<p>13:8 <em>Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever</em>- &quot;For ever&quot; is literally 'for all ages'. There will be many &quot;ages&quot; to come, as there have doubtless been many &quot;ages&quot; of previous creations already (Rom. 1:25; 9:5); but for our &quot;age&quot; alone was the only begotten Son of God given as a representative of <em>us</em>, the humans who live in this brief &quot;age&quot;. God thus describes Himself as a first timer falling in love with His people; as a young marries a virgin, so God marries us (Is. 62:5); Israel were as the lines graven on a man's palm, with which he was born (Is. 49:16). Thus from absolute eternity, we were the great &quot;all things&quot; to Almighty God, the God of all, all past and future creations. &nbsp;</p><p>Past, present and future as stated here suggests Paul saw the three elements of the Yahweh Name supremely manifest in the Lord Jesus. Which is surely why &lsquo;Jesus&rsquo; in the NT becomes the Name above every Name (Phil. 2:9,10; Eph. 1:21); for only &lsquo;Yahweh&rsquo; was exalted above every other name (Neh. 9:5; Ps. 148:13).</p><p>The Jesus of history is the Christ of faith. The <em>same </em>Jesus who went into Heaven will <em>so</em> come again <em>in like manner </em>&nbsp;(Acts 1:11). The record three times says the same thing. The &ldquo;like manner&rdquo; in which the Lord will return doesn&rsquo;t necessarily refer to the way He gradually ascended up in to the sky, in full view of the gazing disciples. He was to return in the &ldquo;like manner&rdquo; to what they had seen. Yet neither those disciples nor the majority of the Lord&rsquo;s people will literally see Him descending through the clouds at His return- for they will be dead. But we will &lsquo;see&rsquo; Him at His return &ldquo;in like manner&rdquo; as He was when on earth. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Jesus who loved little children and wept over Jerusalem's self-righteous religious leaders, so desirous of their salvation, is the One who today mediates our prayers and tomorrow will confront us at judgment day. Perhaps the Lord called the disciples His &ldquo;brethren&rdquo; straight after His resurrection in order to emphasize that He, the resurrected Man and Son of God, was eager to renew His relationships with those He had known in the flesh. It&rsquo;s as if He didn&rsquo;t want them to think that somehow, everything had changed. Indeed, He stresses to them that their Father is His Father, and their God is His God (Jn. 20:18). He appears to be alluding here to Ruth 1:16 LXX. Here, Ruth is urged to remain behind in Moab cp. Mary urging Jesus?, but she says she will come with her mother in law, even though she is of a different people, and &ldquo;Your people shall be my people, and your God my God&rdquo;. This allusion would therefore be saying: &lsquo;OK I am of a different people to you now, but that doesn&rsquo;t essentially affect our <em>relationship</em>; I so love you, I will always stick with you wherever, and my God is your God&rsquo;.&nbsp;</p><p>Significantly, both Luke and John conclude their Gospels with the risen Lord walking along with the disciples, and them &lsquo;following&rsquo; Him (Jn. 21:20)- just as they had done during His ministry. His invitation to &lsquo;Follow me&rsquo; (Jn. 21:19,22) is the very language He had used whilst He was still mortal (Jn. 1:37,43; 10:27; 12:26; Mk. 1:18; 2:14). The point being, that although He was now different, in another sense, He still related to them as He did when He was mortal, walking the lanes and streets of 1st century Palestine. Elsewhere I have pointed out that the fishing incident of Jn. 21 is purposefully framed as a repetition of that recorded in Lk. 5- again, to show the continuity between the Jesus of yesterday and the Jesus of today. It&rsquo;s as if in no way does He wish us to feel that His Divine Nature and glorified, exalted position somehow separates us from Him. When the Lord awoke, He would have immediately been aware of the carefully wrapped graveclothes and the anointing oil. He would have then realized the care shown to Him by His sisters. Some of the very first thoughts of the risen Lord were of His brethren. There was no gap between His mortal awareness of His brethren, and His feelings for them after resurrection.</p><p>The Lord will essentially be the same as the Gospels present Him when we see Him again. This is why Jesus even in His earthly life could be called &quot; the Kingdom of God&quot; , so close was the link between the man who walked Palestine and the One who will come again in glory. &ldquo;They see the Kingdom of God come&rdquo; (Mk. 9:1) is paralleled by &ldquo;They see the Son of man coming&rdquo; (Mt. 16:28). Indeed it would seem that the references in the Synoptic Gospels to the &lsquo;coming&rsquo; of the Kingdom are interpreted in the rest of the New Testament as referring to the personal &lsquo;coming&rsquo; of the Lord Jesus (e.g. 1 Cor. 16:22; Rev. 22:20). In that very context of referring to Himself as &quot;the Kingdom of God&quot;, the Lord speaks of His return as 'the days of the Son of man'- the human Jesus. And yet He also speaks in that context of how after His death, men will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, i.e. how He had been in His mortal life (Lk. 17:20-26). As He was in His mortal days, so He will essentially be in the day of His final glory. It just isn't true that He came as a