Dr Paul Allen

The idea of immutability is very hard for us to understand, perhaps more so than the idea of eternity or infinity. How can ever-changing creatures such as us who live in an ever-changing reality grasp the idea of “changelessness”? The fact that everything changes has always been a truism. “Change is here to stay,” business analysts proclaim. “We live in times of change,” lazy journalists write, as if there ever were a time in history that was not a “time of change.” None of this is particularly new. After all, 2,600 years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously proclaimed, “Everything flows!” But God does not change. At least, this is the teaching of Scripture, according to the unanimous tradition of the Christian church. However, this attribute of immutability has been increasingly challenged in recent years. Many today would question whether the idea of God’s immutability is sustainable, biblical, or even helpful. As we saw in previous articles, seventeenth-century Reformed th...

Image via Wikipedia We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy . There is a sense in which we are at the same time attracted to it and repulsed by it. Something draws us toward it, while at the same time we want to run away from it. We can’t seem to decide which way we want it. Part of us yearns for the holy, while part of us despises it. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it. Holiness provokes hatred. The greater the holiness the greater the human hostility toward it. It seems insane. No man was ever more loving than Jesus Christ . Yet even His love made people angry. His love was a perfect love, a transcendent and holy love, but His very love brought trauma to people. This kind of love is so majestic we can’t stand it. God ’s grace is not infinite . God is infinite, and God is gracious. We experience the grace of an infinite God, but grace is not infinite. God sets limits to His patience and forbearance. He warns us over and over again that someday the ax will fal...