[Reposted from November 2014 with minor edits]
Does God change?
Your first instinct is probably similar to mine…”Of course not! God is God…He is perfect and unchanging…the first and the last…the beginning and the end…the great I Am…Who is, Who was, and evermore shalt be!”
And that answer is both correct and biblically supported. Many Bible passages discuss God’s unchanging nature.
Every good thing 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)
But, just as we begin to get truly comfortable with the concept that God has not, does not, and will not change, we find this word became.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… (John 1:1 & 14).
Did you catch that? The Word is God and the Word became flesh. God became flesh! God became…
The word became denotes change. Not minor change, but fundamental change. He didn’t temporarily disguise Himself as human…He became human.
God became man.
In the Old Testament, we’re told,
God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent… (Numbers 23:19)
God was not a man…but He became a man. God was not a son of man…but He became a son of man. In fact, Jesus often referred to Himself as the son of man.
God became! He changed…God became something He previously was not. Almighty, perfect, unchanging creator God became a created being.
God did not change His nature. Jesus still does not lie, nor need to repent. Although, as the Son of Man, Jesus did receive the baptism of repentance.
In becoming human, God did not lower the standard of deity…rather, He raised the standard and condition of humanity.
For us, God changed who He is. His identity is forever changed. God became one of us…human. Jesus will forever be human. Jesus will forever bear the nail scars of His covenant with us…scars that were not there before, but now are…for us!
The author of Hebrews tells us,
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)
Jesus was perfected through suffering…
God changed…He was perfected.
God was already perfect. He had no need to change…no need to be perfected…no need to become anything other than who He already was.
But we needed a redeemer…a deliverer…a savior.
For our sake, God became a man...through suffering He became our perfect savior! Click To TweetHe was already perfect deity. He became our perfect savior.
What a marvelous wonder!
God became…
Your thoughts?
