Christ, Himself, stated, “before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). This statement is a declaration of existence before Abraham. Again, note the use of the verb was (eimí). The verb was is in the imperfect tense indicating continual existence. Thus before Abraham was born, Christ was continually existing. As well, note the Christ statement of existence — I am. This is a reference to Exodus 3:14 when God declared to Moses, “I am Who I am.”

Christ is before all things (Colossians 1:17). The verb is (eimí) in the present tense means to exist. The term before (pró) is a temporal preposition meaning at an earlier time. It conveys the sense that Christ existed at an earlier time than all things. All things, including time, space, and matter, were created during the six days of creation. That Christ existed before time, in particular, indicates that He is without temporal limitation ergo eternal.

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The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 3 - Immutability

The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 2 - Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence

The Divine Attributes of Christ: Part 1 - Eternality

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