God's Immutability and the Church

One of my favorite C. S. Lewis quotes is from the end of his most famous sermon, The Weight of Glory

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden. (The Weight of Glory)

Lewis points out correctly that we need to see people as God sees them: He sees them as eternal beings. The obnoxious people you fellowship with at church are the most holy beings except for God that you will ever encounter. I agree with Lewis, but I think we need to go one step further. I am reading Stephen Charnock on the immutability of God. His premise is since scripture teaches that God does not change, then His promises never fail. God is eternal, omnipotent, and He does not change; therefore, He keeps His promises and does not change them. Charnock proves his point through scripture by exegeting the following strophe from Psalm 102:

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.
(Psalm 102:25-28 ESV)

Charnock makes the following conclusion from God's immutability as taught in this passage.

“The design of the penman is to confirm the church in the truth of the divine promises; that though the foundations of the world should be ripped up, and the heavens clatter together, and the whole fabric of them be unpinned and fall to pieces, the firmest parts of it dissolved; yet the church should continue in its stability, because it stands not upon the changeableness of creatures, but is built upon the immutable rock of the truth of God, which is as little subject to change, as his essence.” ("The Existence and Attributes of God

God effects His promises to believing individuals through the Church. Scripture repeatedly uses the illustrations of a building or a body to explain the function of the Church. Using the illustration of a building, God is using the building blocks--the members of the church--to knock the rough edges off the other blocks (Proverbs 27:17) so we can fit together snugly. In other words, God is using the Church as a whole to prepare us for heaven. God does not only want personal holiness, but corporate holiness as well. Look at the following promises about the church.

• And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19 ESV)
• For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2 ESV)
• So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV)
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.(Ephesians 5:25-33 ESV)
• As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
  
  “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
  a cornerstone chosen and precious,
  and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
  (1 Peter 2:4-6 ESV)

God saves us both individually and corporately. God wants to unite us with Himself both individually and corporately. God is making us into one holy people to love Him and enjoy Him forever.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV)

God promises that the Church will be Christ's Bride in heaven for ever. Let us praise our immutable, faithful, and holy God.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV)