This Same Jesus

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8

When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, then later ascended into heaven, His body was immortal, no longer subject to death – yet it was a physical body, capable of being seen and heard and touched, even capable of eating with His disciples. He was clearly recognizable, yet could quickly ascend from earth to heaven and could pass through a solid wall.

As He ascended, two angelic messengers said, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). He was immeasurably different after His resurrection, yet Peter could also proclaim “that God has made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
   
Furthermore, even when He returns and assumes the eternal throne of the universe, He will still be the same. “But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever....they will also be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end’” (Hebrews 1:8, 12).

This was the same Jesus whom John the Baptist identified at the beginning of His earthly ministry. “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit’” (John 1:33).

In fact, before His baptism, and even before His incarnation, He was the same. “In the beginning was the Word...He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). This same Jesus Who lived among men, identified by John the Baptist as the Son of God, and Who died on the cross, is the eternal Word by whom all things were made, as well as the resurrected Savior and coming King. Jesus Christ is truly “the same yesterday and today and forever.”