meek, gentle person, but will roar back as an angry lion. At His second coming, He will reveal &quot; the wrath of the lamb&quot; . Can you imagine an angry lamb? Yes, lambs can get angry. But it's a lamb-like anger. He came as the lamb for sinners slain, and yet He will still essentially be a lamb at His return. The Jesus who loved little children, sensitive to others weaknesses, desperate for their salvation, is the same one who will return to judge us. Even after His resurrection, in His present immortal nature, He thoughtfully cooked breakfast on the beach for His men (Jn. 21;9,12). And this is the Lord who will return to judge us. After His resurrection He was recognized by the Emmaus disciples in the way that He broke bread. The way He handled the loaf, His mannerisms, His way of speaking and choice of language, were evidently the same after His resurrection as before (Lk. 24:30,31). The Lord is the same today as yesterday.&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;The Kingdom of God&rdquo; was a title used of Jesus. He &lsquo;was&rsquo; the Kingdom because He lived the Kingdom life. Who He would be, was who He was in His life. At the prospect of being made &ldquo;full of joy&rdquo; at the resurrection, &ldquo;therefore did my heart rejoice&rdquo; (Acts 2:26,28). His joy during His mortal life was related to the joy He now experiences in His immortal life. And this is just one of the many continuities between the moral and the immortal Jesus. Pause for a moment to reflect that the Lord&rsquo;s resurrection is a pattern for our own. This is the whole meaning of baptism. &ldquo;God has both raised the Lord and will raise us up through his power&rdquo; (1 Cor. 6:13,14). Yet there were evident continuities between the Jesus who lived mortal life, and the Jesus who rose again. His mannerisms, body language, turns of phrase, were so human- even after His resurrection. And so who we are now, as persons, is who we will eternally be. Because of the resurrection, our personalities in the sum of all their relationships and nuances, <em>have an eternal future</em>. But from whence do we acquire those nuances, body languages, etc? They arise partly from our parents, from our inter-relations with others etc; we are the sum of our relationships. And this is in fact a tremendous encouragement to us in our efforts for others; for the result of our parenting, our patient effort and grace towards others, will have an eternal effect upon others. Who we help them become is, in part, who they will eternally be. &nbsp;Job reflected that if a tree is cut down, it sprouts (Heb. <em>yaliph</em>) again as the same tree; and he believed that after his death he would likewise sprout again (<em>yaliph</em>) at the resurrection (Job 14:7-9,14,15). There will be a continuity between who we were in mortal life, and who we will eternally be- just as there is between the pruned tree and the new tree which grows again out of its stump. All our obedience and response to God's word in this life is likened to building a foundation which will endure beyond the storm, representative as that is of judgment day at Christ's return (Lk. 6:48). There is therefore a link between who we are now and who we will eternally be; we are building now the foundation for our eternity.</p><p>Who the Lord Jesus was is who He will be in the future; in the same way as who <em>we </em>are now, is who we will eternally be. For our spirit, our essential personality, will be <em>saved</em> in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:5). &ldquo;Flesh and blood&rdquo; will not inherit the Kingdom (1 Cor. 15:50); and yet the risen, glorified Lord Jesus was &ldquo;flesh and bones&rdquo; (Lk. 24:39). We will be who we essentially are today, but with Spirit instead of blood energizing us. It&rsquo;s a challenging thought, as we consider the state of our &ldquo;spirit&rdquo;, the essential &lsquo;me&rsquo; which will be preserved, having been stored in Heaven in the Father&rsquo;s memory until the day when it is united with the new body which we will be given at resurrection. For in all things the Lord is our pattern; and we will in that day be given a body like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21)- which is still describable as &ldquo;flesh and bones&rdquo; in appearance (Lk. 24:39.</p><p>Note that whilst flesh and <em>blood</em> cannot inherit the Kingdom, the risen, immortal&nbsp;Lord Jesus described Himself as flesh and <em>bones</em> (Lk. 24:39). In fact, we find that &quot;flesh and bones&quot; are often paralleled (Gen. 2:23; Job 10:11; 33:21; Ps. 38:3; Prov. 14:30), and simply mean 'the person', or as the Lord put it on that occasion, &quot;I myself&quot;. We ourselves will be in the Kingdom, with similar personalities we have now that's a very challenging thought of itself. &quot;Flesh&quot; doesn't necessarily have to refer, in every instance, to something condemned. Who we are now is who we will essentially be in the eternity of God's Kingdom. Let's not allow any idea that somehow our flesh / basic being is so awful that actually, the essential &quot;I myself&quot; will be dissolved beneath the wrath of God at the judgment. The Lord is &quot; the saviour of the body&quot; and will also save our &quot; spirit&quot; at the last day; so that we, albeit with spirit rather than blood energizing us, will live eternally. Understanding things this way enables us to perceive more forcefully the eternal importance of who