These memorable words are suitable as a subject of meditation while we stand upon the threshold of a new year. They are suitable for meditation at all times, but none the less so at this season when we are reminded that “we spend our years as a tale that is told.” The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which unseen are eternal. It would be well that, amidst the changing currents of a passing world, we should cast anchor in the unseen and eternal. It is there the only sure anchorage is to be found, namely, within the veil whither the forerunner of the Church is entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Men in their natural state are wholly engrossed with the fleeting things of time and sense, and have little thought of eternity. But when the Spirit of God comes in awakening power, the concerns of eternity become all-important. The soul, sensible of its lost and perishing condition, feels the overwhelming necessity of a sure and certain hope beyond death and the grave, and will not find satisfying and abiding rest until it is savingly united to Jesus Christ, the rock against which the gates of hell shall never prevail.
“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” These words proclaim the eternity and unchangeableness of the great Head of the Church. He is the same in the past, the present, and the future, and He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He bring forth judgment unto victory. He is eternal in His person, unchangeable in His power, and faithful in His promises at all times and under all conditions of the Church’s history.
Jesus Christ is eternal in His person.
He is called Jesus because He is the Saviour of His people. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for he shall save His people from His sins.” — (Matt. 1: 21). It is also written, “They shall call his name Emmanuel; which being interpreted, is God with us.” (v. 23). Jesus Christ is therefore God over all blessed for ever, and the words of the Psalmist may be appropriately addressed to Him, “Even from everlasting to everlasting thou are God.” — (Psalm 90: 2). He is the same in the yesterday of a past eternity as He is in the to-day of a present time, and as He shall be in the forever of a coming eternity. He created all things at the beginning. “The Word was with God and was God.” All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” — (John 1: 3). It was He who appeared as the angel of the covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was He who followed the children of Israel through the wilderness. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” — (1 Cor. 10: 4). It was He who revealed Himself to Isaiah in the temple. There Isaiah saw His glory, and received his own prophetic commission. It is this same glorious Person to whom the prophecies and the promises, the rites and ceremonies of the older dispensation bear witness. He is the promised Shiloh unto whom shall “the gathering of the people be.” He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms speak concerning Him.
It is the same eternal Person who appeared in the flesh. “When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” (Gal. 4: 4, 5). The eternal Word was made flesh. He veiled His Divine glory for a season, but still He was “the Son of man which is in heaven.” He assumed a created human nature, but ceased not to be the Creator of heaven and earth. He lived the life of a substitute in the room of guilty sinners, and eventually died the accursed death of the cross. As God, He could not and did not die, and so was the same living, eternal Person at the very moment He offered up His holy humanity unto death. The body of His flesh was laid in the grave, but He continued to be the eternal, self-existent God. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” It was not possible, however, He should be holden of death, and therefore He rose again the third day, living and triumphant over sin, death, and the grave. He was finally carried up into heaven, and is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is the Lamb in the midst of the throne, both Priest and King, and shall reign for ever and ever. He saith to His Church as He said to John in Patmos, “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.” — (Rev. 1: 17, 18).
