Wednesday 2nd
Hebrews 13:8
NIV – ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’
ESV – ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’
‘Oh, how sweet the glorious message.’
A. B. Simpson – RH 137
We all love good news, we all love to pass on good news, we have all enjoyed receiving good news, it may have been good news concerning all manner of different things, the news of a birth, the news of an achievement, the news of a new job etc. but the best news of all is the glorious message concerning the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The hymn centres the good news around the well-known verse in Hebrews 13, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’ In an ever-changing world this is good news, a glorious message, the person on whom it is based never changes and the message itself never changes.
Listen to what the second part of verse one says, ‘Still he loves to save the sinful, heal the sick and lame, cheer the mourner, still the tempest –glory to his name!’
Let’s just stop and consider these words, ‘Still he loves to save the sinful’, this is good news, when we go back into Scripture and the ministry of Jesus we see how he came across sinners, men and women and he took their broken lives and mended them, Zacchaeus who by his own admission had robbed people by taking more tax than he should have done as a tax collector, but he met Jesus and afterwards he repaid those who he had robbed fourfold, and of whom Jesus said, ‘Today salvation has come to this house . . .’ There was the woman that Jesus met at the well, a Samaritan woman who lived an unsavoury lifestyle, but after meeting with Jesus she went running to the town, to tell people to ‘Come and see a man who had told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? As a result, many believed. There was the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and when it came to the point of condemning her, Jesus said, ‘Has no one condemned you?’ To which she replied, ‘No one, Lord.’ Jesus then said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’ Often, we are told that Jesus sat with the publicans and sinners, why? well the account of Zacchaeus continues with these words, ‘For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ And Jesus is the same today, he is still seeking the lost and he is still willing to save them – this is good news, this is a glorious message, perhaps you may be reading this today and you have never committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe you are found in situations similar to those who I have mentioned from the Scripture, well this is the good news, your life can also be turned around, you too can know the forgiveness of sin that is available through coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, you too can now what it is to be saved by the grace of God.
There is another hymn that starts off with, ‘Great God of wonders, all thy ways, describe thy attributes divine’, it continues later with these words, ‘Who is a pardoning God like thee, or who has grace so rich so free? The answer is to be found in the text for today, it is to be found in the one who God sent into this world to save sinners, it is only within the Christian faith, that the true source of eternal salvation can be found, for it is found in the one who is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever’, who is also ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’ and NO ONE can come to the Father except through Jesus. The way is the same, the person is the same, the message is still the same – the Lord Jesus Christ and the Cross.
Read through the rest of this hymn and whatever your circumstances or situation today, remember that the one who this song is all about is with you today, allow him to come into your life to still the storm, allow him to come and to bring healing and wholeness, allow him to come and to minster into the depth of your soul, he is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
Oh, how sweet the glorious message,
Simple faith may claim:
Yesterday, today, forever,
Jesus is the same;
Still he loves to save the sinful,
Heal the sick and lame,
Cheer the mourner, still the tempest,
—glory to his name!
Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same,
All may change, but Jesus never—glory to his name!
Glory to his name! Glory to his name!
All may change, but Jesus never—glory to his name!
He who pardoned erring Peter,
Never needst thou fear;
He who came to faithless Thomas,
All thy doubt will clear;
He who let the loved disciple,
On His bosom rest,
Bids thee still, with love as tender,
Lean upon His breast.
He who ‘mid the raging billows,
Walked upon the sea,
Still can hush our wildest tempest,
As on Galilee;
He who wept and prayed in anguish,
In Gethsemane,
Drinks with us each cup of trembling,
In our agony.
As of old he walked to Emmaus,
With them to abide,
So through all life’s way he walketh,
Ever near our side;
Soon again we shall behold him,
Hasten Lord the day;
But twill still be this same Jesus
As he went away.