6/21 AGAPE Men of Hosanna (MOH)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
Reflections on Chapter 7: God Unchanging
 
“…the crucial point is surely this. The sense of remoteness is an illusion which springs from seeking the link between our situation and that of the various Bible characters in the wrong place. It is true that in terms of space, time and culture, they and the historical epoch to which they belonged are a very long way away from us. But the link between them and us is not found at that level. The link is God himself. For the God with whom they had to do is the same God with whom we have to do.”
– J. I. Packer
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Reflect and Discuss

1. By many thousands of years, the ancient world of Scripture is far removed and different from our own – different language, customs and patterns of life. From the onset, we feel the disconnect. What should NOT be the way we go about finding a connection point or application point from the world of God’s Word to the world in our current life?
2. What is Packer’s solution to link the disconnect between Scripture’s ancient world to our present world? 
3. How does our reading of God’s Word in the ancient world transform us when we realize that we worship exactly the same God as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Isaiah… etc. did long ago, how the same God at work in the Scriptures is the same God at work in our walk with Him today?
4. Discuss, reflect, and rejoice in the six immutable traits of our unchanging God, as Packer concludes, “Where is the sense of distance and difference, then, between believers in Bible times and ourselves? It is excluded. On what grounds? On the grounds that God does not change.” 

• God’s LIFE does not change – from everlasting (Psalm 93:2), immortal (1 Timothy 6:16), incorruptible (Romans 1:23), the same (Psalm 102:26f), the first and the last (Isaiah 48:12). As creator, God has neither beginning nor end. He does not grow old, get stronger, wiser, weaker, or change for the better. He is already perfect and has the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16).
• God’s CHARACTER does not change – “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14), God declares his self-existence, eternal changelessness, reminding us that He has life in Himself more than just a name. Exodus 34 proclaims His name through His character: “The LORD, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, keeping His love to a thousand generations, forgiving sin…”
• God’s TRUTH does not change – “The word of the Lord stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6); “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35); “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35)
• God’s WAYS do not change – God’s ways have always been to seek fellowship from us as He did in days past with Israel and all varieties of sinful people in the days of Jesus. He hates our sins while still loving sinful people, as He demonstrates that love by offering His only eternal Son to bear all our sins and remove them so that we can be in right relationship to Him again. His ways to achieve this for us will never change. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
• God’s PURPOSES do not change – “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” (1 Samuel 15:29); “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19); What God does in time, He planned for eternity and all He planned in eternity He does in His time. The times where God apparently changed His mind (Genesis 6:6, 1 Samuel 15:11, 2 Samuel 24:16, Joel 2:13) suggest more about God’s deep affections that change how He treats sinful humanity in that particular situation rather than His purposes changing.
• God’s SON does not change – “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)

 
5. So, if there really is no distance nor difference between us and the Scriptures, and the connecting link is our unchanging God, how differently will you approach the Word of God now? How differently will you live and obey the Word of God now? Reflect on Packer’s concluding remarks, “…amid all the changes and uncertainties of life in a nuclear age, God and his Christ remain the same—almighty to save. But the thought brings a searching challenge too. If our God is the same as the God of New Testament believers, how can we justify ourselves in resting content with an experience of communion with him, and a level of Christian conduct, that falls so far below theirs?”