God’s immutability (cannot change)

“Every change is foreign to God. In him there is no change in time, for he is eternal; nor in location, for he is all-present; nor in essence, for he is pure being.”

Herman Bavinck (1895)

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

Immutability is the state of not changing, or unable to be changed (Cambridge Dictionary).

As we look at the attributes of God we come to the realisation that one attribute is necessary to explain another. And it is God’s immutability that ensures that none of his attributes will ever be diminished, because it ensures that he will forever remain the same. 

As Mathew Barret explains in his book, None Greater, ‘a God who is becoming is a God who has forfeited being God.’ Unlike we, who have been created, who are becoming something, changing each moment, each day or as the bible says of the Christian, being transformed from one degree of glory to another… this is not so with God. His is ‘glorious’ in its perfect, ultimate, complete measure, unable to be any more or any less.

If it was possible for God to change (like a shadow), then it would have to mean that He is not perfect. He either lacks something or has not yet reached completeness or perfection. If it were possible for God to change, then what would that change be? What would make God better or more perfect than He is? His wisdom? His power? His knowledge? or His love? Would such a change be voluntary? If God were to be susceptible to change then it would imply he was not perfect, being at the mercy of such a change would limit his sovereignty, and he would no longer be ‘the most supreme being’. For any of His attributes to be perfect and supreme, He must be at all times perfect and supreme and therefore unchanging and unchangeable.

J.M. Boice writes that God’s immutability is both disturbing and comforting. For God to be omniscient (all-knowing) and unchanging in His attributes, then he must also never forget. If God were to never forget, then the sinner would have to stand at the final judgement and be condemned, literally, for every careless word he has ever spoken (Matthew 12:36). But for the Christian who has received Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour, then God’s promise is also unchangeable and therefore it is an everlasting comfort to trust in His promises.