The Stability of God’s Truth
“The purposes of God are as immutable as His character—nothing can be taken from them or added to them.”
— John Snyder, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty
J.I. Packer (1926-2020) was an English-born Canadian scholar, theologian, curate, author, and editor.
Packer was the author of Knowing God, perhaps the most impactful work of his full and influential life.
In “God Unchanging,” chapter 7 of Knowing God, Packer writes,
God’s truth does not change.
God’s truth does not change. People sometimes say things that they do not really mean, simply because they do not know their own mind; also, because their views change, they frequently find that they can no longer stand behind things that they said in the past. All of us sometimes have to take back our words, because they have ceased to express what we think; sometimes we have to eat our words because hard facts refute them.
The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God.
The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God. They stand forever, as abidingly valid expressions of His mind and thought. No circumstances prompt Him to recall them; no changes in His own thinking require Him to amend them. Isaiah writes, “All flesh is grass…the grass withers…But the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8). Similarly, the psalmist says, “Your words, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens…all your commands are true…You establish them to last forever” (Psalm 119:89, 151-152).
“The scriptures cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
The word translated true in the last verse carries with it the idea of stability. When we read our Bibles, therefore, we need to remember that God still stands behind all the promises, and demands, and statements of purpose, and words of warning, that are addressed to New Testament believers. These are not relics of a bygone age, but an eternally valid revelation of the mind of God toward His people in all generations, so long as the world lasts. As our Lord Himself has told us, “The scriptures cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Nothing can annul God’s eternal truth.