THE CHANGELESS CHRIST IN A CHANGING WORLD

By Lester LeMay

 

            The ancient Greeks sought one time for the building material of the world. Some thought it to be water, some earth, some air, some fire; others, some combination of these. But there was one, Heraclitus, who realized that none of these was the stuff out of which all things came; he thought of an eternal flowing—an everlasting change from one thing to another—and placed that as the building material of the universe. He said that nothing is the same from one moment to the next. One moment we live; the next we die. One moment we breathe; the next breath is not the same air. In this ever present changing he found his solution to the problem.

            Many centuries later, scientists laughed at old Heraclitus. “Why,” they said, “there is much that is permanent in the world. Matter cannot be destroyed and the elements cannot be changed.” Now, scientists are laughing at them (for even science changes.) “Matter can be changed into energy and energy into matter,” is the present axiom of the physics textbooks. And so change does seem to be, if not the building material of the world, at least ever-present in the material world.

            There is a legend of a king whose hobby it was to seek out and collect proverbs and wise sayings. He tired of the ordinary type of proverb and sent his servants out with this commission, “Find for me a maxim that will fit all things and always apply to a situation.” After many weeks and months of searching, the servants returned with this saying: “This too shall pass away.” If the king were interested only in the material aspects of life, this proverb would suffice, for indeed anything man-made or man-thought will some time pass away. Science has recently listed seven ways in which the earth could die or be destroyed; but higher proof is that the Scriptures say that some day we will look back and say, “For the first heaven and the first earth are passed away;

Yes, the continuance of change is evident in the material world; but man’s prime error is applying that same philosophy to the spiritual world. Paul, an apostle specially instructed by God, said “The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” In saying this, he refuted the idea of modern man who says that the teachings and instructions of the Scriptures are not applicable to our modern-day world. Perhaps the material things of the first century A.D. are not good enough for men and women of the twentieth century A.D.; but God expects His son, the One who is the “same yesterday, today, and forever,” and His Word, “the sword of the Spirit,” and His church, “the body of Christ,” to be good enough, and complete enough, and righteous enough, and true enough for any man—first, twentieth, or fiftieth century. How presumptuous it is of man to think that just because his little world shows no signs of permanence, that God’s world is just as limited. Well has the poet said:

            “Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

            Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

            Change and decay in all around I see;

            O Thou Who changest not, Abide with me.”

For it is only in the One who changes not that we can find release from the constant, monotonous, inevitable change of the world.

 

            But with all this it is easy to wonder just why it is that the material changes and the spiritual is changeless. The best way to understand it is to realize that it is inherent in spiritual things to be changeless. Does heaven change? Or does eternity? Eternity is the very essence of changelessness. It is only through the power of the eternal, the great I AM, the changeless One, that change came into being in the first place; and, of course, the Creator is greater than the thing created. Else how could the Psalmist say: “Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same.” In the book of Hebrews we find the words, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” These words put Jesus in the same category as God and not only imply His divinity but insist on it. For our only hope is in Jesus, the Son of a changeless God.

 

            But becoming a Christian is more than just the fact of recognizing the changing aspect of this world and our lives, and the eternal and deathless nature of God. Our becoming a member of the body of Christ involves more than that. What we need is a change to the changeless. Being material ourselves and sinful, we must be changed ourselves before we can enter the eternal kingdom of God.

            We find much to prove that this change is necessary and even more to prove that it must be complete. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Those words, “Be ye transformed,” mean that we must be changed. In fact the very word “repent” indicates a change of mind—a complete discarding of the old evil and a turning to the perfect good. We cannot properly repent unless we change. This change is the dividing line between sorrow and repentance. Judas Iscariot was very sorry afterwards that he had betrayed his Master, but did he go to Christ for forgiveness, or confess his guilt to the apostles and try to amend? No, he went on to commit another sin. On the other hand, Peter denied his Lord three times with curses and oaths, but Peter went out weeping bitterly and later he confessed his love for his Master three times on the shore of Galilee. He repented of his sin.

 

            One of the best-loved and most beautiful Psalms is the first. It reads:

 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and on his law doth he meditate day and night.

 And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also doth not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

  The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

  Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,

  For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the wicked shall perish.”

            In this Psalm we find a comparison of the man who has changed and the one who has not. The righteous man is a tree, resting firmly, secured strongly, drinking in the waters of life, bearing fruit abundantly. The wicked man is not so, but is like the chaff which the wind blows away. What a perfect picture of a wicked man—a man being blown about by the power of the prince of the air. This man is a slave of a hard taskmaster. He is blown every way by the turmoil and conflict of this world. He may even try religion in his unchanged state, but he will find himself being blown about by every wind of doctrine. In this not only do we find the picture of the wicked man, but unfortunately, also the average man in the world today. But this conflict is the reason we have the power of God unto salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For only God can make of chaff, a tree, with its roots reaching down into the very essence of life—the person of Christ. And all God needs is willingness on our part, a willingness to change ourselves according to His will. How else can we proclaim the new birth to a scoffing world? It is the casting off of the old as of a soul casting off the body, and the presentation of the new as of a babe newly born. Our change to Christ is a change of goals, pleasures, ambitions, work, purpose, and most of all, a complete change of life. What the world needs today is not a change of politics, not a change of philosophy, but a CHANGE to the CHANGELESS.

 

The above is the text of a sermon Lester wrote in 1950 to enter in a contest sponsored by The Lookout magazine to pick “Mr. Christian Endeavor.” The three finalists were each awarded a trip to Columbus, Ohio, to present his sermon at the Indianola Church of Christ. Judges chose the winner after the verbal presentations. The winner was Paul Benjamin, who went on to found the National Church Growth Research Center in Washington, DC. The other finalist was Bob Ross, now deceased, who ministered in Texas.