“But He…has an unchangeable priesthood…”

The theme of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is better…better than angels, better than Moses, etc.  He is also a better priest than any Old Testament priest.  That is what our verse and its surrounding context say.  However, for our purposes here we want to take the unchangeable characteristic out of the priestly context and consider its wider applications regarding Christ’s nature as a member of the Godhead.  For if Christ is unchangeable in his nature, then certainly he would be so in his priesthood.  Have you ever thought about how Christ demonstrates his unchangeability?   We can learn a lot from the parallel of the parent/child relationship.

When a baby is born, its needs are pretty simple: feed me, burp me, change me, change my position, hold me.  That’s about it.  No jobs, no responsibilities.  So it is with new ‘baby’ believers.  During this time, God shows his faithfulness to meet our basic needs so we can grow spiritually.  After some time, the baby gets older and begins to discover relationships in his family and the new world around him.  He notices patterns and routines. Likewise, a new Christian begins to learn more about his new spiritual family and the world around him.  After more time the child discovers that meals don’t happen like clockwork as they had when he was an infant.  He also learns of responsibilities that are his to fulfill.  This too is different than before.  The infant becomes a baby, then a child on his way to adulthood.  Circumstances and life change dramatically.  But the parents remain faithful and unchangeable in their goal to develop trust and character in their child.  They have not changed, but their behavior changes, based on what we need.  Likewise, God and Christ change only their specific actions to grow us up spiritually.  In both cases, the predictability of the parents and God/Christ sometimes gets harder.  God will not be put in our boxes!  Although this may appear to be a cause for distrust, just the opposite is true.  He wants us to trust him more.

Permit a few personal examples.  When I was in my junior year in a secular university God was calling me to leave and attend Bible college, and I knew it.  After a struggle I yielded to God’s will and decided to change schools.  Even before I began packing my bags to come home he provided me a construction job that paid very well.  I thought, “Wow, trusting God is really cool!  Look at how fast he answers my prayers!”  I thought it would always be like that.  After only 6 weeks I got laid off on a Friday without warning.  Then I had a decision to make: was I going to trust God or not?  After all, he had provided me the job in the first place.  So I decided I would trust him and not get angry.  Within 24 hours I had another construction job that would start in two days!  It paid $2.00 less per hour but, “It was a job, and once again God has provided,” I thought.  It took a while to get adjusted to the reduced pay.

Within a few months I had saved enough money to buy a car.  6 weeks later I made the final car payment.  My excitement turned to boasting as I thought I had accomplished some big thing.  God saw my need of humility, so the next day I returned from work to find my car had been completely totaled by a huge construction truck that made it look like crumpled aluminum foil!  So much for boasting!  Once again, God had been unchangeable in his desire and goal to produce the character of Christ in me.  It was a hard lesson — not what I expected, but definitely what I needed — a valuable experience in my growth.

Another point about God’s/Christ’s unchangeable character is this: if we could, what part of it would we change?  Certainly not his love and mercy.  Nor his kindness and forgiving nature.  And we wouldn’t want to change his patience and gentle care.  How about his holiness and righteousness?  That might give us some relief from the absolute perfection of his standard of expectations.  But do we really want an unholy or unrighteous God?  We don’t like it when immoral or unholy people treat us wrong, but we almost expect it from them.  Is that the way we want God to treat us?  Not for a second!  Everything about God’s nature is such that it must be unchangeable.  Even fallen human beings need it that way.

We change, but God does not (Psalm 102:25-27).  Malachi 3:6 says that we are “not consumed” because God does not change.  Your very life is testimony of that.  Do you live it in recognition of his unchangeability and his goal of developing godly character in you today?