“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Jn1:18.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”Jn14:6-9

So Jesus is saying the search for God ends here! You don’t see me and ask for the Father, that would mean you don’t know who is before you. If you see me, you have seen the Father.

So, Jesus is saying the topic of this article in answering is better rendered as “IS JESUS PREDICTABE?”.

Redemption, the gospel, revealed the personality of God (Rom1:17-18). Hence the apostles were tasked to show God in the face of Christ Jesus. (2Cor4:6)

We see many assertions about God’s immutability, many by the prophets, Christ, and his apostles. These especially in his eternal plan of man’s redemption. It is in something as grave as this that our interest is productively stirred. (This is not an investigation of the sort of whether God will meet your need by your business flourishing or someone giving to you etc.) What do we hold of God on our eternal fate, our dealings with him every day. Can we be rest assured or we might be in for some surprises! This mattered to God himself knowing what man is.

From Genesis to Revelation, it is evident we have a speaking God. A God of promises. And in all these, Jesus is his Word (his logos, reasoning, intent, essence, mind-set, thought) he was communicating. If God has said a thing, he does not rescind on his word. To know if he is predictable is to know what he has said. If we have his word, it is all assuring. Consider these;

“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7).

So God’s style is to do nothing but speak it first, then fulfil it. All that Christ did in redemption were foretold by the prophets, all! (Luke 24:44-46)

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Num.23:19.

If God has said it, then he will make it good! God does not lie.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.

His word is his bond, he says things the way they are.

“In hope of eternal life, which GOD, THAT CANNOT LIE, promised before the world began; But HATH IN DUE TIMES MANIFESTED HIS WORD through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;” Titus1:2-3. What he promised before the world began, he fulfilled in due times. These form the proofs of his eternal faithfulness, reliability. He did what he said he would do.

God wants to assure our hearts concerning his plan and promises to us.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,” Heb.6:13. He didn’t want Abraham to be swerved, God swore! The same to us; “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:” Heb. 6:17-18.

All the promises of God made to the fathers find their fulfilment in Christ, and in him are many exceeding great and precious promises (2Pet.1:4). The apostle wrote “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2Cor1:18-21) All the promises, all, find their ‘so be it’ in Christ. It’s not Yes and No, it is Yes and So-be-it(Amen).

He told Moses, my name is ‘I am that I am’, ‘I will be what I will be’. He makes self-committed promises. He relied on no one to fulfil his word. Man’s unfaithfulness does not change him. He does what he says he will do.

If he says “their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb10:17), we say so be it! When he said he is “not counting sins against the world” (2Cor5:19), that “our bodies will be changed like unto his own glorious body” (Phil3:21), that all believers shall have their bodies changed (1Cor15:51-52), those who believe the gospel are saved (Mk16:15-16,Rom10:9-10), that believers will not come to condemnation (Jn5:24), that we will never perish in his hands (Jn10:28-30), that his spirit will be in us forever (Jn14:16), that he is coming to be glorified in all who believed his name (2Thess1:10), that he is not unrighteous to forget our labour of love (Heb6:10), that he hears our prayer and we have our desires of him (1Jn5:14-15), we know he meant just that. For he said if it were not so, he would have told us (Jn14:2). Jesus kept using the words “Verily, verily I say unto you”. He is light, pure. He says what he means, he means what he says.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James1:17. No variableness, no shadows. This is our God!

Is God predictable? Its a question of “has God said so?!”

Written by Samuel Agboola