The center will hold

 

“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed…” Malachi 3:6 ESV

                The center must hold. If the center is lost all else will go with it. So, if the center of our cosmos, or our understanding thereof, is unstable or vulnerable in any way so all of life will be. As a mutable center shifts all of reality would come apart, fragmenting, and scattering into incoherence. There would be no salvation from these awful cataclysms. There would be no salvation. There would be nothing we could trust. Every human endeavor would become incommensurable: if indeed anything like humanity would remain.

            Fortunately, at the center of all things is God, immutable, and immovable. He is not like a man that He should change His mind. His mind is made up, His word, His decrees, His promises are settled forever. He will not suddenly improve upon His plans, there could be no improvement on any of His words, decrees, or promises they are all perfect as He is perfect. Being perfect He is immune to doubt, to faltering in thought or reconciliation, indeed is entirely invulnerable and invincible. Which is to say to the great relief of all that stability at the center is assured. Even those who would, if they could, force God from His place would very quickly regret their inconceivable folly. But they have no means to affect any sort of change in God’s position, in reality at all.

            The further goodness of God’s implicit and explicit centrality and immutability is that there is salvation in every moment, and in every moment, there is by grace through faith in Christ according to divine revelation in scripture eternal salvation available to the glory of God alone. Amen. The surety of our footing in declaring this salvation both temporal and eternal should in no way ease the unsaved soul into complacency that is in all actuality extreme negligence amounting to reckless self-endangerment. For God also promises judgement on those who will not receive His grace, and He does not change in His wraith against sin or sinners. In this verse it is only grace promised that spares Israel, and in each moment that our Lord tarries it is only grace revealed that extends the age (2 Peter 3:9).

Prayer

            Father we praise you in Your immutability, and would make You well and truly the center of life in our perceptions, as in our words and deeds for You are the center in reality. Plant then our hearts upon this solid ground by grace through faith that we might stand, and know that rest which comes from being upon solid ground. Have mercy on those who do not see, and open their eye. May all be done according to Your good and perfect will, and to Your glory alone. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Songs

Immutable by Shai Linne

Steadfast by Sandra McCracken

My soul has found a resting place

The Solid Rock

How firm a foundation

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