Jesus Christ is unchangeable in His power, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
He is the Son of God, and it was by Him God made the worlds. The Son also upholds all things by the word of his power. It was by His Son as the eternal Word that God revealed Himself to the children of men from the beginning. The Son assumed the office of mediator in a past eternity. It was then the covenant of grace was entered into between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Son acted in His capacity as Mediator under the old dispensation as well as under the new, and during that period every display of God’s power on behalf of His elect people came by the Son. The people of Israel were then the peculiar objects of the divine favour. The gracious power of Jehovah was exercised in countless ways on their behalf. He led them across the Red Sea with His mighty hand and outstretched arm, and destroyed their Egyptian enemies in the mighty waters. He preserved them in the wilderness for forty years, gave them bread and flesh to satisfy their hunger, and streams of water from the rock to quench their thirst. At the end of their pilgrimage they were safely carried over the Jordan, the waters receding before them. Jericho fell down at the noise of their trumpets. The Lord cast out the heathen nations before their armies, and gave them the land of Caanan for their possession. As in the case of the nations of Israel, so in the case of eminent individuals, we see the hand of God’s power. We see it in the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and many others. When faith was in lively exercise, these noble worthies would each be ready to say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” — (Job 19: 25). The Redeemer did come in the fulness of the time, and revealed still more and more His unchangeable power. He healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame man leap as an hart, the tongue of the dumb to sing, and raised the dead to life. This He did both naturally and spiritually. He has now ascended up on high, entered within the veil, but His power still continues the same. “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5: 31). “This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood; wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth, to make intercession for them.” — (Heb. 7: 24, 25). Christ is as mighty to save to-day as ever He was. He lives at God’s right hand that He may plead the cause of poor sinners before the Father. His arm is not shortened that it cannot save, and His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear. In these dark and degenerate times we may be tempted to doubt the power and even existence of the risen and exalted Redeemer. The cry goes up, “By whom shall Jacob rise? for he is small.” Many are the forces of darkness that would seek to destroy the feeble Church of God in these days, but let us never forget that her Redeemer yet reigneth above the floods. “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” — (Ps. 93: 4).
Jesus Christ is faithful in His promises, “the same yesterday and to-day and for ever.”
All the promises of God recorded in the Old Testament may also be said to be the promises of Christ, for He is one with the Father in them all. In not a few of them He would seem to be the principal speaker. Witness the twenty-second Psalm, in which Messiah speaks — “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him; your heart shall live for ever.” — (Psalm 22: 26). We also hear Christ, as the heavenly wisdom, speaking in the eighth chapter of Proverbs, and extending the gracious promise — “I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me.” He also speaks in these words — “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.” These are a few passages out of many in the Old Testament. The promises they contain shall not fail in accomplishment to all who flee in truth to them for refuge. Christ also spake many words in the days of His flesh that shall be fulfilled in the experience of believers to the end of time. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — (Matt. 10: 27). “Him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.” — (John 6: 37). “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” — (John 14: 13). “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” — (v. 18). The Lord Jesus shall not fail in fulfilling these promises to His believing people to-day, as He was wont to do in days of old. Let the poor and needy in Zion seek to take hold of them, that Christ’s name may be magnified in their fulfilment. He says to all — “Ask and it shall be given you: seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you,” and it will be found at the great day that he was as good as His Word. Many may even then say that they asked and did not receive, they sought and did not find, they knocked and it was not opened unto them, but they will be found liars in that day. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Lastly, let the true Church not be discouraged if the promise seem slow in fulfilment, and the prospects seem dark and foreboding. Abraham was many years looking for the child of promise, and it was when all natural probabilities and possibilities had come to an end that the child came. And again, after all this, the Lord commanded him to sacrifice the child upon whose life depended the fulfilment of still larger promises to many generations. Abraham’s faith shone brightly in the dread hour of trial, and resting with assured confidence in the faithfulness of God, he obeyed the painful command. But the Lord interposed with deliverance at the very moment that the child was at the point of death. May the Lord lead His people in these troublous times to have respect to His own commands, and to go forward in His own strength, knowing that Jesus Christ is a faithful promiser, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
In conclusion, we would say: Let the eye of the struggling Church of Christ in these troublous times be fixed upon the risen and exalted Redeemer. He is not dead. He is alive and liveth for evermore. He is infinitely well acquainted with His people’s case, has infinite sympathy with them in all their afflictions, and has infinite regard for the glory of His name and cause. He shall bring forth judgment into victory, and shall reign till all His enemies are made His footstool. He is mighty to save, and all things in heaven and in earth are in His hands. His promise shall not fail, but shall be fulfilled in due time. May “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever” be the foundation of our hopes and the strength of our hearts, so as to be able to say in some measure of true sincerity, I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” (Ps. 71: 16).