we develop into as persons, right now. The Buddhist belief that we will ultimately not exist, that such 'Nirvana' is the most wonderful thing to hope for, appears at first hearing a strange 'hope' to be shared by millions of followers. But actually, it's the same essential psychology as that behind the idea that 'I' will not exist in the Kingdom of God, I will be given a new body, person and character. It's actually saying the same- I won't exist. And it's rooted in a terribly low self-image, a dis-ease with ourselves, a lack of acceptance of ourselves as the persons whom God made us and develops us into. Whilst of course our natures will be changed, so that we can be immortal, it is <em>we</em> who will be saved; our body will be resurrected, made new, and our spirit &quot; saved&quot; in that day, reunited with our renewed and immortal bodies. We have eternal life in the sense that who we are now, in spiritual terms, is who we will eternally be. Our spirit, the essential us, is in this sense immortal; it&rsquo;s remembered with the Lord. In this sense, not even death itself, nor time itself, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ (Rom. 8:35-39). Just as we still love someone after they have died, remembering as they do who they were and still are to us, so it is with the love of God for the essential us. Hence 1 Pet. 3:4 speaks of how a &ldquo;gentle and calm disposition&rdquo; or spirit is in fact &ldquo;imperishable&rdquo; (NAB)- because that spirit of character will be eternally remembered. This is why personality and character, rather than physical works, are of such ultimate and paramount importance. How we speak now is in a way, how we will eternally speak- I think that's the idea of Prov. 12:19: &quot;The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment&quot;. Our &quot;way&quot; of life and being is how we will eternally be- and for me that solves the enigma of Prov. 12:28: &quot;In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death&quot;. In Jeremiah 18, God likens Himself to a potter working with us the clay. We can resist how He wants us to be, and He can make us into something else... we are soft clay until the 'firing'; and the day of firing is surely the day of judgment. The implication is that in this life we are soft clay; but the day of judgment will set us hard as the persons we have become, or have been made into, in this life.</p><p>The continuity between the mortal, human Jesus and the exalted Lord of all which He became on His ascension is brought out quite artlessly in Heb. 4:14: &ldquo;Our great high priest, who has passed through the heavens&rdquo;. The picture is of &ldquo;this same Jesus&rdquo;, the man on earth, passing through all heavens to &lsquo;arrive&rsquo; at the throne of God Himself to mediate for us there. His ascension to Heaven was viewed physically like this by the disciples, and is expressed here in that kind of language of physical ascent, to bring home to us the continuity between the man Jesus on earth, and the exalted Lord now in Heaven itself. The same Jesus who once experienced temptation can thereby strengthen us in our temptations. We need to realize that nobody can be tempted by that which holds no appeal; the Lord Jesus must have seen and reflected upon sin as a possible course of action, even though He never took it. And for the same reason, several New Testament passages (e.g. 1 Tim. 2:5) call the exalted Lord Jesus a &ldquo;man&rdquo;- even now. Let&rsquo;s not see these passages merely as theological problems for Trinitarians. The wonder of it all is that Jesus after His glorification is still in some sense human. He as &ldquo;the pioneer of our faith&rdquo; shows us the path to glory, a glory that doesn&rsquo;t involve us becoming somehow superhuman and unreal.</p><p>And so the Man who walked dusty Galilee streets is the very same one, in essence, whom we will meet in judgment day. The ultimate question for each of us, is whether we will be accepted by Him. In the Gospels, we see the Son of man, Son of God, so acceptant of others, so patient with their weaknesses, passionately dying for our salvation. Will He turn as it were another face on us at the day of judgment, showing Himself suddenly and unpredictably to be someone else? Like people we know, who suddenly surprised us one day by showing a completely different aspect to their character? I believe He won&rsquo;t. Because integrity and consistency of character, sharing His Father&rsquo;s characteristic of not changing, is what He is essentially about. He won&rsquo;t show another face then, that we&rsquo;ve not seen now. The same basic Jesus, who so wished and wishes to eternally save us, will be the One whom we meet in the final day.</p><p>If we truly love the Lord, we will fantasize about our moment of meeting with Him. I suspect that His very appearance of ordinariness and evident human aspect will impress me in that first moment of meeting. Perhaps it will be that He appears to me in the midst of everyday life, when I&rsquo;m desperately consumed with doing something, and interrupts me. And He&rsquo;ll seem like an ordinary local person, speaking with the same accent, wearing normal clothes, just as He did after His resurrection. And then He&rsquo;ll say with a very slight, cultured kind of smile: &ldquo;Duncan, I&rsquo;m Jesus&hellip;&rdquo;. Who knows how it will be. But if you love Him, you&rsquo;ll fantasize of that moment, as you love His appearing.</p>